New here

Hi @AnneOliver

Welcome to the forums and well done on making your first post. It's a big step that you have taken and it shows great strength to be vulnerable with others that you don't know.

Anxiety can be so impactful on life and everyone will experience it differently, so thank you for sharing some details about what you are experiencing.

It sounds like you have a plan for managing your anxiety with the Claire Weekes approach - how is this sitting with you at the moment? (I'm not familiar with this approach so will have do do some Googling shortly!)

You mentioned that you use alcohol to help you anxiety when it is bad, but you don't want to. Is there anything that has helped you in the past other than alcohol that you can try again? Have you spoken to you psychotherapist about your anxiety and the ways that you are managing it at the moment? They may have some other ideas that you could try to help with this.

I also totally understand what you mean when you say you can help others, but can't help yourself. Have you thought about what you might do or say to help someone in your situation?

When my anxiety is bad and I have felt that I have no control over things, I like to write a list of things that are causing me anxiety and then break them down into smaller things or tasks that I CAN complete to try and make it more manageable. Have you thought about smaller things that you could possible do to help with your lack of control. You mentioned that you are not working at the moment - if finding a new job is causing anxiety, you could break this down into steps that you need to do to gt that new job and start from there. Even things as small as organising your resume, contacting people for references, looking at some potential jobs/employers, thinking about what you would wear to an interview etc. These smaller steps may make it seem less daunting for you - you only have to do one thing at a time 🙂

I hope that you find what you need here on the forums

Warm regards

SkySeeker22

Thank you for your kind words.

I’m not actually looking for a job right now. I really want to get my head right with the help of my psychotherapist and some more unorthodox therapy in a couple of months.

I think that even though I’m not an empty nester as such, not having kids as a primary focus anymore is probably what has started all of this. I’m terrible without a busy and reliable schedule and this is not my life anymore.
I could just create a busy schedule (which I probably will) but I would really like to be able to be happy within myself so that it doesn’t matter so much if I’m busy or not, working or not (financially I don’t need to anymore), seeing lots of people or being home alone.

Thanks @PizzaMondo for your warm welcome.

I saw my psychotherapist last week but before that it was a long time because I’ve been away. We are booked in for fortnightly.

in the past, all I’ve done to cope is added prn medications as advised by my psychiatrist (who I don’t even see).
After such a long time on antidepressants (prescribed originally for post-natal depression) my psychotherapist says - I really hope she’s right! - drugs might mask the original issue but the issue is still there, which after all this time makes sense to me, Here’s hoping weaning off the drugs and trying alternatives works

Hey @AnneOliver - just letting you know I've edited your post to remove the name of the medication you mentioned! As part of our Guidelines, we ask members not to use names or dosages of their meds - to ensure that folks are only ever getting medical info and advice from medical professionals. You can refer to generic types instead - e.g. antidepressants, SSRIs, etc.

Also, just gonna extend a little welcome to you too! Your psych is onto something I reckon - in my opinion/experience, medications can help us stabilise/get us back to a decent level of functioning, but they aren't cure-alls that will suddenly mean our pain or trauma just goes away. I hope you can find the right balance and that working with this psych helps you to work through stuff in a safe and supported way 😊