Looking for some advice over anxiety

drivingahead

The last week or so I have been feeling so anxious and sick. I’ve no interest in food but forcing myself to eat as many daily calories as I can. The doctor has prescribed me an anti depressant but I understand that may take a few weeks to kick in. I’m not sleeping much and just constantly feel shaky and nausea. Any suggestions I can try to combat this? I am starting counselling next week.
Thank you x

kimny72

drivingahead wrote: »

The last week or so I have been feeling so anxious and sick. I’ve no interest in food but forcing myself to eat as many daily calories as I can. The doctor has prescribed me an anti depressant but I understand that may take a few weeks to kick in. I’m not sleeping much and just constantly feel shaky and nausea. Any suggestions I can try to combat this? I am starting counselling next week.
Thank you x

Have you ever used a meditation app, like Calm or Headspace? You should be able to stay with the free guided meditations without paying for a subscription to tide you over until your first appt at least. I find guided meditation/breathing exercises help, also reading fiction helps me to shut off my brain and focus on the story, much better than watching a show or movie.

For calories, a shake or smoothie can help, if you have access to either a premade or the ingredients to make your own. Hang in there!

drivingahead

Thank you I will try those apps. I know getting a good nights sleep will really help me x

SwedeTease

Have you started the antidepressant already? Those all sound like side effects of my antidepressant when I first started. I ended up quitting caffeine completely because it was amplifying the effects of it.

When I’ve had anxiety-induced nausea in the past then there were usually some foods that didn’t seem to bother me, like pasta with parmesan, toast with butter, or oats with some brown sugar. Not sure if you have any safe foods but maybe that will help too.

acarterx400

I have had many of the same struggles with anxiety since I was a teen. I had to force myself to eat due to my anxiety. I had to deal with a lot of issues from my past. I think talkimg to someone amd my anti anxiety meds really helped me a lot. I also use sleepy time tea which really helps me sleep at night. Keep your head up amd hang in there.

Kupla71

Hang in there. I too had really bad anxiety years ago. I had little interest in food but when I did eat I couldn’t keep it down. It was terrible. Try soup and yes smoothies. Sleep is important. If you have trouble sleeping try visualizing a safe happy place to help you relax so you can fall asleep. I hope you feel better soon.

elisa123gal

Food can really help you. Low blood sugar can make it all worse.. I know from experience. Try eating something easy to eat.. like yogurt.. oatmeal...peanut butter, and blueberries also help with anxiety. You need to stabilize your blood sugar, so eat this stuff even in small amounts every few hours.. and it will help with the anxiety. Think food for fuel. Don't drink coffee or eat sugary foods it will make your anxiety worse. I also find lifting anything heavy helps alleviate any anxiety attacks. A major help for me also is smelling peppermint essential oil. I use it all the time and have my anxiety under control.

drivingahead

Thank you so much everyone I’ve felt more like my old self today and managed to eat well really hoping I’ve turned a bit of a corner.
Thanks again for alll the advice x

CaffeinatedConfectionist

Man, I hear this. I get wicked anxiety, usually over the most ridiculous, low-stakes situations.

What really helps me, aside from things like deep breathing, mindfulness, and limiting my time on devices (especially around bed) is exercise. It's something that restores my feelings of control and knocks my brain off that non-stop hamster wheel - and the endorphins sure don't hurt, either. For me, it's the best mood stabilizer out there.

VeryKatie

I have had anxiety induced insomnia in the past. Its really hard. Some things I tried:

No light in the room. Cover your windows and clock. Do not ever look at your phone in bed.

Try white noise in the background.

The bedroom is for sleep and sex only. Don't read your book, work, watch TV, etc in bed.

If you really can't sleep, get up and go read in a calm room somewhere else (again no screen time at least 1 hour before bed).

These things may not solve it for you. They may not even help. They helped me a bit but in the end the only thing that made the insomnia go away was my anxiety going away. But I was suffering from post partum anxiety so I had the benefit of my hormones eventually rebalancing on their own, especially once my child stopped nursing at night.

I'm having some anxiety and insomnia again now as a side effect of going off some medication for something else... but that I increased the dose back up a little and plan to go off even slower. Again hopefully that will do the trick. But when I am not hungry because of it, it helps to make myself eat high fat food.. they're high calorie and good for hormone health... are there any meds you stopped recently that could be a factor?

drivingahead

No not stopped any meds. I’ve felt a lot better the last few days. Still wake up very early with nausea and my heart is racing but after a few hours it’s goes. I’m in more of a routine now which is helping I think and my meds may be starting to kick in. It’s amazing how your mental health can have such a affect physically on you it has wiped me out!