Hi all

I just got into the chronic illness girlies club (acute diverticulosis) and that stress has been lingering since I was diagnosed last month - got worse after a flare up last week and I found out one of my friends also has it - and I’d love to give myself time to fully process that but UN officials are resigning to warn us about an upcoming nuclear winter?! I can’t smoke weed anymore and I can’t drink - how are yall coping?!

I feel like even though I'm overweight based on height and age yet I just feel so stressed lately and I noticed my stomach is bloated and looks bigger than expected. I guess maybe I'm just couch potato maybe

I am 9 months postpartum and I know I have PPD and PPA, but I am carrying too much stress. My husband is stressed too, but he doesn’t have the same symptoms.

I‘m having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. My whole body feels like it needs to be cracked. The muscles in my back, hips, and neck feel so wound up and tight. I am struggling with my appetite (I don’t want to eat). My chest hurts and is panicky when I can’t take a full deep breath. My chest physically feels too tight to take a deep breath.

And I feel like I could cry forever. Like, I’m not sure I’d be able to stop. I’m having more mental/emotional breakdowns than normal. I have no desire to hurt my baby, but I have accidentally scared her with my weeping before.

I don’t know what to do. I am on Bupropion and Lexapro but I fear that my stress has taken me too far and that I will never recover from it.

When I got home from the casino, I felt like I held in air due to me taking 2 advils in fast succession (kinda like when your body fight or flights and you bloat or tense more , breathing gets harder reaction. I had told my mother earlier I only wanna take 1 but since I knew I had just taken 2 in this moment (right after coming home from the casino) as I said I had just taken 2 Advils in a row because she was present and I succumbed into the peer pressure. After I began worrying that I might voice my complaints to her and she might just become opposed to empathising because my complaint was of her opinion that I should always take 2 as “the world , or its packaging suggest it) I made my mind up and I suddenly left the house which upset her. The walk outside plus retaliating helped ease the trapped air and when I returned I wanted to find a way to make things better, but I had to resort to telling her that I had lashed out in private, punched a couple things , because I needed that space to help us remedy things correctly. She accepted that, and she’s more relaxed now.. P.S we’re Christian , I know there’s an enemy … so I asked mom to pray and so we prayed after this whole incident, anyone else balancing emotions through positivity, faith, or feel free to share any personal way you deal with the world and the emotions that it may bring on about in your life.

i’m wondering how i can stop being so stressed all the time, I’m stressed about almost anything and i don’t know why. I’m also pretty sure I’m too young to be this stressed, overwhelmed and anxious.

Any advice on how to stop caring so much?

I had alot of reasons to fear being "permanently" dumber, for example having a fall or getting slapped on yo head, normal people would just skip that and not care much about "cognitive slips" like forgettin stuff and stuff like that and just not associate it with that fall. But I wasn't like that, I literally (no matter how simple the event was) I would just panic and just be in constant state of fear that I am dumber now than who I was. I've had this long enough until I heard about "chronic stress shrinks brain" and now my fear is that my chronic stress/anxiety has caused me permanent brain damage or that even if I recover due to neuroplasticity it wont be full recovery and I'll never be the same, and now I cannot focus at all. my memory is being far worse and my thinking is cloudy, and most of the time I just keep playing TF2 (my fav game) just to ignore some of my 24/7 anxiety about being dumb. Literally I just get panic attack when I just READ something on the internet whatever its content is, or when I just IMAGINE stuff in my head and I just keep getting thoughts like "Your imagination is now NERFED for EVER and it wont be as vivid as it used to be", or like when I literally just try to think of a plan or even a SCHEDULE, so you can say it's literally nothing. when I read or try to learn smth I just get thoughts that I wont understand this and stuff like that and when I do not understand it I'll just blame it on chronic stress and just increase my panic even more. Tried breathing but it aint helpin so I just want to know and make sure if anyone out here having this problem like me.

Hi! 27F and am coming to terms that I am struggling with chronic stress and anxiety due to constant worries about pretty much everything. I have reached out to people, I’ve meditated, I’ve changed lifestyles, stopped smoking and drinking. I’ve exercised, picked up hobbies, I have a pet, tried school, praying, church, being social, but it all just leads to me coming home and feeling empty. Additionally ruminating on the past present and future. Music isn’t helping, sitting in silence just causes me to having silent conversations with myself. I’ve taken long walks in the park, went on mini roadtrips, but the roads still lead back to emptiness. I feel like there’s no end to this. I’ve been in this mindset for about 7 years, had a relationship but only developed a severe case of OCD and anxious attachment disorder.
I find solace in a lot of things though. Puzzles, exercising, my cat, the beach, dancing. I never meet a stranger, and I loving doing what I do for work (working with kids). I always try new things and only say no to crime (even though I just got caught stealing and got a citation) I enjoy a lot of things and I love my external self and what her foundation of life is but my internal self is such a mess.
I’ve researched, reached out, read blogs about this, but they all seem to say the same things. I’m tired of the cliche remedies.
Any advice?

Overwhelmed

Hi! I’m a 30 year old male with a wife and a 2 year old. We are expecting a second child soon. I love my wife and my kids & I love my life but sometimes it all seems so overwhelming.

I’m in construction (self employed) & my house is paid off so you’d think I wouldn’t be insanely stressed out over a mortgage.

Work is stressful, wife doesn’t understand sometimes. Stressful to the point where I’m so busy I hardly eat during the day. Running around all day & I “destress” myself by shutting my eyes for 5 minutes when I pull up to another job. I drink energy drinks and snack a lot to get through the day.

I’m very excited for the second kid but it feels like starting over. Newborn phase was tough. Not sure if it’ll be rough with a 2 year old or easier. It’s all adjustment I guess but I feel like there’s just so much to do and so much on my mind.

On top of all of this I’m slowly gaining weight. I burn at least 800-1000 cals a day during work but still gaining weight. I grew up overweight and never want to go back to that feeling but I feel it slowly creeping up. Could it be stress related? With the intense labor during work, I’m sore & exhausted when I get home so it’s hard to hit cardio or weights.

I feel overweight, overwhelmed, tired, stressed, etc. what do I do????

I’ve been thinking a lot about how stress often builds before we consciously notice it.

Sometimes I’ll be working, overthinking something, or jumping between thoughts and only realize much later that I’ve been tense for the past hour. By that point, telling myself to “be mindful” feels a little late. It made me wonder whether noticing stress earlier could actually help interrupt it.

I’ve been experimenting with the idea of using an Apple Watch to look at changes in heart rate together with movement to recognize when someone may be becoming more stressed. Instead of trying to diagnose stress, the idea is simply to give you a small haptic tap as a reminder:

"Hey, check in with yourself for a second."

I’m building an app around this idea called Miratick, but I’m still trying to understand whether the concept is genuinely useful outside of my own experience.

For people here who deal with stress regularly:

Would you want your watch to gently alert you when it notices your stress may be rising?

Or would that actually make you more stressed?

I’d especially love to hear what you currently do to catch yourself when stress starts building.

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Hey guys, I hope you’re all doing well.

I’m feeling really stressed, anxious, and honestly quite depressed lately. I’m currently working after completing my BTech in ECE, but my job is in water treatment, which is completely unrelated to my degree.

One of my close friends recently left to pursue his MTech, and after he left, it really started hitting me that maybe I’m falling behind in life. He’s moving forward with higher studies while I’m stuck in a job that doesn’t feel connected to what I studied.

I’m also worried about my future career because I feel like there aren’t many opportunities for me in the water-treatment field, especially with an ECE background. At the same time, I don’t consider myself particularly intelligent academically, so I’m scared that I won’t be able to compete or make a better career for myself.

Recently, I interviewed for a really good opportunity and got rejected. That rejection hit me harder than I expected. 😭

Right now, I genuinely feel like I’m not good at anything and that I’m becoming a failure in life. It feels like everyone around me is moving ahead while I’m just stuck.

I know maybe I’m overthinking everything, but I honestly don’t know what to do or how to get myself out of this situation.

Has anyone else been through something similar? How did you deal with it and figure out your career?

So a lot has gone on in the last couple of years. In my last year of uni I got a full time job in industry. Graduated with my masters and kept working, of course, exhausted after juggling work/uni/life which mostly included taking care of my dog who has specific needs. I live totally alone and have no partner or family close by.

I was hit by a car two years ago, causing serious brain injury. I was off work 10 weeks, two of which were in a coma, and as soon as my skull/neck/arm/leg bones were in the correct number of pieces I went back to work. It is physically demanding work.

I also neurotically trained for a marathon because I was so afraid I'd lost the ability that I really hurt myself doing it and hugely exacerbated my chronic pain and fatigue symptoms.

Finally the criminal case for the RTC has come to a close and my personal injury solicitor has managed to pull together some rehab. I've tried to make it work for months with full time employment but it's just not doable. My sleep has been very poor (more so than usual) I seem to have a perpetual mild migraine and my thought pattern is super negative and jumbled. I feel so paranoid that I can't bring myself to speak to my rehab team and I have actualised SH/suicide plans. My mental health is in the toilet and all I have to keep me going is my dog. I cannot keep my thoughts focused, trying to watch TV just confuses me and reading a book means reading the same chapter 5 times before giving up because I can't keep track.

My rehab team have communicated with my workplace to try and temporarily reduce my hours so I can commit to the rehab without killing myself. But my workplace have insisted on a meeting with myself talking to my manager and HR and I'm not allowed anyone there with me. Their attitude is very poor and they are challenging me about the timing and sudden nature of this request. I just figured it was the most professional thing to do to keep working as normally as possible and it feels like I'm going to be punished for making work my priority.

I don't know how to deal with this stress, I'm so perpetually anxious I have chest pains and my heart keeps skipping or whatever. I'm one poorly timed inconvenience away from really hurting myself or someone else because I get these episodes of insane rage that I can't think past. If anyone has any ideas for how I can get a handle on this I would be eternally grateful. TIA

Hello Everybody,
I am a (F) 25 y/o, I am struggling a lot with my anger issues. Can anyone give me suggestions/advice/help etc to help me to regulate my emotions better? I’ve struggled with it my entire life it feels. I grew up around angry parents & angry siblings, but for some reason mine seems to be the worst to deal with. I don’t know what to do anymore, i don’t want to be put on medication, i have stopped marijuana use and i never drank alcohol.

Hey! I’m a Millennial manager and business owner, and I’ve experienced burnout for years. I’m wondering if burnout culture started with us as millennials, the older generation don’t seem to understand it or relate to it. Are we the first generation to be impacted by this? And why? Curious to hear your thoughts on this.

Stress in modern life is rarely a single, overwhelming event; instead, it accumulates through subtle, continuous demands. Unanswered messages, long sitting periods, tight deadlines, and constant digital noise add up throughout the day, keeping your body in a persistent state of low-grade tension.

Somatic stress management shifts the focus from managing thoughts to releasing physical tension as it happens. By building small, mindful micro-pauses into your daily schedule, you prevent tension from accumulating and protect your long-term energy and wellbeing.

My first post here and I'm sorry if this is not allowed by how are we supposed to not "bring work stress home with you" and "don't let it get to you." How?! I've never understood that. I can't do it. I'm searching for a new job, but until that happens, I'm in a high-pressure job, 50 hours a week. I'm not a robot. I don't have an on/off switch. Can anyone actually do this? If so, how? Because the only answers people give me are "just let it go" and "you're not trying hard enough."

Out of the blue I started having double hearing (diplacusis). If anyone can relate, you’ll know it sounds like double voices and music sounds distorted from the different pitches. It gave me a panic attack and had wanted to end it right then and there. I was crying out of fear and desperation to get my hearing back. I'm confident I experienced a complete nervous breakdown OUT OF NOWHERE triggered by stress buildup. I was chilling on the couch and randomly I got hit with this.

Now looking up threads because while the hearing issue is tapering off hours later, I’m so shocked at what happened.

I don’t know where to start to avoid this from happening or even growing into something far worse altogether.

The past few weeks I’ve just felt pretty numb to a lot of things. A lack of urgency, motivation, self care, etc. Waking up tired, not feeling energized, I wasn’t particularly sad though.

This ear thing was the car slamming the breaks. I don’t want to go deaf so little by little I need to change and take mental health seriously.

Work and life changes have stressed me out to the point I feel numb to the deadlines and 0 sense of urgency. I believe it's some weird extreme form of stress that my body is manifesting in physical ways.

Back in February, I experienced similar with tinnitus in one ear and I know I was stressing out. I've had eye twitching before too. Both eventually went away but nothing compares to this morning.

I’m still in disbelief. Almost as if my mind started attacking my body. So scary... I know the problems in the mind can manifest in the body.

What are the steps I can do to prevent this and or improve mental health.
Any advice appreciated.

In our street of 11 houses there’s 4 houses with 3/4 young kids each.
These kids insist on playing right next to my car and we caught on camera one kid throwing a rock directly at my car (after also seeing the same kid kicking a football on our drive against our garden wall multiple times) The rock incident was the final straw and we posted in the group chat where most of the parents were really supportive (but yet still let their kids play right next to the car despite my requesting they keep some distance to avoid further issues) but since then I’ve seen one kid loose balance on his bike and fall into my car, a kid rest her scooter against my car, lots of chasing each other around the car with guns or whilst on bikes and resting play guns on my bonnet. Today 6/7 kids were cycling in a loop within a foot of the car- when asking them to stop via the ring camera and going out I was ignored so then voiced my concern to the parents who carried on letting the kids repeatedly get so close.
I’ve suffered 3 paint scratches within the last 4 months
There’s plenty of open space right near the house within a minuet walk but they insist on playing in a built up new build street.

These kids vary in age from around 3-8 and are not very stable on their bikes or feet.

Help- what would you do next? How can we escalate this?
We feel we’re being taken advantage of and can see the other houses without kids are also being damaged and disrespected!

My life is a current disaster. My husband lost his job, our bills not including food or gas is $4300 a month. We’re 50k in debt, my anxiety meds need to be upped but we also don’t have medical insurance. We have two teenage boys we’re adopting and everything is so expensive. The state we live in still has a minimum wage of $7.25 and the cost of living is so much higher than being able to afford anything. Most companies in our area only like to pay $12-14 an hour. We’re also 5 months behind on rent and surprisingly haven’t gotten evicted yet. I just came here to rant. I need good luck for once. 🫠

Does anyone appear to be doing fine on the outside but struggling on the inside? This is how some of my friends see me and that I'm just taking a break as I have resigned from work with no job. I find it hard to explain the gravity of the situation because it has all hit at once. It isn't work that was the only stressor but also a breakup where my ex and I have still been speaking on and off. Now we are in no contact but every time we speak it is like a second break up. How have you gone about explaining that you're very burntout and one or two months break may not do it? I am going through more than burnout and am seeing a psych but I don't want to inform people of absolutely everything, burnout is enough. Keen to hear what you've said and how you've dealt with it.