Counselling will rarely touch the sides if symptoms are that profound. I’d personally go private if you can: get psychologist who specialises in CBT. They’ll work through something called a ‘formulation’ and start to tease out root cause(s).gremlin wrote: Thu Mar 13, 2025 8:30 pm Had a conversation with the Gremlinette this evening. Her anxiety has become a real issue and there's been falling outs in her house in Manchester, adding to it.
We are currently funding her uni fees, accommodation, etc. but she's virtually housebound by her anxiety, over-thinking, etc and we're thinking it would be better if she finishes her degree here, as in a year and a half she's been to two lectures, has not made any real friends outside the house. Would save us a few quid, but then I feel we're quitting.
Every time she calls these days my heart sinks as I know I'll end up calming her down and telling her to stop crying ,everything will be OK.
The counselling seems to having no discernable effect, our coaxing to join clubs, attend mental health drop-in sessions get met with agreement, but there's always an excuse as to why she didn't go.
Not sure what to do for the best, really.
You can get OTC beta blockers ( or prescribed ones) if you want to keep with GP care. Other medicines are available via different routes- but you might need to force a bit of a leg-up to get the thinking bit to a place where it can focus on addressing how to deal with it.
For anxiety, the reaction is typically behavioural in response to the antecedent. A blunt example: you have a panic attack in a supermarket, you end up avoiding supermarkets and if progressively worse- that’s how phobias can start ( agoraphobia in this example which is quite literally ‘fear of the market place’).
When it gets to these extremes, you’ll look for your escape route to deal with symptoms. A lot of folk use alcohol - some obvious statement here about swapping one thing for another.
Anxiety and depression go together like basil and tomatoes; thriving off each other and need containing. What I’m saying here is the anxiety may be itself the escape for more depressive symptoms. Etc etc etc.
