Severe Anxiety

Hello. I am 13 years old. For about 6 or 7 months, I have been having a fear of my breathing just stopping out of nowhere. More recently, I have also been thinking about dying and I am very scared that I do not have much more time to live. I have NEVER had any severe medical issues. I am currently seeing a psycologist about once a month. This seems to be helping a bit. I am also on Luvox, recently changed from 50mg to 100mg. PLEASE HELP!

[soehler]

Have you shared these concerns with your psychologist?  I would strongly urge you to do so if you have not already.  The only way your psychologist will be able to help you is if you are honest with him or her.  You mentioned that you have been thinking about dying.  Do you have any thoughts or plans of harming yourself?  Have you ever tried to hurt yourself in the past?

[mammo]

Hi there.  Although your fears are real to you, it is only anxiety playing tricks with your mind.  The more you worry about these things the worse your anxiety will get!  Try to stay busy with things you enjoy, hang out with your friends, stay busy mentally and physically.  The busier you stay the less time you have to worry about these things.  Be sure to let your psychologist know about your fears.  With anxiety we can become obcessed over certain things, and this is what has happened to you.  You are young and healthy and have a long life ahead of you, please don't worry it away!  You haven't stopped breathing yet, and you truly won't.  Just stay aware that this is your anxiety messing with you, and that worrying about it is keeping your anxiety going strong.  I think your medication will help as well as your psychologist, so hang in there.  Know you're not alone, we hear from a lot of teens.  I can promise you that neither of these things will happen to you, now you work on believeing this....okay?  You're going to be fine, and try journaling your feelings as well, this does help us.  You can talk to us anytime, we understand and care.  Start working on believing that these fears are just that, and these things will not happen to you.  Big hugs to you, you're going to be just fine!

[sgately11]

Hi Cwild,

My Panic Disorder, GAD, and OCD (obsessive compulsive thinking on health) kicked into high gear around your age. I had always felt "weird" but 12 or 13 was the official start. This is what I learned, you can waste a ton of time worrying about each feeling you have, researching each disease, and the only thing you get out of the worry is more worry. Like mammo said, try and be active, martial arts was my savior from 12-25, it kept me to busy to worry.

Question for you, does panic run in your family? Typically when you get it so young it can be related to genes.