Stress and Anxiety at an All Time High
Recently, my anxiety wasn't too bad and I had a good 2-3 weeks of feeling little to no anxiety. However, today I woke up with really bad anxiety and I can't stop overthinking situations. The weird thing is that the situations that I'm overthinking haven't even happened yet and aren't 100% going to happen; I'm just creating scenarios in my head and then letting them take a tole on my mental health. How do I stop overthinking everything and searching for negative things all the time? It's almost as if I'm addicted to the feeling of feeling anxious because I go searching for reasons to be anxious. For example, going on Instagram usually results in me seeing a story or post that triggers me and although I deleted Instagram, I can't stop redownloading it and going on it. Why am I like this?
I'm extra stressed too as there are heaps of SACs coming in school and I really want to do well. All these feelings are just piling up and all I want to do is cry. I'm having thoughts of self harm too but don't really want to get into it
Comments
Hi @Cinnamon_Bear thanks for opening up about your struggles with anxiety, these can be such awful feelings to sit with. Overthinking and fixating on situations that haven't even happened yet can be an especially uncomfortable and painful thing to experience.
I am wondering if you have found any strategies that help relieve these feelings when they come up for you? If you're interested in a read, we have some strategies here.
As the option of therapy has been mentioned, I just wanted to chime in and share some articles we have on different types of professional supports and therapies out there if you are considering going down that path. You can find them here and here. As previously suggested, CBT is one of the many therapies that a therapist might decide is the best course of treatment managing anxiety.
Hey @Cinnamon_Bear , I really understand how you're feeling. Sometimes there are good weeks and some bad when it comes to anxiety. When I find myself overthinking and filled with anxiety I like to journal or let it out to someone. Have you considered talking to a psychologist if you haven't already? It can be really helpful as they can provide you with strategies to manage anxiety.
All the best
Thank you for reaching out to the Forums!
Anxiety can be really challenging to deal with and it sounds like you are caught up in your thoughts atm. I just want to acknowledge that this can be stressful and you are being really courageous in speaking about it here with your peers.
There are some ways we can deal with anxiety and there is a great therapy call Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), maybe you have heard of it before? By practicing CBT we can challenge our thoughts and reprogram our brain to think less about negative possible situations occouring and focus on what we know or the facts. Here's a link that better describes CBT.
You don't have to know why you are like this and sometimes some people are just more inclinded to think things over in their head. Sometimes its good to talk about it and you are doing that by reaching out to the Forums. Have you thought about contacting Kids helpline to have a chat to someone?
I'm a little concerned about you and your thougths about self harm so we are going to reach out to you in a email have a chat about that. It can be hard to talk about here but we will be 1:1 in the email and your safety is our priority.
Regards,
Pete-RO
