Hi Thommo
Good read there. Anxiety is a serious illness and like other mental illnesses we often dont see the significance of it and have to be told by our partners how bad it really is.
In 1987 aged 29 my anxiety came to a head in a workplace incident. It was present since teenage years. After some therapy I realised that group therapy was out, dont like groups and therapy was ok for 1 year then lost its effect. So I embarked on expanding what I learned and carried out my own formula of recovery. Surprisingly the anxiety was only erased after 22 years. A long time. In 2003 was incorrectly diagnosed with ADHD. In 2009 correctly diagnosed with bipolar2, dysthymia (a low mood constant depression) and depression. Once on the correct medication I kicked goals from then on.
You can read a lot about the beginning of this journey in this thread-
https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/online-forums/anxiety/anxiety-how-l-eliminated-it
Some of us with these complications dont have many friends. We are largely solo people. But thats ok, thats us, we cant all be extroverts.
School in our days was cruel. We were all picked on unless you were the popular kid. The key I believe in all this anxiety from our childhood days is acceptance. You can read about it here-
https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/online-forums/staying-well/acceptance--is-this-our-biggest-challenge-#qjLhsnHzvGGEbv8AAOnT_A
Again welcome. Hope you enjoy it.
TonyWK