I’m struggling with a constant, uncomfortable background feeling that’s hard to describe. It resembles internal anxiety, restlessness, boredom, or uneasiness, but isn’t tied to anything specific. I can work, exercise, socialize, or spend time with family, yet it remains in the background. It’s sometimes quieter in the mornings or when I’m engaged, but can also last for hours.

I’ve become hyperaware of my thoughts and emotions. Before this started, I didn’t monitor how I felt throughout the day. Now my brain automatically checks for the feeling, and researching or thinking about it seems to make it worse. I also constantly need stimulation and struggle to watch TV without using my phone or doing something else.

I’ve taken Zoloft for over a decade and was stable for years. This began earlier this year around the time my dose was adjusted. I was later prescribed Abilify, and within a couple of weeks I felt almost completely like myself again: I enjoyed life, had energy, and wasn’t bothered by the feeling. However, after 2–3 weeks it returned. I stopped Abilify and later restarted it, and the same pattern happened: significant initial improvement, followed by the return of the discomfort.

Abilify has helped my depression tremendously, but not this symptom. Clonazepam makes it less upsetting and easier to ignore, though it doesn’t eliminate it.

I’m currently pregnant, so hormones may be contributing, although this started before pregnancy. I’ve wondered about somatic OCD, chronic introspection, anxiety, DPDR, or akathisia. It doesn’t feel like an obsessive thought so much as an uncomfortable internal state my brain can’t stop noticing.

I still function—I work, exercise, care for my kids, and live my life—but internally I feel very different.

Has anyone experienced similar constant background emotional discomfort/nervous system sensitivity rather than traditional anxiety or panic attacks? What helped, and did you eventually feel like yourself again?

The cortex and the amygdala. How do these tie in with serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine? Are my neural pathways wired wrong? Where's the damn neuroplasticity kicking in to rewire things and get my brain back to its normal baseline?

I've been struggling with my mental health for about two weeks after being stable for years. Anxiety, depression, the whole shebang. I've been on the same medication and dose for years, but I'm now on day 11 of slowly increasing my dose.

I'm constantly battling myself, my physical symptoms, and my thoughts, both voluntary and especially involuntary. The symptoms keep changing slightly and evolving, but the underlying discomfort is always the same. I can't tell what's the original flare-up, what's activation from the dose increase, or what's a combination of both.

I'm sick, tired, and exhausted. Moments of genuine comfort are few and far between. It's frustrating, and honestly, it makes me angry and hopeless. How much patience am I supposed to have? I feel like breaking down crying, which I already have earlier in this flare. Some days I have the willpower to push through, and other days I just can't.

Today was one of those days. Stay in bed it is. Dwell. Recuperate. Run more time off the clock. Wait for another dose of medication and more time for my brain to learn that I'm safe.

I recently picked up a book called Rewiring Your Anxious Brain. Actually, I bought a few books, although I'm not sure how the hell I'll read them. I've never been much of a reader, especially in my current state. I could barely concentrate through the first few pages, but I did learn about two things: the amygdala and the cortex.

Apparently, these are major players in anxiety. The panic, impending doom, existential dread, and that persistent feeling that something is extremely off in my head and body. This seemingly never-ending mental and physical discomfort. The stomach issues and lack of appetite, which are so damn annoying too.

Constantly sensing danger, fight-or-flight-or-freeze, breathing discomfort, feeling scatterbrained yet somehow laser-focused on myself, hypervigilance, and rumination. It's like my brain and nervous system are stuck in a perpetual state of unease.

But if the amygdala and cortex are responsible for anxiety, what about depression? How are the two so intertwined? Does being stuck in this overwhelming mental and physical anxiety somehow deplete other brain chemicals or throw everything out of balance? What comes first, the chicken or the egg? Either way, screw them both.

I have a small prescription for benzos to use "as needed." Ha. I feel like I've needed one for the entire two weeks. I've been saving them for worst-case scenarios, partly because I'm worried about dependence and tolerance, but also because I've been told that learning to live with anxiety, accepting the uncomfortable sensations rather than fighting them, is how you eventually overcome them.

That's great for the anxiety side, but what about the depression? The sadness, intrusive thoughts, apathy, and complete lack of desire to do anything or see anyone. There's little to no joy in life in this state. That's difficult enough on its own, and obviously the constant anxiety makes it even worse. Everything that should be simple feels like a chore, and everything difficult feels insurmountable.

And here's something I find strange. Sometimes, when I'm genuinely focused on something, whether it's a work task, answering emails, or finally getting absorbed in a TV show or movie, I get a brief moment of relief. For a little while, I'm no longer hyperfocused on myself or how I'm feeling. It doesn't happen often, but those few minutes are a nice break.

But the second my attention shifts back inward, the hypervigilance returns, the symptoms intensify, the rumination starts up again, and the cycle continues.

Then I'll walk down the street and see homeless people struggling with severe mental health issues. Part of me feels guilty for complaining about my own problems, but another part becomes terrified that I'm just one more downward spiral away from ending up like that myself. And that it could happen completely involuntarily, if my brain somehow decides that's what it wants to do.

Reddit can feel the same way. I come here looking for support or somewhere to vent, only to read about people in even darker places. It's scary. Mental health genuinely scares the shit out of me, and I feel like I have no choice but to navigate this storm, often feeling completely alone, with no daylight in sight. It's like a living nightmare where you're praying the scariest parts are already over and behind you, rather than still waiting to get worse.

I guess my point is that there's anxiety I can consciously recognize and try to manage, and then there's the involuntary anxiety, both physical and mental, that seems to happen regardless of what I think or do.

I desperately want to get better, but it feels like my effing brain is broken.

How do I do this? How do I keep fighting? When does that normal baseline feeling finally return? When do the constant anxiety headache, bad thoughts, chest tightness, and mental unease end? When does the joy return?

When can I lie in bed all day and actually feel completely relaxed? When can I go to work, sit in my office chair, and not feel like I'm losing my mind?

I'm not comfortable anywhere. Not at home, not at work, not even when I'm supposed to be relaxing.

I just want to feel like myself again. I want to get better. But holy shit, it's so difficult.

When does it get better?

I feel like I've been patient enough.

I don't know why it happens. Can someone please help...

Just want to start off by saying the main culprit is I haven't had dental insurance in ages. But, more than that, I've also had depression for my entire adult life. And as you can imagine, depression causes you to not really take care of yourself. So, my mouth is a mess. Thick, thick tarter especially on my bottom teeth. I consider the fact that I've never had a tooth ache a miracle.

I know I need to get this dealt with, but I'm freaking out. For one, I was never comfortable with having someone poking and prodding in my mouth, and now it's been 20 years since the last time. But also, I'm also super freaked out about what the x-rays will find and seeing the damage below the tartar. I know, I know. Dental technology has likely come a long way in 20 years. And I keep hearing about trials that literally re-grow teeth (if that ever comes here). But I also fear without insurance any fixes are going to be financially out of reach and definitely won't be covered in the complimentary free cleaning many places offer.

I don't know what to do. Keep putting it off til I get insurance, just suck it up....I feel like anything I do, I'm never going to have teeth that anyone wants to set eyes on.

Title. The smallest dose of xanax or half of the dose. My father is addicted to alcohol if it matters. I cant stand this anxiety and im thinking about taking xanax (it is an episode, not an ongoing anxiety)

omg i feel so weird
whenever for eg im at church and its very silent
or in an assembly hall whatever and again its silent
i actually cannot function like my palms get sweaty and then im terrified for when the bell rings or someone coughs or makes a noise because im so scared im gonna start flinching.

i get super tense - like the feeling someone is lurking behind ur shoulder but u cant turn around if ykwim

its mainly when its dead silent or someone is speaking into the mic but everyone is sitting in rows and is quiet and watching

seriously i dont know where i developed this stupid shit and i fucking hate it omds it legit came out of nowhere i cant.
(also i had a panic attack bc of this in church all the way back in march (Was legit fine every other time in church before this) and now every sunday and assembly i have to experience this)

can anyone help/explain pls lol 😞

i’m unsure where to post this, so i’m asking for advice here. on saturday (10/10/26), i decided to take a stronger hit of weed from muha meds vapes. i took one from an indica vape and a satvia vape (~2.5 seconds each). i’ve only greened out twice before and NOTHING compared to what happened five days ago. those mild ones only lasted about 20-30 minutes, while this lasted at least 6 hours.

as for what i went through, i had extreme paranoia and felt as if i was dying. i couldn’t stay still for long or i felt as if i was going to go crazy. i was in a permanent mental state of “oh my god, im going to fucking die,” and “i need to call 911.” laying down caused terrible anxiety, and attempting to watch shows that normally provide me comfort made me worse. grounding techniques never helped throughout my life and only worsened my paranoia. i felt as if i wasn’t real and had permanently damaged my brain somehow. i wouldn’t wish that experience on my worst enemy.

for additional context: im not a heavy user of weed, and i had only started recently. i’m 18 (19 next month) and a college student. the only people who know about my experience are my friends who don’t use marijuana. my parents are the ones who gave me the vapes and encouraged me using weed for anxiety/sleep, but i am worried about getting professional help because i am, for one; 18 years old and not 21, and two; my parents are the ones who provided me the drug in the first place. i don’t want any legal trouble over my stupidity. i take zoloft daily (25MG) and up until that point, it had been working great.

it’s been five days since then. the day after was fuzzy and still had some lingering effects, but got terrible at the same time i ended up smoking (around 12ish that night). that led into the next day, and on tuesday, i felt substantially better, like i was ‘normal’ again. the same goes for yesterday, with only mild symptoms, like that deep, sinking feeling in my chest when i thought about that night. last night (10/13), i had triggered something to cause my body to go into a full fight-or-flight mode. my thighs were twitching and convulsing in waves and i had extreme anxiety. i was weak and shaky with that same sinking feeling in my chest that’s been haunting me since saturday. i also had trouble sleeping and needed to take medication to do so. if i closed my eyes for too long, id jerk awake.

today, ive had that lingering anxiety and mild derealization. i’ve struggled with thoughts of ‘am i even real?’ in the past, but nothing beyond just stupid thoughts. i’ve read around and i’m worried that this anxiety and DPDR will last months. i’m unsure of what to do besides wait it out, but i don’t know if i really have the willpower to do that. i’m more susceptible to feeling insane, i noticed. i’m worried that i have developed some form of trauma, DPDR, or mild psychosis just from me being stupid and taking longer hits than i should have. i know it’s the satvia that caused this - indica has NEVER caused me to green out, only satvia.

tldr; i had a severe green out five days ago and i still have lingering anxiety/paranoia and fight-or-flight responses. it comes in waves and is freaking me out. while im more mentally stable, im worried that this feeling will never go away. im 18 and dont want anybody to get in legal trouble for me using cannabis underage. any advice helps :-)

edit: i forgot to mention the physical side effects during my green out. i felt as if my uvula was stuck to my throat, and all of my body felt light and as if i couldn’t control myself. i was restless and fully awake. i never passed out or lost consciousness but i was nauseous (although no vomiting).

I'll try and explain it best I can. So about a month ago I underwent a benefit review (long story) and I've been cut £800 a month, back in late July I had an SVT and nearly died (they had to give me adenosine to reset my heart in hospital) when I came out my mental health weren't great and I had terrible side effects from beta blockers (felt like I couldn't breathe and like concrete had been poured in my chest) and I came off them cold turkey about a month or so ago before the benefit review.

Anyway the benefit review was extremely stressful I got hardly any sleep, lost 10 pounds in a week and found it hard to eat more than a few mouthfuls of food, I astrally projected in my sleep I was so stressed and actually twitched, felt sick to my stomach constantly and was crying this went on for idk well over a week until the review was done but yeah 3 or so weeks later I've had a nerve flare up.

So it began in my feet pins and needles and tingling at night this was on the 30th of September (during this time I was also stupidly going on a treadmill barefoot for 30-45 mins sometimes just light walking on 2.3 speed i don't do that anymore but i'd been doing it for a couple of months) i assumed it was a similar thing i had years ago when i was on holiday in Malta and I got really drunk and had fluid retention (i'm also obese) and also another time when i was sober and had tingling in my feet but it went away after a day this however has got worse and worse. It's spread from my feet upwards in my body and it's triggered sparks going off under my skin all over my body, pain flares in random places like my fingers and feet, itching/crawling feeling, legs twitching in my sleep, (i was also experiencing excruciating nerve pain in my feet at night as well but its stopped since i've worn shoes on a treadmill touch wood) this is non FUCKING STOP from the minute I wake up to the minute I go to sleep and it's been hapoening for 16 fucking days 😭😭.

2 doctors have told me it's stress related and its the "let down effect" after the benefit review as well as all the other shit i had from the shock of the SVT and nearly dying I guess? I have BPD and Asperges so i don't cope well with stress or emotions that well anyway I never have that being said i've never had something like this flare up before and i'm only 35 years old, trust me when I say this is not the only stressful time I've had in my life I've had anxiety since I was 5 years old from living with a mentally ill mother and growing up around narcissists and alcoholics.

During this time I've continued to work out on the treadmill wearing shoes for 35 mins to 45 mins some days because I am trying so hard to lose weight idk if this has made it worse or what but i'm cutting my workouts down to 15 mins 2-3 days a week and not 35 mins or 45 mins 5 days a week.

I'm on Pregabalin been on it since Wednesday, 25mg pills twice a day but its only dulling the sparks and nerve pain somewhat and i am sleeping a bit better. It literally feels like I'm being electrocuted or like my body is under attack my skin feels more sensitive as well, I've been crying, I feel the most depressed and exhausted I've ever felt i'm finding it hard to concentrate on writing or feel like myself, i've had blood tests up the fucking wazoo all have come back normal, normal thyroid, normal kidneys, no diabetes, normal b12, only Borderline low iron levels (i'm taking iron tablets), so this is either neuropathic pain/itch brought on after stress or it's something else my doctor is baffled about this she can't figure out what it is she's told me to give Pregabalin a try and see how I get on after a month, I have a holiday to Canada in 2 weeks and I can't drink on these pills even though I want to 😭, I'm terrified of the potential side effects of these pills like blurry vision and that, my doctor has been fucking useless she's said I'd be waiting 6 months to see someone in neuropathy or whatever even if it doesn't settle after a month. She's offered to increase the dose but I don't want to experience a more likely chance of blurry vision.

Has anyone experienced anything like this?? The burning sparks have returned in the last 2 days weirdly enough because I've had minor stress regarding money for this holiday as well as sleeping weird and waking up with back ache I can't help but wonder if it's linked to me sleeping in an odd position and with too many pillows?

I take vitamin D at the doctor's recommendation as well, if anyone has any advice or any stories about this I am open to suggestions on how to help it settle quicker.

This might be the wrong sub but I’m not sure where where else to ask other than maybe r/ asthma or medical🧍🏾‍♂️
For context, I don’t have asthma but my sister does. She doesn’t take it seriously and hates when we bring it up but she’s literally almost died twice in the past few years bc of it. One of the times, she was alone in her room and no one knew she was having an attack for about 2 minutes bc it was nighttime. I only went in her room on a gut feeling and found her but we still had to call EMS cause the inhaler wouldn’t work by that point. My family couldn’t do anything but watch her gasp for air until they arrived; she told us afterwards that she was barely awake and couldn’t see anything. We all, including her, thought she was gonna die.
It keeps me up at night just thinking about how bad it could’ve gone and how I almost lost my best friend; I can barely sleep, instead constantly wondering whether or not she’s even breathing (hence why I’m on Reddit at midnight trying to distract myself 😀).

I guess I’m mostly asking how to deal with that anxiety? I know it’s not healthy to be constantly anxious and losing sleep over this but I don’t know how else to deal with it. The thought of a repeat of last time makes me sick to my fucking stomach.
It’s a little better now since she still lives at home but was absolutely devastating when she was in the college dorms. I was basically a nocturnal zombie (and spam called her awake more times than I’d like to admit to check if she was okay when it got really bad).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hey everyone, so over a week ago I was diagnosed with Anxiety disorder. My symptoms were so bad that I had to go home (in another province) so I could visit my doctor because my medical aid would cover it. He diagnosed me then and gave me 10 adco-alzam pills to drink half twice a day. And I just took the last half this morning and my symptoms started returning on Wednesday, so my issue is that I currently cannot visit a doctor here in my city because my medical aid won't cover that, I'd have to go home to see my initial doctor but I can't do that too because I don't have money to do that AND I'm currently busy with my exams.

What is driving my anxiety much more now is what if I experience the severe symptoms in an exam room during my exam and they remove me and render my exam null and void, I'd have to write a deferred exam which would then delay my graduation. I am so SO stressed over this. And I just drank the last of my pills this morning. Is there any way I can manage the physical symptoms on my own? Any advice on what to do?

I’m not sure if this will get thrown into the ether…don’t think my Karma is high enough lol but here goes! I also haven’t posted on Reddit since I was 16 and cringe lol so apologies for any missing context/weird formatting.

I (22F) am moving to NYC tomorrow. I’ve been preparing for about a month now and am super excited, but of course now is when the influx of nerves and anxiety comes in. I know it’s understandable, but it’s definitely not helping me sleep lol. I have 2 roommates and live in a pretty safe area, but now I’m starting to get the “anything can happen to anyone at anytime” thoughts and can feel myself spiraling.

For those that live/have lived in NYC, do you have advice for staunching these anxieties? Any grounding tips (besides staying aware and alert)? Thanks in advance ◡̈

This is my third semester at csuf as a transfer. I am not sure if I have anxiety, but I am diagnosed with adhd and have to take a non-stimulant medication. I spend hours a day laying in bed trying to ignore my this feeling of impending doom and lose hours of sleep worrying constantly. I put off assignments/procrastinate to the point where I have to have a drink alcohol in order to get past the fear. My previous semester went very badly (hence why I'm retaking 2 classes) and I'm afraid I can't afford to fail. Unfortunately some outside circumstances (having to work more hours because my coworker quit) have caused me to be behind on school-and the more behind I got, the more anxious I would get, and then I would put off studying and get a bad score. I just failed my most recent midterm and I am 2 weeks behind on most of my classes. I know I need help but i dont know where to start.

Hello everyone i was havung fun with ny friend and sending gifs when u suddenly saw a u settling gif and now im so scared i dont know who to talk to but the inage is really bothering me i screen shot it too. If its alright i would lije someone to talk to about it. Its really bothering me