How do you find relief from constant anxiety 24/7?

My anxiety manifests as a weight on my chest, but responds very quickly to self-care efforts. I always tried to deflect the idea that my problems were my own fault, and whenever I could I've attacked my real-world demons -- when I prevailed, the pressure eased. I once did something mean (but harmless) to push away a cheating fiancee, and had instant relief. An employer tried to dismiss me based on a false rumor, but I fought and won, ending the anxiety. Having to beg for help from doctors who say I'm imagining things is depressing and anxiety-provoking ... I argued for years against a "migraine" diagnosis (it was neuralgia) and had to finally fix my useless wrist on my own (cystic bone deformities), as well as the vertigo, and then rehab the spinal fracture that wasn't a benign arthritic spur. I'm angry way too much, but the choice is between that or anxiety & depression. I choose angry, which helps me maintain the fight. I don't know if this would work for a lot of people, but it does for me and I'm not backing down or giving in. I cannot recall a time when anxiety was organic and spontaneous, although when everything in my life was at the very worst, I had what seemed like unprovoked panic attacks that were relatively brief, and which stopped after a couple of years. They were much different from anxiety, and my depression didn't resemble either of those. My mantra is "First take charge, then take action."

Good luck! Pat

I wish I could stop Benzo’s . I am under extreme stress. My husband has cancer . I try so hard but my depression and anxiety has riddled me . I take 0.5 klonopin. Plus I have insomnia and take Restoril . I hate taking them 😢or else I could not function.

I take Klonopin . Xanax did not help me . I am riddled with depression and anxiety and insomnia . My husband has cancer 😢. I am so sorry for everything your going through .

It sounds like you have a lot going on. I am currently taking 20 mg Lexapro. I used to take 10 mg but as of a week ago I upped it to 20 mg. My regular doctor sent me for a blood test-everything came out okay. He sent me for a brain scan - and everything came out good. I went for cognitive testing and it came out just below normal. The psychiatrist at the cognitive testing suggested I take 20 my Lexapro instead of 10 mg. He thinks my high anxiety affected the outcome of the cognitive testing. He also suggested therapy, which I am starting today. I didn’t relizeb how high anxiety can affect a cognitive test. He thinks this all should help. I just want to feel a little more “normal”.
I hope you feel better
Heidi

Ps. I worry so much about everything and hope my 2 year old gsd doggie doesn’t feel sad. My husband who is 68 also has heart disease and had quadruple bipass surgery 24 years ago so I worry about him too.

Seroquel reduced to 100 mg due to night sweats at higher dose. Has anyone experienced night sweats with Seroquel?

Still only getting 2-3 hrs of sleep per night. I fall asleep within an hour of taking Seroquel 100 mg and Melatonin 10 mg. BUT wake up in a sweat within 2-3 hrs. The warm tingling in my body keeps me awake the rest of the night!

Pristiq increased from 25 mg to 50mg today to help with anxiety. It will take several weeks to see if it helps.

The warm tingling in my body persists through the day on and off. I find that if I keep busy, it fades at times. I have hope that each day will improve with my efforts to calm myself with planned activities.

I so need to start exercising, I can’t state that enough. Plus there is no reason why I can’t. Just don’t feel like it, but then know that is due to not exercising! Lol
I do take 300 mg of Effexor
And 75 mg of Bupropion each morning for depression. Then I take 50mg of Trazodone at night to help me sleep. Plus 600 mg of Gabapentin for nightly leg aches.
Do you think this is why I don’t feel like doing exercise?? Point is I am up and going daily with church ministries and regular household work (ironing and paperwork on the computer). But I just can’t seem to make myself exercise, so I have no excuse. I do (hopefully) plan to attempt to go to water aerobic in the morning. Wish me luck ! 🤗

Heidi, thank you for your comments -- you focused me on the fact that I didn't actually make the point that sometimes anxiety is a perfectly normal response to a real-world issue. Normal is when that response is self-limiting. If yours is not, a therapist may be able to help you toward a solution.

Thank you for your response. I think what you are trying to say is that anxiety is self limiting if you let it control areas of your life. I actually met with a therapist today for the first time in years. We discussed my upbringing (very strict and overbearing mother) and I opened up perhaps (a can of worms) but he thought that these bottled up items may just have come to a head. Our next session we will discuss how to “cope” with anxiety better down the line.