Anxiety

Therapy is your most reliable way to actually get over your anxiety. It will take time depending on the severity, but it will actually make it go for good.

If it's truly unbearable, see a psychiatrist and let him tell you if you need an anxiolitic or not.

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>>17399740
*Everything I'm about to say is in my own opinion/experience so keep that in mind*

I never had anxiety but lately (1-2 years-25y/o) it has been really bad. I feel it in my chest most of the time, and I know it's anxiety (not something with my heart) because exercise makes it go away.

For me, antidepressants (sertaline/zoloft) don't make it better, they make me not so depressed but more anxious IMO.

If you drink alcohol, stop. Being hungover is extremely anxiety provoking, even if it takes the edge off depression. Saying that, I am drinking right now.

For me, the anxiety is in my head, and to fight it i have to overcome what is in my head. Exercise (love to bike) helps, as well I have 2 dogs and I walk them about an hour a day. I need to work on keeping my mind more occupied so I don't have so much time to be alone with my thoughts. I have also been reading a lot which seems to work.

OP, you need to find the root of your anxiety and try to fight it from there, different strokes for different folks. >>17399918 is something you should try. Although for me psychs (I've seen 3) don't do anything for me and as I said the doctors pills don't do much for me. Ultimately it's going to be you that has to overcome your anxiety, but other people may help you with it.

Keep in mind, it could be worse, you could be literally trapped between two rocks until you die.

There are certain types of anxiety that you have due to physical processes I'm ignorant of, but if you feel like that's the case you should seek a psychiatrist.

On the other hand, there's the type of anxiety you feel as a conditioned response to certain experiences you had. For example, I've embarrassed myself in front of my entire classroom during school so many times that even now, years later, I still struggle with public speaking and being in front of a crowd because of the tension I feel. Even those cringe-inducing videos about someone doing something stupid in public are like gore to me, I just can't watch it.

If that is your case, then you should seek the root causes and try to remedy them. There's two ways: first, prepare yourself for the event (not a particular, actual event, the idea of the event in the abstract, like "talking to girls") by cutting away all the possible weaknesses that can get to you there in the moment. Second, expose yourself to a similar situation, but with less intensity and less risk, again and again until you have forced your mind to adapt to it. The problem with that is that it will be mostly self-therapy, even if you seek professional help, and your mind works in weird fucking ways that can make it difficult to identify the causes behind your anxiety.

For example, I once went to speech therapy because I was finding it really difficult to talk to people, and I was thinking that there might be something physically wrong with me, because I always spoke very fast and in very low volume, and the shit I said never made sense. People weren't fucking understanding me. The therapist told me that the problem was a lack of confidence, which I thought was bullshit, but then he gave me a list of things to do that really helped. Seemingly unrelated things, like getting to know the city and the names of streets, reading the news, watching sports and some popular TV shows, etc.

>>17400089
(cont)

His reasoning was that, because I was so idle from what was happening in the world and couldn't really find my way through different places, I never felt as comfortable out there as I did when I was isolated in my room, immersed in my little world with my own hobbies and interests, and whenever I stepped outside I felt an immediate discomfort that I wasn't even aware of. And apparently he was right, because it really helped.

So you have to find those root causes and remedy them. Let's take the test example: you should, obviously, study more. If it doesn't work, then maybe it's because you study in a way that only increases your anxiety by making you aware of how much you don't know and how little time left you have. If that's the case, study everyday for a shorter period of time instead of only studying when the tests are approaching. Also, take tests or do activites that resemble what the test demands (e.g. writing a short essay about something) at your own at home, with time limit and everything. If you feel at ease doing the latter, then maybe it's not even the test itself but the fact you're among people when you take it that is making you insecure. Then you need to get used to doing shit in public where you feel "exposed", etc. These are just examples, but you know what I'm trying to say.

Follow those guidelines and come up with activities of the sort and I think you'll see improvement. If you want to do it but you can't think of anything to do, we can help you come up with something if you're more specific.

OP here.

I want to thank the 3 anons that have given me advises. I will be taking actions.

>>17399918
>>17400072
>>17400089
>>17400096

I tried seeing a therapist.

I didn't really like it, she was too ''bossy'' and whenever I paused for 2 minutes to think about the question she asked, she would tell me to just "spit it out" or "just say it" and it would get me pretty anxious.

I don't know if all are the same or not, because this is the only one I visited. Should I try visiting another one or should I just go directly to a Psychiatrist?

>>17400341
If you're anything like me, did you spend the '2 minutes' panicking about what to say? If so, she's trying to get you to think quicker as your adrenaline is going when you're under pressure.

You don't need to speak without thinking, but you don't need to 100% vet everything coming out of your mouth either, especially if you're thinking about lying to minimise confrontation.