Hi everyone. I'm Joely, 15 year old girl (in year 10) struggling with anxiety, depression, worry, panic, etc. I'm really scared and confused because this has never been an issue for me until now... I don't know what started it and I don't know how to make it go away or deal with it.

I get very anxious about everything (going out with friends, going to school), now to the point that I don't want to leave the house (but obviously I have to because I have to go to school). My main symptom is nausea which is honestly the worst thing in the world because I constantly feel sick to the stomach like I'm going to throw up. I also get this sensation where I find it really hard to swallow (my throat goes tight).

When I was a little girl, I used to get nauseous (I would actually throw up) when I didn't want to go to school or if I was anxious about something so it's in my nature but I guess it kind of all went away until now because I never acknowledged it as an issue until now. A few months ago, there was an incident where I threw up in public in front of my friends and the whole food court at my local shopping centre (I know, it was absolutely mortifying), so I think that that may have had something to do with this whole thing but when that happened, I actually did have a stomach bug so it wasn't prompted by anxiety.

I feel sick whenever I'm anxious now and it's getting worse and worse... I'm getting increasingly anxious about literally everything and getting that horrible nauseous feeling all the time when I really don't have much to be anxious about. I have always been a big pessimist, worrier and overthinker but it has never been this bad. People tell me that it's because I am at a stressful time of my life (teenage years) but I just feel like none of my friends have it. I actually had to take two days off school this week because I felt so bad. I'm going to see a psychologist next week but as negative as it sounds I don't think what they're gonna do is gonna work/help because I've seen psychologists before and they always recommend like writing your worries down and stuff which never works in getting rid of or helping with the sick feeling. I don't know what to do anymore and I feel like it is taking over my life so I would really appreciate some help :(

Joely

Hey Joely,

Welcome to the forums and thank you for being here and reaching out. I'm sorry that you're struggling with all this and I can see why it would be so awful after throwing up in public :(

I think that what's happening is related to that because your brain is kind of like "eh, I feel nauseas and I threw up in public, so I might do that again", when in reality lots of the time we feel nauseas with anxiety and don't throw up - and the only reason that you threw up was because you had a stomach bug. Does that make sense to you? Anxiety always makes us worry and overthink and put us on high alert - even if it doesn't always make sense, so it's a tricky thing to cope with.

Maybeee the idea behind writing the worries down was around helping some of those automatic thoughts around worry and overthinking. Often if we can tackle the worries and initial thoughts, then it doesn't have to lead to those bodily responses like feeling sick.

One thing that you could do is tell all of this to the psychologist you see. Let them know what's worked and not worked in the past. That way they can try different things to figure out what might help you the most.

Hope this helps

Hi romantic_thi3f,

Thank you SO much for your reply and sorry for the late response.

It's weird... my anxiety has been coming and going recently. A couple weeks ago, when I wrote this post, it was REALLY bad, like going to school and doing very simple things was an issue, like I mentioned. Last week was a little better, I was still massively stressed but it definitely wasn't as bad as the week before. This week, it seems to be a lot better but still there obviously.

I find that if I start to think about how much schoolwork I have to do or about things that make me anxious or just like all the negative in life I get worked up and get into this like worry cycle where I think about it, start to worry about it and then keep worrying and worrying about it and end up worrying about worrying, if you know what I mean.

I'm going to see a psychologist today to talk about things so I'm hoping that will help... I'm going to tell them absolutely everything like you advised.

Again, thank you so much for your reply... you don't know how much better it makes me feel having someone to talk to. I mean, I do talk to my Mum about it and tell her everything because we are really close but I still feel like there are some things she doesn't understand, she always tells me to just 'stop worrying' and to 'try to be positive' and goes on about my attitude and stuff which I get but I don't think she understands how hard it is for me to actually do that. So, thank you.

If you have any tips on how to stop worrying about stuff, overthinking everything, and to just deal with it like everyone else seems to and to stop finding the negative in everything, please let me know as I would give anything to make this all go away. :(

Joely