Coping with GAD (Generalized anxiety disorder)

[marshmalloww]

Im feeling very high stress amd anxious and figured it would help to just share. I've started therapy and working with a psychiatrist and have been diagnosed with GAD. I always thought that it was normal that I have always been tense and that the pressure in my chest always sat heavy and my ever racing mind were just normal. 

I felt crazy when I started fluoxetine because all of the sudden I was calm for the first time and then sad that I had never experienced that before. Since starting therapy and working through some trauma, im experiencing higher anxiety and with work stress I notice my shoulders are up to my ears. I find it frustrating  and enlightening to have this label.

I think what throws me off is being a very serious decision making person throughout my work life and still feeling like world crashing around me over random small things. Then having decision fatigue when I get home.

It exhausting. Has anyone experienced this as you've worked through your own stuff. How do you tough it out and still be kind to yourself? 

Edited December 10 by marshmalloww

[NickyMoon]

I don't have this but my twin does (I got the Persistent Depressive Disorder from my mom and he got her GAD). I asked him your question of "How do you tough it out and still be kind to yourself?" and his answer was "You don't. Sometimes you just have to feel it and not be tough in order to be kind to yourself". I know for him a big help has been channeling that anxiety after work into something creative. Lately he has been sewing but before that it was poetry and making bracelets. Pretty much anything that doesn't require serious decision making and lets him focus on something else. It sounds like you are doing the work by doing therapy and recognizing when your anxiety is building though. Just remember to make space for yourself to not be perfect and to feel your feelings. We are all here to remind you how awesome you are when you need reminding 🫶

[marshmalloww]

On 12/10/2025 at 10:29 AM, NickyMoon said:

I don't have this but my twin does (I got the Persistent Depressive Disorder from my mom and he got her GAD). I asked him your question of "How do you tough it out and still be kind to yourself?" and his answer was "You don't. Sometimes you just have to feel it and not be tough in order to be kind to yourself". I know for him a big help has been channeling that anxiety after work into something creative. Lately he has been sewing but before that it was poetry and making bracelets. Pretty much anything that doesn't require serious decision making and lets him focus on something else. It sounds like you are doing the work by doing therapy and recognizing when your anxiety is building though. Just remember to make space for yourself to not be perfect and to feel your feelings. We are all here to remind you how awesome you are when you need reminding 🫶

Y'know, I have the hardest time just accepting it. But I know that's the truth. Its feel harder sometimes. Its a slow process but im working on it! I appreciate you and your twin! 

[MasterPhotog]

On 12/9/2025 at 11:53 PM, marshmalloww said:

Im feeling very high stress amd anxious and figured it would help to just share. I've started therapy and working with a psychiatrist and have been diagnosed with GAD. I always thought that it was normal that I have always been tense and that the pressure in my chest always sat heavy and my ever racing mind were just normal. 

I felt crazy when I started fluoxetine because all of the sudden I was calm for the first time and then sad that I had never experienced that before. Since starting therapy and working through some trauma, im experiencing higher anxiety and with work stress I notice my shoulders are up to my ears. I find it frustrating  and enlightening to have this label.

I think what throws me off is being a very serious decision making person throughout my work life and still feeling like world crashing around me over random small things. Then having decision fatigue when I get home.

It exhausting. Has anyone experienced this as you've worked through your own stuff. How do you tough it out and still be kind to yourself? 

@marshmalloww  Thank you so much for sharing this, it takes a lot of courage to put words to something that feels so heavy and confusing. What you’re describing makes so much sense, and you’re definitely not alone in this.

That moment of realizing “oh… this isn’t how everyone feels” can be both relieving and deeply painful. Feeling calm for the first time and grieving the years you didn’t have that is a very real and valid response. Nothing about that makes you crazy, it makes you human and aware.

It’s also incredibly common for anxiety to spike when you start therapy and begin working through trauma. You’re loosening long-held coping mechanisms and your nervous system is learning new ways to exist, which can feel overwhelming and exhausting. The shoulders-up-to-your-ears feeling is such a familiar sign of how much your body has been carrying for so long.

Being competent, decisive, and high-functioning at work while feeling undone by “small” things at home is something so many people with GAD experience. It doesn’t mean you’re weak or inconsistent, it means you’re using a tremendous amount of energy to hold things together during the day. Decision fatigue is real, and it’s okay to need softness and simplicity when you get home.

Accepting the label can feel frustrating, enlightening, and grief-filled all at once. That tension you’re feeling around acceptance is part of the process, not a failure of it. You’re learning how to meet yourself with more honesty than you ever had space to before.

As for “toughing it out,” many people find that the real shift comes when they stop trying to be tough and start practicing gentleness instead, letting rest be productive, letting emotions exist without fixing them, and speaking to themselves the way they would to someone they love. Progress isn’t linear, and the days that feel harder don’t erase the work you’re doing.

You’re doing something incredibly hard, and you’re doing it thoughtfully and bravely. Please know that many of us have walked this path and recognize exactly what you’re describing. Be patient with yourself, healing is slow because it’s deep. And you’re already moving forward, even on the days it doesn’t feel like it. Keep up the good work and best wishes!💛
 

[RoseyLittle]

There’s no words I can add to the group wisdom here which is so beautiful - so I just wanted to take a moment and just let you know what a gladiator you are. And not from a place of toughing it out, we are sometimes our most courageous when we our vulnerable and when we allow ourselves grace and compassion. You are being so brave and kind to yourself.
 

A colleague once showed a spoken word poem about anxiety group by Catalina Ferro (hilariously in our group therapy program) and it always stuck with me even years and years later. The reminder that the crushing driving force behind anxiety is the desire to be okay, to live, to be accepted, to do a good job, to be safe. And the way those who walk with it in their every single day are such warriors.

I’ve put it in a spoiler box because it has swear words in it, and dark humour in terms of anxiety, therapy, and other various mental health struggles. So I wanted folks to have trigger warning on that. But it’s also powerful at the end. ♥️
 

Spoiler