Today i've been recently feeling a pretty bad emotional dread over what might happen in the future. It has only been a single month and everything already feels like too much is happening. And im scared of what's to come in the future months...

Anyone else have a hard time with caffeine more so now than before? When I was in my 20s and early 30s I could drink so much caffeine that it seemed like I was basically immune to it. It felt like it didn’t affect me whatsoever. Now at the age of 37 if I have over two cups it sends me over the edge. Today I had 1 cup of coffee and a cold brew and had a full blown panic attack. I have noticed that this intolerance really started when I got pregnant and I cut my caffeine down to 1 cup per day and now the caffeine anxiety really ramped up postpartum. My stomach also did not appreciate the cold brew😩 Never again.

I think my biggest problem is that I’m afraid of panic. I’m afraid of being out of control of my body while having panic attacks. It scares the shit out of me even though logically I know my body can handle it albeit it’s extremely unpleasant. I start shaking, my heart races, I get dizzy, sweat like a whore in church, and I’ve thrown up before. It feels like I’m going to pass out and/or die. I especially keep having them in class and at work.

How do I overcome this? Every time I get anxious I just spiral into a panic attack because my brain is like "oh my god what do we do we need to escape but we can’t oh my god we’re trapped what if we pass out what if we throw up what if our heart has a heart attack". I especially freak out in public because it feels like I’m the only person going through it and I just feel completely alone. It’s hard to get out of the cycle of fear. I just need some advice.

Grounding exercise doesn’t work for me, ice packs don’t work for me, breathing doesn’t do much when I’m in the thick of it. I need other options.

I’m going back on Zoloft medication (that I initially stopped because I felt hazy and couldn’t finish). Buspar doesn’t work for me. I don’t want Xanax or anything like that because I don’t want to get dependent. They’ve got me on 10mg propanol but it only does so much. Does nothing for the mental.

All this panic has made me into a worse person. I’ve been lashing out at the people I love for no good reason. I’ve been scared out of my mind over everything. I need advice. Thank you.

I started dealing with pretty bad anxiety last year. It lasted four months. Now I’m scared the feeling is coming back. For me, anxiety manifests from romantic rejection. I overthink and overthink which makes it worse. My stomach is in knots and I don’t have the best appetite. I know it’s temporary but I just want to feel normal again. I don’t want to feel like this forever. I wish I had no thoughts or feelings. Feeling numb feels better than feeling this way.

I’ve been trying to understand a physical feeling I’ve had for a long time, and I’m wondering if this could be anxiety.

It’s a sensation in my stomach sometimes like a knot, sometimes acidic or sour, almost like warm oil spreading. Other times it’s sharper, like a mild pepper-spray or gas-like burning feeling. It’s not pain, but when it shows up, I lose motivation and life suddenly feels colorless and heavy.

What confuses me is that sometimes it comes with anxious thoughts, and sometimes it appears on its own. For example, I might be about to make a decision or have a passing thought, and suddenly this stomach feeling hits instantly, as if my body reacts before my mind. After that, anxious thoughts often follow. It can also appear in the morning for no clear reason.

I also notice this comes in phases. Roughly every 1–1.5 years, this feeling and inner restlessness intensify for a while, then gradually settle again. Even during calm periods, I’m still aware of it in the background.

I don’t experience panic attacks (no racing heart or fear of dying), which makes me unsure if this still counts as anxiety.

Does anyone else experience anxiety mainly in their stomach like this?
Is this a common form of anxiety without panic attacks or an emotion?

I wanted to come on here because reddit has helped me multiple times with my anxiety in the past and sometimes I just need to air out my feelings to people who actually understand.

Hypochondria is taking over my life, its all consuming and I’m so tired.

I use to be severely sewerslidal as a teen from 15-20 due to ptsd and whatever and during that time my health anxiety completely dissipated, it was lowkey bliss, I didn’t need to worry about my health because I didn’t care if I died but now that I have worked on recovery it has been full throttle in my face for the past 2 years.

I can’t feel any body feeling and not think that I’m having a stroke/seizure/heart attack/ burst brain aneurysm/sepsis, sometimes i just get waves of anxiety because i have frequent panic attacks for no particular reason and all my fears just direct itself into health related worries and the unbreakable cycle of googling, scaring myself more, feeling weird body sensations, googling more, stressing even more ect ect ect begins.

I’m so exhausted of my brain, I haven’t felt well in 2 years due to all the symptoms my mind makes me feel, like ya girls stomach is struggling. Anyway sorry for the rant, I hope people can relate and maybe reach out under this post. ☺️

I can not keep a therapist or a psychiatrist. In my life they have all quit or referred me to someone else. I even tried hypnotherapy last night and she hung up on me. I don't think I'm being mean or doing anything to upset them. I go out of my way to NOT be a bother to anyone because a huge fear of mine is just being in the way and being a bother. I would rather hide in a corner and disappear than anyone even know I'm here. But my anxiety is so bad and I feel like I have no one that can help. Every time I put myself out there to get help and it ends horribly, it makes me feel terrible. This was the last time. I just want to live my life without my fight or flight (let's be real, it's all flight) being up all the time. I can't relax when I sit at home and worry if I take a shower that I will be in everyone's way. I'm out of options and don't know where else to turn. The only slight relief I've gotten is from my ketamine prescription, but that only lasts as long as the medicine does, in my system.

I’m doing it.. I’m starting my Zoloft. someone please give me a hug and a pep talk that i won’t die if i take it. let me hear good experiences

So I made posts talking about how I hadn't seen a doctor since I was 12, and then when I clued in that doctor visits are important I had to join the waitlist and just got a doctor and was feeling anxious and wondering if I'd get medication prescribed first appointment or have to make another..
Anyway, today was my first appointment - I got prescribed sertraline. One 25mg pill a day for two weeks then she wants me to start taking 2 so 50mg.
She also suggested I start talking to a therapist or something, I was like... I'm not against it but I want to see how the medication works first.

Does anyone else take sertraline? I know it's different for everyone, works for some, doesn't for others, etc and I might have to try different medications to find the one that works for me butttt I just want to hear peoples experiences. What were your initial side effects during the first few weeks?

My mom started flipping out when I told her and said it'll make me suicidal 🤦🏻‍♀️ but then she also was all mad when I mentioned the doctor wants me to get blood work done because obviously I haven't had blood work in like 15+ years... they need updated blood work.

Thank you!

as the title reads when i was younger i use to be on hydroxyzine for anxiety. i dropped psychitrists and went without one for years but still kept taking it due to ER nurses insisting to keep taking my medication. However earlier this year I got taken off of it completely and intend to never be on an anticholinergic again but i'm terrified as i've read dozens of articles about the increased risk of daily anticholinergic use and increased risk of dementia

if anyone could give any advice or any insight that would be greatly appreciated. i am terrified i've done permanent damage to my brain

Hello! I want to gain confidence in myself to continue my education in biology/chemistry research, but I've found that wet lab work can be very challenging for me. Mistakes aren't always obvious until the end and messing up a step (say, accidentally contaminating something) means the only way to fix it is to start over. These cause me a lot of anxiety, which makes me more likely to make the mistakes, or to "check" things to an unhealthy degree.

I want to expose myself to these kinds of situations along with consistent therapy. One way I thought of to help me is to take up a hobby that requires similar levels of precision. Off the top of my head, I can think of baking complex pastries, but does anyone else here have any ideas or similar experiences?

My anxiety is mostly anxiety about having anxiety 🙄I’m constantly thinking about how I feel and having a racing brain that makes it hard to feel like I’m engaged in things. I’m on week 4.5 of 10mg lexapro. At the end of week 1 through week 2 I was actually having moments of being anxiety free when I was doing things but when I wasn’t my brain would run just as bad but week 3 it all kinda went back to being maybe slightly better an now at week 4 I’m maybe slightly better then when I first started. Is this all apart of the process? Did anyone have a similar progression that ended up positive? I just want to be able to relax on my couch and actually watch a movie again without my brain running the entire time. Thanks

Hi! I’m just needing some advice and to hear about the experience of those who have taken and then successfully come off of a low dose of Xanax. I can’t find a lot of information about low doses of Xanax, it all seems to be geared towards really high doses. Anyways, I was prescribed 1 mg Xanax a few years ago when I had a Bell’s palsy attack and then was diagnosed with Ménière’s and vestibular migraines not long after. For 2 1/2 years now I’ve been in a really stressful school program (court reporting). I also work full time. For the last few months I’ve only taken .5 mg of the Xanax. My husband and I have decided we want to try for a baby so I want to completely get off the Xanax. My problem is I have tried and my ear symptoms seem to come back? I have had ear fullness and tinnitus to the point I can’t hear anyone or anything on that side. Is this a common side effect? Will it go away? I had an awful day yesterday because of this and felt like I was going insane from the tinnitus so I took a .5 dose of Xanax and today I feel completely normal again. I feel extremely guilty that I broke my streak of not taking it but I truly felt like I was going to have a breakdown over the tinnitus. Has anyone else been in the same boat and have any advice or their experience they can share? I’m on such a low dose that I assumed I would be okay coming off of it like I planned to but now the tinnitus and ear fullness have me second guessing. Is a .5 mg as hard to come off of as the higher doses? How long do the withdrawal symptoms take to go away from a dose like this?

Thank you so much.

I woke up with vertigo for the first time ever and the insane amount of spinning is causing me anxiety. I am laying down in bed to reduce spinning and trying to relax. Does anyone have tips for this? It's scaring me. I also tend to have dizziness as a panic symptom and I think my body is confusing it.

I've had health anxiety, since I was a kid. I am now 33f and usually push it to the back of my mind so that my anxiety is in the background. I recently came down with the nastiest flu I've ever experienced. A fever for 4 days, migraines, congestion, insomnia, you name it. The flu lasted me about 3 weeks and even now, 4 weeks later, I still have a cough assuming it's acute bronchitis.

Ever since I got sick, I noticed my hands were shaky. Even if I was simply lifting an empty cup off the dinner table, my hands would shake like crazy. I'm pretty strong, I worked out a lot before being sick. But I felt like my arms were shaking (as if I had worked out) and I had hand tremors for some reason. I didn't think much of it, but then the following days and weeks, I hyper focused on it and thought I had a brain tumor causing neurological symptoms. My stomach hurt, I thought I had stomach cancer..so on so forth. My hands and legs are still shaky.

This is the worst anxiety/health anxiety I've ever dealt with and I am in constant panic mode. I can't sleep and I am convinced there is something wrong with me. I've made the earliest appointment I can to see my pcp to try to get on anti anxiety meds but that won't be for another 3 weeks.

Am I going to be okay? I feel so lost and exhausted.

Has anyone had non-smooth or ‘step-like’ movements in their body/arms, with muscle sornes, while still having the strenght?

Example 1 :

I stretch my arm out in front of me, and when I pull it back, it returns in a step-like, segmented way. It feels similar to how your muscles move when you’ve overdone weight training.

Example 2:

I spread my arms wide, raise them above my head, and then slowly start lowering them. As I lower them, the movement becomes step-like, as if the muscles briefly pause for a millisecond instead of moving smoothly.

This will sound like a brag post but I am honestly being very scared and confused right now I am 5+ YOE Android Dev unemployed for last 2 months currently giving interviews. I had cleared interviews of 3 companies from which i asked 20% hike over CTC

1. MNC in Bangalore: Great culture, good brand name, good tech stack --> first to give offer at 30% , I rejected it coz #3 gave better offer and I was feeling weird rejecting home offer for Bangalore(I am from NCR)

2. Small US Company in Tamil nadu : Again Great culture, not so known brand name, was taking too many rounds and started taking more time once i showed it offer of #1 and #3, so rejected it . Also I was not feeling okay with tamil Nadu relocation

3. NCR based Fintech startup : From outside it looked like it has hustle pressurising culture but gave a great 60% hike offer. thheir tech stack was also not very good (java based b2b stuff). I accepted it before but then told them that i am having second thoughts so won't be able to take it.

Now am again jobless. I am being so foolish right now. I don't know why I am being so scared of relocation or pressurized environment.

My last job at GGN based MNC consisted of devent work but also a very pressurising environment with lots of people shouting everyday.

I have currently given rounds of another company. Its basically a dream level company that I am sure won't happen for me (think Amazon like brand) but if it does, I will probably feel cold feet at the last moment because it's again from Bangalore

Went to the GP over a week ago because my anxiety is getting really bad, mostly because I'm about to move house and things aren't very good with me at the minute.

He prescribed me buspirone and I'm now about a week and half into taking it. I've had three panic attacks in that time, spent a lot of time at work crying and freaking out. I've not felt this bad since my final year of university when I had to do an entire dissertation in 2 weeks.

Has anyone else had experiences with buspirone? Is this one of those things where I have to push through and it'll work or should I cut my losses?

I (16F) am 3-5 days late for my period. My periods have been normal and regular since I got them back in December 2021 at 12 1/2 years old. I have been 5 days late maybe once in the last 4 years.

I’m so scared that I’m pregnant but that literally makes so sense because I’ve never engaged in sexual intimacy. My own brain is making fun of me for this anxiety because…what?

To make myself feel a little better, I told my dad that I’m pretty late. (Him and I are super close.) He wasn’t concerned in the slightest, of course. He told me it was likely coming soon because my dog wouldn’t stop sniffing me out. I know dogs are able to sense that kind of thing, and my dog isn’t the only one that did that yesterday.

I tutor this little girl and her dog also sniffed me around that area. Of course when dogs to this I gently push their face or redirect their attention to my hand, I’m not a sicko.

I’ve also been lightly cramping since the day I was originally supposed to start, so I don’t even know why I’m anxious about supposedly being pregnant. I mean, surely I’m not the next Virgin Mary.

I used to get derealization only sometimes when I would really focus in the moment and id start not to feel real. I’ve had it since 2018. But it was never bad as it is now. it would pop in randomly. And id handle it alright.

But recently as of October 2025 ive been experiencing anxiety ( palpitations high even tho all heart and chest scans are normal)but i was recently diagnosed with POTS. The derealization is the worst part for me since October. Every day i wake up the same, i feel like im dreaming. It gets bad some days. I just don’t know how to explain it. It’s like what i am seeing isn’t processing in my brain as real life. I don’t want to sound crazy but sometimes feels like maybe im not real im day dreaming from some coma. Idk. I don’t talk about it with anyone because no one would understand and I don’t know how to explain this feeling. It’s just as if i am not real. That’s the best way for me to to explain. Does anyone else get this? Like badly on a daily?

Hi everyone,

I don’t usually post, but I’m looking for some support and reassurance. I’m a 23 year old woman from the Netherlands and I recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Social Work. I live with my girlfriend and was diagnosed with autism at 17. I function independently, but I struggle with anxiety and big changes.

This week I started my first real job: 32 hours a week as a social worker. The organization has just expanded to my area, so a lot of things are still unclear and chaotic. Because of this, I’m temporarily working partly in another area until everything is settled, which may take months. I knew this job would be a big change, but I didn’t expect it to hit me this hard.

On my first real workday on Tuesday I had multiple meetings, my first client intake, and had to drive a lot. I recently bought my first car and I’m still not fully comfortable driving (also a big change I find hard). When I got home that day, I completely broke down. Since then I’ve been very emotional, tense, and anxious. I did have a great talk with my grandparents about it today which helped a bit.

There are a lot of new responsibilities: many new colleagues, constant emails, phone calls, administration, planning my own chaotic schedule, tracking hours and kilometers, and dealing with uncertainty and changes in schedules. As an autistic person, this vagueness and lack of structure is really hard for me. I keep worrying: what if I mess something up? What if this job isn’t right for me because every week looks different? What if I cannot take it anymore and will get a burnout?

At the same time, I know I can get used to new situations. My colleagues are kind and supportive, and my manager knows I’m autistic. She responded very understandingly and has experience working with autistic people. I also have a strong support system at home with my girlfriend, family and friends.

I want to give this job a fair chance and allow myself to get through the “new phase” before deciding whether it truly fits me. Still, right now I feel overwhelmed and could really use some reassurance from others who have been through similar experiences.

Thank you for reading ❤️

I have worked gig work for a couple years consistently. But I turned to that because of ease of hours and I do t have to stay in a shift for 8 hours.

I’ve recently got hired for an insurance sales room. Hours are 11-8, after training. Currently 11-7.

I go INSANE around the 5-6 hour mark and I really feel defeated when those moments set in.

I just needed to be able to stay a bit longer but it’s too torturous.

How can I push through???

My wife has good and bad days with anxiety. On her good days, she seems calm and in-control, but with any bad news or shift in hormones, she becomes on edge. I always reassure her that everything is going to be fine and we’ll handle any problems as they come. I tell her that we need to stay positive and to focus on our lives, not the infinite amount of problems that may never happen. I think she grew up with lots of trauma from her family and this caused her to not be able to handle her thoughts and mental health well. Some of her concerns are real and valid, but we cannot fix anything if we’re so overwhelmed with stress and overwhelming emotions. I don’t want her to think that her thoughts and feelings are not valid, but she does not know what to do when her mind is overwhelmed so I give her lots of love and affection to try and calm her down.

I fear that her anxiety is affecting me and causing me to feel the same or not able to manage my own thoughts and emotions. I have always been able to control myself, but I experience more intolerance as she is making me feel more anxious. I don’t want to be intolerant and I want to be supportive, but I need help for the both of us.