Worry too much/anxiety over silly things, anyone else?

April 28, 2017

Lately (for the last year) I've had anxiety over the most ridiculous things.

A few examples:

1) A few weeks ago one of my PC monitors ( I have 3 of them) stopped working but was showing up in Display Settings as "disconnected". Trying to extend/reconnect the Displays hit me with a message saying "the Display Settings could not be saved". The monitor would work with HDMI/DVI, just not DP. Eventually the issue was resolved by going into the monitors input menu selecting DP and then selecting "make this my main display" at the same time. Then Windows picked up the monitor again.

But it now I always think back to that and think things like "what if that was my only monitor, how would I be able to access Windows? How would I have solved that issue? What would I have done? What if I hadn't thought about the solution I did and ended up scrapping the monitor?". A bunch of questions like that go around my head and I get really anxious incase something like that happened in the future.

2) Another example is watching old movies or thinking of the past. I can't watch a movie or TV show from like 2013 for example as I get anxious and think about my life when I was 23 (which wasn't bad, just thinking about tha past makes me feel weird).

That's about it (I left out other details) and as you can see - it's pretty dumb. It started around a year ago and I'm not sure how to take my mind off of overthinking these type of things. Any ideas?

Andreas Lilja · April 28, 2017

Consult a shrink.

RuffRuffmcgruff · April 28, 2017

I try to deal with thoughts/feelings by adding a bit of context, it might sound extreme but by telling yourself, "Well I could be a child soldier in Sierra Leone" It definately makes you not worry about the little things.

Put it like this, we've only existed for a minute amount of time in this universe. It didn't care when we weren't alive and it doesn't care now, so why care yourself

Have a good day friend and remember, no half measures.

bdc9898 · April 29, 2017

I've dealt pretty closely with anxiety in the past few years, and what Raskolnikov said really kind of hit the nail on the head for what worked for me. I still chat with friends about my experiences and things that are currently bothering me, but my biggest help was finding a professional counselor and some drugs that helped. It won't come quick, It took me about 8 prescriptions and 4 counselors to find what worked for me.

As for right now (or if that isn't really an option), it boils down to something called 'self talk' and immediate damage control. When you find yourself really starting to breakdown, take yourself somewhere calm. Think of your favorite place in the whole wide world and imagine yourself there. Take deep breaths. In through the nose, and out through the mouth. Make em slow, deep, and meaningful. After you've calmed down you then worry about what got you there. Here is a good link I found explaining what self talk is and how learning to control it can help: http://au.reachout.com/what-is-self-talk . Write down what you hear yourself think, write down what the other side would be, then stick with the good.

Like I said man, I've dealt with this pretty closely, so feel free to keep replying or DM me or whatever and I'll see if I can help. You've got great potential and worth my dude.