I just wanted to introduce myself and say hi! What a wonderful site this is. I have been lurking here and been so reassured by all of your posts and even though this is obviously incredibly tough for us I am inspired that we KEEP TRUCKING! We are awesome! To be on this journey with the highly sensitive nervous systems we have been blessed/cursed with is really something isn't it? And now comes peri to really ratchet things up...

Anyway, I hope I can be of support and help to anyone who is also suffering. I am a panic disorder/anxiety sufferer and survivor since my early 20s and am now in peri at 43 and doing some empty nest stuff that set it all off big time so I GET IT.

Welcome to the best support site for meno there is. yes, it is a rough journey and so many women here have been my life support for the past two years. Thanks for the offer to help anyone and hopefully you will feel support when you need it too.

Have a great day.

Welcome! Seems like you have a pretty positive attitude. I so want to get back there too. I've had anxiety since my early 20's too, now I'm 41 and it's come back full force over the past year after many years of being non existant to manageable. I'm grateful to anyone who can offer hope and encouragement.

Hi getreal welcome to the site i am also a anxiety sufferer for many many years . And alot of us are. You will find lots of support here and allkinds of different topic and articles to read. Hugs Terry

Thanks ladies! I am having a great day, having only had cancer once this morning! LOL! Y'all know what I mean. I have recently found a formula that might help others. I find that with anxiety and peri symptoms in general I have to live with the principle of "acceptance" and "action" in order to have the quality of life I so want. What that means to me is that I absolutely ACCEPT what is happening, especially if I don't like it and can't control it -- right down to my thoughts, sensations, etc. and then I ask myself "what ACTION can I take?" And then I do whatever that is -- make a dr. appt. or take a walk, or breathe, or sleep, or (the best one) distract myself or whatever else is possible. If no action is possible then I sit with that since there is NOTHING I can do anyway.

I really like this formula so far, but have only had a couple of weeks of practice with it. I have also recently started a very mellow beginners yoga class (after years of knowing I "should" but being too overwhelmed/anxious to try) and I gotta say, it DOES help. I can see why it has been around 1000s of years.

Anyway, try this "accept and act" idea and let me know what you think!

I have been doing a little bit of that type of thinking too. A couple of weeks ago we had to do a little traveling, so that of course brings on the anxiety! We were in one of those really crowded rest area type places, the ones that have the huge food court, and a bizillion people. So I'm walking through with my tense feelings, trying to "fight" it and then I just thought to myself "I guess I'll just have to have this feeling, what choice do I have? What am I going to do, throw myself down on the floor and starting writhing around and pounding my fists? No, I have to walk though here with this weird feeling in my body, go to the bathroom, then walk out again." I had no choice in the matter I just had to have the feeling, whether I wanted it or not. At that moment I had no choice, I just had to live with it. After I got back in the car I felt pretty good!

That is right on -- that sounds like a breakthrough to me! That idea that "oh well, I feel this so it is what it is" is really pretty powerful because what characterizes us is that we are in a huge battle with every weird we feel. I have noticed that "normal" people I know have a lot of the same sensations but to them it is more of an "oh well" thing and they are thus able to move on. Another thing I tell myself is "Let it go" which sorta works. I think the idea of taking action helps us because that is what we are instinctively trying to do -- to save ourselves from something. So if I realize that I have done everything I know to do and still a weird persists, then I do that "oh well, guess I feel weird" and it can help.

Hugs to everybody as we go into a new week!