I Don't Know How To Get Out Of This Situation.

[EColegrove]

Sorry for the long post, I would really appreciate it if you read it.

I'm writing this post because basically I'm lost in life, I have no Idea what I'm

Doing or where I'm going. I think my main problem is my anxiety which keeps me from

experiencing opportunities, meeting new people and just getting on with my life. The

other thing would have to just be the lack of knowing the things that interest me,

I mean the only thing that I get enjoyment out of is hanging out with my mate and even

too much of that gets boring, I'm really hoping that all of this is the result of my

anxiety making my life seem sour when I know It's not there are people out there way

worse then me.

I've had my anxiety from around the age of six and its always stopped me from doing

things like school trips, socializing and anything that I wanted to do that I know

would make me anxious. I didn't really get drawn to any particular subjects, making

friends was more important to me because I knew it would make me happy, I would

hang out with friends rather then doing my homework which is why I didn't do so well

in school. And to this day I would still probably hang out with friends then do

work and I hate that way of thinking.

So after school I got a part time job that isn't bad if you like the type of work

but It's not for me. I'm now 20 and I'm pretty much going round in circles as far as careers

go. It'll pretty much go like this, research a career, read up about it and get

exited, anxiety kicks in a throws some worrisome thoughts and scenarios at me,

I get the thought "am I really interested in this to want to do it as a career" and I can't

answer this because I don't know what the career is really like because every time

I look up doing volunteering I get the anxious thoughts and scenarios that hold me

back. I mean I'm interested in health and helping people so I looked up physiotherapy

and I seemed interested in it, but then came the thoughts of

"what if I accidentally injured or killed someone, I might get sent to prison"

how could I do a job with this thought in my mind every day, I'd probably drive myself

crazy worrying if what I did to a patient would injure or kill them.

or

"what if when I volunteer I can't think of anything to say and I just sit there in

awkward silence"

or

"What if the place has lifts and I have to either go in one or say I don't like them

which would make it awkward"

or what If I try all of the careers that seem interesting and I turns out that

actually none of them interest me, then I'll just be stuck at some job I don't even

like. And these things terrify me enough to make just make me retreat and not pursue it further.

I know that all of these things probably stem from the anxiety but I just feel like my

whole perception of life is off. I somehow feel that everything needs to be perfect

for me to be happy, perfect job, perfect friends and I know that this will not happen

and I know that I could be happy in the situation I'm in now, yeah sure it's not ideal

but it's no where near as bad as other peoples situations so why can't I just do that

why can't I just pick a career and go for it, why can't I go out and socialize and

make more friends instead of sitting at home and wishing I had more, why can't I be

someone who would do their homework instead of going out with mates. Is it that I

truly have nothing that interests me outside of socializing because I can't make money

from that. Why am I so awkward why can't I be like a normal person and find a career that

interests me do the training needed, meet people along the way and live a decent life

with a job that interest's me enough to want to do it everyday and friends that I can

have a laugh with. I just relay don't know.

Please if anyone has gone through this please tell me how you did it

because at the moment I just don't know if this is going to end. Also any

advice on what my next steps could be because I really don't know what

to do.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

[Lily-Bee]

Hi,

it sounds to me like anxiety is quite literally paralysing you.

And that is indeed how it can work when we get scared we have this fight or flight reaction yours is the flight reaction where you just sort of shut down.

This can be fixed! What you need to learn is that your anxieties are just that anxieties they are not perse things that will become realities in fact some of the things you worry about happening about very very unlikely.

If you learn to deal with this anxiety the rest will follow I promise you, you will figure out what do to career wise and youll make the steps because your anxious thoughts will no longer stop you from doing so.

Now you want to know how do I learn to deal with the anxiety; therapy. My advise for your next step is go see your GP and ask to be reffered for MH help, if you get the proper help with your anxiety everything else will fall into place. But you do need to take that step to get help.