I was diagnosed with GAD 11 years ago and I’ve changed a lot about my life to try and deal with it. I take Lexapro, work out 4 times a week, take magnesium, journal and try to meditate. I’ve had a lot of improvement, and don’t find the anxiety as debilitating as it used to be. But I still struggle daily.
I’m wondering if any of you suffer from feelings of guilt and shame unrelated to anything going on in life. For instance, my wife has been grumpy for the last few days, due to some physical complaints that keep her from sleeping. The whole time she is grumpy I have feelings of guilt, even though I have nothing to feel guilty about, nor am I the focus of her temper. I feel like she is mad at me, even though she isn’t.
I know that these feelings are pure anxiety, and not guilt,but I can’t seem to put them aside. These feelings have always been part of my anxiety, but are worse recently. I’ve gone back to working with a therapist, and revisited some issues in my past. Bringing some old wounds to the surface also raised the anxiety. This may be work I need to do.... but I am NOT enjoying it!
My anxiety is social, in that I worry constantly about how I appear to others, and am terrified of conflict. But I am able to function and control my anxiety to the point where most people believe I am very outgoing. Despite this ‘control’, my mind will throw out these waves of fear and guilt, which gets me thinking ‘what have I done wrong’? Most often (these days) I can’t come up with a good reason. I occasionally make a minor faux pas and feel little embarrassment at the time, but a day, week, month or sometimes years later that instant will flash back into my head, accompanied by shame so intense I will actually flinch. It is almost like my mind stores things to torture myself with later.
Does anyone else suffer this way? Does anyone have any advice or ideas to share.
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I’m wondering if any of you suffer from feelings of guilt and shame unrelated to anything going on in life. For instance, my wife has been grumpy for the last few days, due to some physical complaints that keep her from sleeping. The whole time she is grumpy I have feelings of guilt, even though I have nothing to feel guilty about, nor am I the focus of her temper. I feel like she is mad at me, even though she isn’t.
I know that these feelings are pure anxiety, and not guilt,but I can’t seem to put them aside. These feelings have always been part of my anxiety, but are worse recently. I’ve gone back to working with a therapist, and revisited some issues in my past. Bringing some old wounds to the surface also raised the anxiety. This may be work I need to do.... but I am NOT enjoying it!
My anxiety is social, in that I worry constantly about how I appear to others, and am terrified of conflict. But I am able to function and control my anxiety to the point where most people believe I am very outgoing. Despite this ‘control’, my mind will throw out these waves of fear and guilt, which gets me thinking ‘what have I done wrong’? Most often (these days) I can’t come up with a good reason. I occasionally make a minor faux pas and feel little embarrassment at the time, but a day, week, month or sometimes years later that instant will flash back into my head, accompanied by shame so intense I will actually flinch. It is almost like my mind stores things to torture myself with later.
Does anyone else suffer this way? Does anyone have any advice or ideas to share.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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