New to the community

[Toughtimes]

Hello all,

I am 36 year old married male with a child on the way. I have struggled with anxiety for much of my life but when big life events are on the horizon it becomes much worse. I don’t know anyone else that struggles with this and often feel alone with my struggles. I am hoping that joining a community like this will help me understand how and why my thought process
is the way it is. I should note that all of my anxiety centers around how past decisions may be devastating to my family or me. These thoughts make me feel like the worst person on the planet and as you can imagine greatly depress me.

 

[triceps]

Hi Tough,
Welcome. Not much you can do about the past. It's pretty natural to be anxious about big life events. Sounds like the anxiety goes beyond that for you. Hopefully, through this community, you won't feel so alone in your struggles.

 

[Toughtimes]

It does go beyond that. My mind will take me to the worst possible scenario. Eventually the scenario is repeated in my head so many times that it almost becomes reality.

 

[triceps]

I'm right there with you. Every time my wife is more than 15 minutes late coming home, I'm making funeral plans for her. Thankfully, my wife is very aware of my insane thinking and almost always calls if she is going to be late. It really is amazing wh, therapyat our minds can convince us of or the physical feelings it can generate. Even with medications, group therapy and a dedication to CBT tools, after I got into my fifties it seemed that I have had much more difficulty, not enough mental energy to fight back the negative thinking.