Dealing with anxiety/mood swings and stress daily

Hello there,

I’ve been with MS for 1,5 year.

In terms of relapses, it is now under control after the medication change, however these weird undescribable feelings of anxiety mixed with anger then joy remain.

Some moments I feel energetic and can do most of the things, but majority of time it even feels painful to do things, or meet with people. Sometimes I get a feeling that I want to scream into a pillow, that all this is too much.

How do you deal with this?

Hi, I’m glad your relapses are under control. I get overcome by daily stress and anxiety sometimes as I had a traumatic first experience with MS. I meditate twice a day and do yoga to keep anxiety and stress low. I am having high impact CBT sessions currently, it helps me change the way I think about things. I also do tai chi for balance, depression and anxiety. I feel all these help me a lot.

Hi, Its not long since you have been diagnosed it doe’s get better,I was diagnosed 3 years ago I would get mad,tearful,swear and curse and have terrible mood swings I was a right cow don’t how my husband put up with me, but now it is better I still get days when I’m mad but its not days like before you do get sort of use to it, its not easy but you cope better, it is still early days for you, I do Taichi, meditation which really helps, try to do things you enjoy.

all the best Sue

Thanks a lot for the advice. Now once you said it I realize it hasn’t been long since the diagnosis (although the symptoms came way before that is why it looks so long time ago :D). I will need to check Tai-chi, sounds interesting. Yoga, breathing exercises make me nauseous, so these are out of the picture. Do any of you use medications from anxiety? Depression? I feel like during the hot weather my anxiety and stress becomes more difficult to handle.

Hi this is the 8 minute tai chi exercise I do, on youtube.

I don’t use any anxiety or depression meds.

Lenney - thank you so much for posting that. Just what I needed. It’s made me feel a lot better after doing it just once! I’m book marking that so I can do it again tomorrow.

J xxx

Hi ICEland - I’m not dealing with it at all well myself at the moment - diagnosed just over 4 years ago. However these bad periods don’t last forever and the majority of the time I cope OK. Find things that help, it may be medication or distraction or comforting or exercise - I’ve just tried the tai chi link that Lenney posted and it helped me calm down straight away.

It’s helpful to say to yourself that these feelings will pass and actively look for ways of helping yourself feel better.

All the best - J

Hello all,

Realised there is one other “ingredient in the cake” - anger. Do anyone of you experience it as well? Feels like i wish to scream on everyone at my work, to the point where it is almost painful to interact with people.

Hi there - yep - I always have struggled at times with my mental well being(since MS diagnosis) - i have taken cipralex when i was really down but am not on any medication at the minute apart from 5HTP (natural mood booster) however this time of the year, I can feel myself starting to struggle and am talking myself out of anxiety - sometimes I think the stupidest of things and dwell on bad things that happened me over 25 years ago and I wish I could stop but it’s not easy, feels like a bit of SAD. I was hurt in a relationship and never really got over it to be honest even though I married the same girl and we have been happy for over 25 years now - doesn’t make sense but I can’t help it unfortunately - i makes my stomach churn…seek help - its out there…and on here…

Hi Iceland after 12yrs on our towns Lifeboat i came away with anxeity/mood swings depression etc , at the time the ms lay un diagnosed as this was 12yrs before they said oops its MS not Parkinsons or Dystonia, anyhows i was one moody so and so and angry all the time and hated leaving our house for anything this in turn fed the issue making it worse and grow in inteensity then 1 day after a night of nightmares and memories i broke down and hit the bottom big time, so i asked for help and thats exactly what i got , some superb therapy catered for my problems and i was diagnosed with PTSD , its a fight im figting everydaay to keep the memories and flash backs at bay, i freaked out in the hyrdotherapy pool as i was back on that boat with the sun shinning through the windows anhd with vision only in 1 eye now it sent me right back, i know very little above in my message relates to MS but my point is ask for help its there and unlike me you wont be letting it pile up until the last straw effect, hope your okay and they help you my friend all the best

respect sheep p.s. the hardest part is the asking for help

Guys, thank you so much for your responses, it is indeed a bit of a relief that this kind of anger is “normal” between people with MS. the fact is that i get medicine (seroxat), plus medicine from MS, but there are moments where i feel i don’t know what to do anymore. i had a huge bathroom fright, to the point of panic attacks (the doctors said it is because of depression and feeling suppressed into small place). now i put a radio on when i take showers, but still trying to get out of there as soon as possible :slight_smile:

i noticed that the mood swings, anger are somehow related to day-to-day events. as Redman pointed out - relationships can also trigger emotions (but for me, i guess due to MS, these emotions go ten times stronger!).

anxiety comes whenever it wants to. now it’s a good month of “silence” (however i already had a relapse in between).

would it be the talking that can make some of those things clear?

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