Has my overactive imagination turned into anxiety?
I have always been an imaginative person with a tendency to daydream, but lately (past few years) I've noticed that I am dwelling increasingly on worst-case scenarios. Examples:
- In the past three years, my old house, my parents' house and my car were broken into and now I constantly worry about making sure the doors are locked. I often walk away from my apartment or car and have to turn back to make sure the doors are locked. They always are, but if I don't check I can't concentrate on anything else. When I was staying with my parents over the holidays I often came home worried that I was going to find my things missing and my parents murdered.
- Since the September 11th 2001 attacks I've been afraid of flying. I used to have no problem on airplanes and now I often need a drink before getting on a plane. Without alcohol I am tense and I sweat throughout take-off, landing and any turbulence, but for the rest of the flight I do pretty well. I know how rare plane crashes are but that knowledge doesn't help to subdue my fears.
- If anyone is late and I don't hear from them I assume they were in a car crash. My boyfriend has a long commute over a dangerous freeway and I worry about him constantly. If he forgets to call or doesn't pick up his phone, I get frantic, call him repeatedly and sometimes check accident reports. Even as I'm imagining a car accident I know I'm being irrational, but it's difficult to distract myself from worrying.
- I used to love skateboarding, wakeboarding and snowboarding, but in the past couple of years when I've gotten on a board my whole body tenses up and I don't have any fun. Now I make up excuses to avoid these activities with my friends.
- After a difficult college class with a lot of important quizzes, I get extremely anxious about tests. Last year I got lost on my way to the GRE test center, was late to the test and I was completely tense and near tears throughout the entire test. Part of my reluctance to pursue graduate school is that I don't think I can get past my anxiety to do well enough on the GRE or the LSAT. I had no problems taking the SATs five years ago.
From what I understand about anxiety, I have never had a full-blown anxiety or panic attack. I think that what had previously been normal levels of worry have become something else, but I don't know what to call it or how to treat it. I know that therapy will probably be a popular suggestion, but I would like to explore other (if any) options first. I searched for "anxiety" on AskMeFi but skipped most questions because they appeared to be related to social or performance anxiety which I don't think applies to me. Apologies if I skipped over a thread similar to mine.
What is happening to me and what can I do about it?
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The main thing that helped me control anxiety then, and keeps any remaining anxious tendencies under control for me now, is exercise. Once I started running I grew a lot calmer in general. I slept better, and though I don't know the biochemistry, it feels to me as though whatever bad body chemicals cause anxiety are kept in check, or counteracted, by whatever good chemicals exercise produces. This is the biggest non-therapeutic strategy I can suggest (though I didn't do it until it was highly recommended by my therapist).
I also got a lot out of reading about anxiety. There are a number of useful self-help books out there. You might try checking out some self-help sites like this or this (found randomly - there are many others).
posted by Miko at 8:20 AM on April 2 [1 favorite]