Anxiety Advice
Hey, Everybody. This is my first post and i’d appreciate any advice you can give. For context; I have been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Separation anxiety, and bipolar depression and I am also 22 years old and a Female. I notice that I get derealization quite often, and when it happens I get panic attacks. I don’t know how to explain it, but everything feels fake. I don’t necessarily feel unsafe, I just feel like I am not me and the world I am living in is fake. My therapist has told me that sometimes people go through derealization as a coping mechanism, like it’s not even something that you purposely do or know you do. Anyways, I never used it get this problem, but I get derealization and then panic attacks when I eat out at a restaurant. It only happens when I am in a sit down restaurant. I have gone out of my way to avoid going out to eat, even with my in-laws. I tried to think about what could be making it happen, and I genuinely can’t figure it out. I’ve taken into thought that maybe being around my in-laws causes anxiety. Although i’d like to think this is true, I know it’s not. I have gone on vacations with them, spent holidays with them, and I’ve gone out to eat with them multiple times. I don’t feel unsafe or nervous around them ever. And, again, this is a fairly recent occurrence. I would say it started happening within the past 2-3 months. I am actually supposed to go out to eat with my in-laws this friday and it’s already been rescheduled once, so don’t want to reschedule again. I guess this is kind of me venting, but the main question I am asking is how do you guys cope with this? Also, has anything happened to you or have you ever felt this way?