1191 replies to this topic

[frog]

The worst thing you can do is pile guilt and shame on top of your already many feelings and emotions! There's no shame in having any type of feelings. Feelings are transient, they come and go. It doesn't make you a bad person or a bad dad to be unsure or scared.

 

Anxiety loves company so the second you feel anxious, then you start to feel anxious about feeling anxious, and it just snowballs at breakneck speed. I went through this exercise just a couple weeks ago, and it seems to happen from time to time especially with so much covid-related anxiety already built in. 

 

I know it's hard but instead of focusing on regret or guilt about the baby and going down that avalanche of negative emotion, try to refocus your brain on the potentially positive things no matter how small. Maybe it's decorating a nursery, or maybe it's how excited your daughters will be to find out they have a new little sibling, really any little thing you can think of. You might want to try keeping a gratitude journal to remind you of all the things in your life that are good. Write down maybe 3 things every night. I think fake it til you make it is a tried and true approach. The more you focus on the bad stuff, the more you'll feel like only bad stuff is happening. 

 

I think this has been done on this forum before but we can start a new gratitude thread where we can all post good things in our lives if that would be helpful for anyone

[Mxpro32]

I think my dose might be getting too small for my scale to accurately weigh.  it says I'm down to .3 mg, but the pills look much smaller than a third.  this time I kept scraping some off the pill and it wasn't really changing the value.  I've got crazy physical anxiety symptoms in my body and chest.  I'm even nauseated and my lower gut has been messed up.  is there any way to continue the taper in a controlled way when the pills get so small?

[Mxpro32]

The worst thing you can do is pile guilt and shame on top of your already many feelings and emotions! There's no shame in having any type of feelings. Feelings are transient, they come and go. It doesn't make you a bad person or a bad dad to be unsure or scared.

 

Anxiety loves company so the second you feel anxious, then you start to feel anxious about feeling anxious, and it just snowballs at breakneck speed. I went through this exercise just a couple weeks ago, and it seems to happen from time to time especially with so much covid-related anxiety already built in. 

 

I know it's hard but instead of focusing on regret or guilt about the baby and going down that avalanche of negative emotion, try to refocus your brain on the potentially positive things no matter how small. Maybe it's decorating a nursery, or maybe it's how excited your daughters will be to find out they have a new little sibling, really any little thing you can think of. You might want to try keeping a gratitude journal to remind you of all the things in your life that are good. Write down maybe 3 things every night. I think fake it til you make it is a tried and true approach. The more you focus on the bad stuff, the more you'll feel like only bad stuff is happening. 

 

I think this has been done on this forum before but we can start a new gratitude thread where we can all post good things in our lives if that would be helpful for anyone

 

Yeah.  I think at this point it has totally snowballed.  the anxiety, the guilt, the regret, all of it.  I think i dropped too fast on the klonopin and it set me up for a panic attack, then my wife was less than thrilled at the prospect, which fed my doubt.  then I started to have doubt which fed the anxiety.  then I started to pile on regret, and shame for feeling apprehension and regret.  the stronger that got, the more anxiety the idea gave me.  now I'm literally having terrible anxiety because I'm afraid of the anxiety.  afraid it won't go away and afraid I won't be able to sleep.  terrible anxiety cuts off your rational thinking and multiplies itself.  I know I love this baby because I cry happy tears every time I picture it.  but I'm definitely feeling conflicted emotions.  I'm literally a mess.  I'm crying at every little thing.  I've been going about my life, playing with my kids and trying to picture a baby in the mix and it seems kind of nice.  I'm literally mostly worried about the anxiety and my mental state.  I'm terrified I will still be dealing with this when the challenges of a newborn get here.  

[fishinghat]

If it is the klonopin then it will fade over the next 2 or 3 weeks.

 

We have discussed the weighting of the last small amounts of Cymbalta and haven't come up with a good solution. A person could by an analytical scales like they use in labs but they cost around $1500 to $2000. One thing we use to do when we ran into this problem in field lab work was to weight out something like 1 gram (an amount that the scale could weigh accurately) and then slowly reduce the amount on the scale until it dropped the desired weight, say 0.3 grams. That removed material would then be the desired weight and would be used.

[invalidusername]

Hi MX...

 

Just catching up here and I can see how easily you will feel the way you do. The problem is that the brain wants to fix things all the time so you are looking for something to blame, something that you may have done that could have caused it. All this extra stress is going to exacerbate the situation. Do all you can to live in the now. The clock can rest every day, every hour. Things will improve, but do all you can not to could your way though it. 

 

This is so difficult and I really understand that you would do anything to feel a bit of relief right now. These windows will occur soon enough, and from that very first one, you will start to feel these moments come back, even if it is just for a moment of two. 

 

Trying to navigate myself round some depression looming right behind me ready to pounce. I know why it happened, but I really just need to let it be. The more I concern myself over it, the worse the effects will be. So so tough thou....

 

Wishing you all the very best

 

IUN

[frog]

Yeah.  I think at this point it has totally snowballed.  the anxiety, the guilt, the regret, all of it.  I think i dropped too fast on the klonopin and it set me up for a panic attack, then my wife was less than thrilled at the prospect, which fed my doubt.  then I started to have doubt which fed the anxiety.  then I started to pile on regret, and shame for feeling apprehension and regret.  the stronger that got, the more anxiety the idea gave me.  now I'm literally having terrible anxiety because I'm afraid of the anxiety.  afraid it won't go away and afraid I won't be able to sleep.  terrible anxiety cuts off your rational thinking and multiplies itself.  I know I love this baby because I cry happy tears every time I picture it.  but I'm definitely feeling conflicted emotions.  I'm literally a mess.  I'm crying at every little thing.  I've been going about my life, playing with my kids and trying to picture a baby in the mix and it seems kind of nice.  I'm literally mostly worried about the anxiety and my mental state.  I'm terrified I will still be dealing with this when the challenges of a newborn get here.  

 

This all sounds so wonderful! I can tell you're looking forward to the baby a lot, but you're trying to stop yourself from looking forward to it. Like IUN said, you're feeling bad and your brain is looking for a reason why. For whatever reason though it doesn't seem to look at a med taper as the obvious root cause, which I'm sure it is. It instead seems to attach itself to other emotional matters. 

 

I just tapered off my beta blockers and I did not feel good for the better part of a week every time I dropped. Not panic attack Cymbalta level terrible but noticeably more anxious than pre-taper. And that was just beta blockers! They're not really known to have too much of a brain effect. My psych NP didn't think I needed to taper at all because I was on a low dose. I'm a week completely off now. The anxiety has gone back down. Of course now I'm depressed over the extension of the shelter in place order... sigh. 

[fishinghat]

Congratulations frog. Good job. One less drug to worry about.

[Mxpro32]

My emotions are really strong and really confusing.  I can’t even determine what I feel.  It’s a big ball of sadness, regret, guilt, etc culminating in awful anxiety and crying.  I feel guilty because I think my wife capitulated to the idea of a third because I wanted one so bad.  Now I’ve worked through my issues about missing my kids when they were little and I was ready to move on with our 2 older kids.  Now I can tell she didn’t really want one, and neither do I really, yet here we are.  I feel stupid and have regret because my reason for wanting one was stupid and I had no business making a baby in my current state.  My heart sinks and I have serious regret, shame, and anxiety every time I think of the situation.  This regret and shame feels like the type i will regret forever though.  I imagine it feels like I would feel if I made another big mistake like cheating on my wife and regretted it or something.  Like a big mistake that you can’t take back.  I feel awful that I feel that way.  I’m hoping the meds issue has a lot to do with it, and it turns into a blessing if I manage to straighten myself out.  I’m terrified I won’t straighten myself out though. I was seeing glimmers of hope a while back and I’ve gotten worse since.  

[frog]

Oh Mxpro. It breaks my heart to read your posts

I really think your sensitive emotional state is just getting the best of you right now. It's all still fresh. I don't know if you're still keeping up with meditation (I know I've personally been super bad about it) but maybe try getting back into it to help break the cycle of some of these thoughts. Let yourself be happy about this baby, it sounds like you really want to be, you're just scared of the future. That makes so much sense. The future is unknown and that's so scary! But no matter what happens you will both adapt and you will deal with whatever life throws at you. 

 

If you can allow yourself to let go of some of those negative feelings for a moment and let yourself feel the positive ones, I bet it'll rub off on your wife too. If you're excited it'll spread around. Maybe try saying it out loud a few times! Or when you start having negative thoughts creep in, literally say STOP out loud.

 

I can't imagine how your wife probably feels seeing you full of regret and shame. It probably makes her very scared too. I imagine she's been your rock throughout this withdrawal, now you can be there to lift her up

[Mxpro32]

Oh Mxpro. It breaks my heart to read your posts

I really think your sensitive emotional state is just getting the best of you right now. It's all still fresh. I don't know if you're still keeping up with meditation (I know I've personally been super bad about it) but maybe try getting back into it to help break the cycle of some of these thoughts. Let yourself be happy about this baby, it sounds like you really want to be, you're just scared of the future. That makes so much sense. The future is unknown and that's so scary! But no matter what happens you will both adapt and you will deal with whatever life throws at you. 

 

If you can allow yourself to let go of some of those negative feelings for a moment and let yourself feel the positive ones, I bet it'll rub off on your wife too. If you're excited it'll spread around. Maybe try saying it out loud a few times! Or when you start having negative thoughts creep in, literally say STOP out loud.

 

I can't imagine how your wife probably feels seeing you full of regret and shame. It probably makes her very scared too. I imagine she's been your rock throughout this withdrawal, now you can be there to lift her up

she seems fine with it now, but its obvious she would have preferred not to, even though she was on board when we decided to start trying.  I didn't pressure her into it, but she knew I really wanted to (at the time, ugh).  its unfortunate we came to our decision not to after we were already pregnant.  I don't think either one of us thought it would happen so fast.  it took 2 1/2 years to get pregnant with our first.  I suspect she wanted to try for a while so we could move on without second guessing whether we should have tried for a third, but she didn't really expect it to happen.  the whole thing seems irresponsible and stupid.  its always hard to imagine loving the new baby as much as the kid or kids you already have, but you always do.  Its just a little terrifying how I feel like I am barely hanging in there as it is.  I feel like I barely have anything to give, and it takes a lot of effort to give my son and daughter the attention they need, and soon this little creature that needs everything from me will be here.  I hope I'll be ready.  my sleep has been really hard to come by as it is.  I know we are going to love it so much, but my heart still sinks and I'm overwhelmed with negative emotion every time I think about it.  its gotten better each day, so I'm sure it will be fine soon, especially if I can quit piling on all of the extra guilt I feel for feeling this way.  maybe I'll even be excited by the idea before long.  as far as meditation, I had been letting it slide, but I started up again and I think its already helping.  

[frog]

It sounds like maybe you were both mentally set on the fact that it wasn't going to happen, so the news really came as a shock. I bet if we were to ask you again even a couple months from now, when you've both had a chance to sit with with it for a bit, you'll be feeling very differently about everything. 

 

If this news was happening before you ever went through withdrawal, do you think you would have felt more confident about being able to take this on? If so then I would say that you'll be just fine! You've come such a long way in the last 7 months even though I know that's so easy to forget sometimes. I have to be reminded of it all the time. By the time this baby comes you'll be over a year off. I'm positive you will have made even more progress. As FH says, it can take 2 years for everything to completely heal so there is more improvement on the way. 

 

And of course the forum is always here for you to vent or share feelings you may not want to share with those closest to you

[Mxpro32]

thanks. I appreciate being able to air my feelings.  yeah, we both didn't think there was much of a chance of it happening, and we both decided to pull the plug anyway right before we found out, so ya, it was quite the shock.  I don't think I would feel like this if it wasn't for my super sensitive emotional state and lack of stress tolerance.  I'm barely keeping my head above water anyway lately.  I'm trying to stop second guessing my recovery, because when I do, I really start to lose it.  the world gone crazy is driving me crazy too.  I've been meditating, and trying to push myself to work more and make progress toward something, even though I have no motivation and everything seems meaningless, and it stresses me out to do so.  hopefully accomplishing some things will increase my confidence.  I'm pretty sure a significant portion of what I'm feeling is withdrawal related.  I have this emotional upwelling that turns to anxiety if I try to push it down.  I feel like I need to cry or laugh or possibly both or anxiety becomes overwhelming.  its a very odd emotion that is difficult to define.  

[invalidusername]

Frog - congrats on getting off the BB - great achievement... keep strong!

 

MX - Been keeping up with your posts and really feel for you. It is difficult to read as I have hit a very emotional/depressing point myself, but I sincerely hope that things do clear up for you. Again, everything will be amplified for you, just as I am trying to tell myself during this lockdown. 

 

God Bless you my friend.

[Mxpro32]

Man, I’m really trying to come around to the idea of this new kid, but I feel like I ruined my life.  I know rationally that I’m making a bigger deal of it than it is, but it FEELS like my life is ruined. Like I’ve made a huge mistake.  I try not to think about it and I start feeling better, but it becomes clear the relief I feel is just denial when I think about it and my heart sinks and my anxiety spikes.  I wish it was at least an accident, because it’s even worse to feel like this when you were trying for it.  I feel awful, and I feel even more horrible for feeling this way.  It’s so strange to feel like this when it was nothing but excitement with the first 2.  I think my desire for another baby stemmed from nostalgia.  Having our babies were truly joyful times and I wanted that again.  Now I’m afraid that season has passed and we are old and trying to relive a season of life that was best left in the past.  I’m struggling with feeling old and pessimistic anyway lately.  When I was younger I felt all the best experiences were ahead of me. Now I turned 40 and it feels like my best days are behind me.  It’s gotta be the depression/anxiety and the crazy world being on pause.  I do hope I find a way to quit focusing on my age and find a way to feel young and enjoy being a father to this new baby with optimism.  

[frog]

Age is just a number. A lot of good days are behind you, just as a lot of good days are still ahead, just remember to try to notice them when they're happening  

I haven't received any major life changing news during this quarantine, and I'm younger than you, and I'm still having a hard time imagining good days ahead although somewhere in the back of my head I KNOW they will happen eventually. This is a tough time to try to be positive about the future. Everything feels uncertain. You're not alone in this and you shouldn't feel ashamed for feeling uncertain. We're all just in self preservation mode and stuck in limbo. It really sucks. 

 

Anyway I think no matter what eventually you will reach acceptance, it's just about the pace at which you get there.

[invalidusername]

Now I turned 40 and it feels like my best days are behind me. 

 

Woh! I knew that day would come when someone younger than me says their life is worse having turned 40!! 

 

Frog is right though, it IS just a number. And I know Hat is elusive of his age, but if you knew everything that he has been through at that stage of his life, you would certainly be thinking otherwise. Time is an illusion; it is not real. When we depart these physical plains, it will make sense that we have just put on these human suits to research that which we cannot know otherwise. Just like putting on a space suit and visiting mars!!

 

But again, Frog is right that now is not a good time to be questioning the positive. It is such a tough time that everyone is going through and you have hit is square on a bad patch. I have cracked this weekend - came down with something and was convinced I had liver failure. I hate these bodies sometimes! 

 

Keep coming back here and letting it all out. It is good for you to do that as it will help give it perspective. 

 

Always here for you.

[Mxpro32]

well.  I'm happy to report I'm feeling much better today.  I'm actually excited about the baby, and I'm generally able to see a positive future overall.  I think I might be entering another window (thats the good one right?) for the first time in a long while.  I still woke up after 4-5 hours of sleep with some pretty intense anxiety, and I've had some anxiety throughout the day, but the thought of the new baby doesn't make it worse, and my heart doesn't sink when I think about it.  I'm obviously still a little nervous, but the idea of a family of 5 is starting to feel normal and ok.  I'm not dreading telling our friends as much.  I think most of that dread came from knowing we tried for this, and i'm devastated by it.  I was afraid it would be written on my face and they would think I was an irresponsible idiot.  I want to be happy about it when we tell people we tried for this.  my wife seems like she is happy about it now too.  Hopefully this windows lasts a while, but I'm just happy to have one again.  I paused on my klonopin taper for a week, so that may have something to do with it.  

[frog]

Woohoo! I knew it would happen. Glad to hear you're feeling well and you're coming around on your new future as a quintet! I think as time passes you'll get even more and more excited about it and again I think your attitude and your wife's attitude will mirror each other. If one of you is feeling great about it, the other will too Looking forward to more baby updates down the line!

 

I think any of these tapers have the ability to make us feel worse and when you're consistently tapering, well you're consistently feeling bad. I guess the silver lining is that as you taper you get closer to being off the damn thing for good! But I think a break is due to give you a chance to remember that things are still good underneath all that. 

 

I still feel like I'm on an anxiety rollercoaster for sure. Much of the days I feel fairly solid mentally/emotionally, but it's still all to easy for that anxiety/adrenaline response to rear its head at the slightest hint of anything! And the responses still feel disproportionate to whatever is causing them. I'm hoping in another month I'll look back at today and say wow I can see a difference, and a month from then I can say the same, and so on. 

 

For some reason despite taking my usual sleep med I couldn't sleep at all last night. I feel more anxious and unhappy today. Not a pleasant state when I'm trying to get into the spirit of a shelter-in-place Cinco de Mayo!

[Mxpro32]

yeah, not sleeping well sucks.  what I hate more than not getting enough sleep is that aweful restless anxious feeling I've been waking up with. I actually slept well last night though, other than having to get up twice to pee.  I noticed as I was transitioning from depressed and anxious to feeling better, there was this powerful upwelling of indistinct emotion.  I felt like I needed to cry, laugh, and just freak out with anxiety.  I did all three.  I laughed so hard it hurt, and cried over anything remotely touching.  I tried to just go with it and not fight it and came out the other end feeling much better.  my wife thinks its hilarious to see me so emotional lol.  it felt like it did when my emotional numbness wore off after quitting cymbalta.  like an emotional cast had been removed and everything was overwhelmingly powerful.  I think the klonopin numbed me emotionally again, and the emotions are starting to come back, and they are strong.  I'm trying to go with the flow as I notice the anxiety just builds and builds if I try to push it down or deny it.  I'm hopeful that this means the positive emotions will be around more as well. today my mood isn't as good as it was yesterday, but I know thats the way it goes, and its still not terrible.  I've been meditating every day again and that really helps.  its not intended to relax you or relieve your anxiety, but it has been.  I don't try to make the anxiety go away while I'm doing it, I just let myself feel what I feel, but by doing so the anxiety melts away pretty good.  yesterday when I meditated, I felt the anxiety flaring up, then I started yawning uncontrollably, cried a little, and then felt some relief.  its pretty bizarre.  I feel like I'm back to a point where my anxiety has a reason somewhat.  it feels like the anxiety is caused or at least worsened by denying my emotions now.   

[frog]

i think fighting against the emotions creates stress on our body and brain and the stress makes us feel poorly. That's how it seems sometimes anyway. Similarly sometimes the tears feel like things coming to a head, like a physical release for some pent up stuff and then that aahhhhh sigh of relief after. I haven't had either too bad for some time now but I still have some random times of anxiety or adrenaline (hard to tell which sometimes) that seem unrelated to anything, but also plenty of anxiety about specific things and instances. That makes more sense, but the physical parts of it still feel stronger than how anxious I actually feel. What I mean is I might feel somewhat nervous about something normal but my body will feel like I'm going into combat or something!

[fishinghat]

"i think fighting against the emotions creates stress on our body and brain and the stress makes us feel poorly."

Truer words were never spoken.

[Mxpro32]

my body will feel like I'm going into combat or something!

It's crazy. I startle so easy too, and I've never been a jumpy person.

[invalidusername]

"i think fighting against the emotions creates stress on our body and brain and the stress makes us feel poorly."

Truer words were never spoken.

 

Fighting against your emotions is like having a game of tug-of-war with yourself. You will never win, and you will only end up knackered!

[Mxpro32]

Well, the pregnancy hormones must be kicking in already cause my previously supportive wife is all over my ass all of a sudden over the littlest things.  I’ve been taking it a little easy with work while I heal, and that hasn’t been a problem until now, especially because sales have been great, and the shop is running fine without me while I handle all of the customer service and responsibilities that are required of me.  I went next door to my neighbors to hang out for a bit while the kids were playing and on the way back she yells, “don’t worry, I’ll take care of dinner!”  It wasn’t even dinner time and I was on my way home.  Then she through out the “you aren’t even working” for the first time. This isn’t going to be good with all of us locked in here if she keeps this up.  She was pissed I didn’t tell her I was going next door, when that’s literally the only place I go.  I guess I need a permission slip to do anything or go anywhere now, and I better watch over my shoulder to make sure she thinks I’m doing enough working to suit her.  Apparently my slack and understanding to heal has run its course.  I’ve already been struggling with the complete lack of solitude. She’s always here and always knows what I’m doing, now she’s judging me, when I’m already my harshest critic.  I berate myself all the time for not functioning at a higher level.  God help me.

[frog]

I think you just have a bit of a perfect storm situation going on and you'll probably have to try to not take it too personally because we're all going through a weird time right now. I'm guessing the pregnancy hormones have her feeling like we do from Cymbalta: with emotions popping up out of nowhere that don't really make sense and our brains doing their brainly thing continue to try to pin them on something specific. And now that we're all spending 24 hours a day on top of each other and not seeing other people like we used to, I guess inevitably it's pinning them on you. 

 

This is totally a do as I say, not as I do scenario though! I'm also way more critical and hard on myself than I am on anyone else and I know there have been times in the past where I've lashed out at my husband only to realize that I was criticizing him for something I was feeling guilty about for myself. Actually what stood out to me from your post is you saying she's judging you. I just wonder if you're not judging yourself and projecting that feeling onto her instead?

 

I don't know your wife but maybe you can try to approach her from a place of understanding and clear the air and ask if there's something that's really bugging her that you could be doing better or differently? Instead of just assuming and taking any smaller incident at face value. Just a thought

[Mxpro32]

Yeah, I’m already hard on myself for not functioning at a higher level (which is never helpful), so that’s why it gets to me when she says things like that.  That’s also why she said it, to get to me.  I think she felt bad though cause she was really nice the next day and hasn’t acted like that since.  We’re both excited about the baby.  We told her parents and the kids on Mother’s Day. Everyone is so excited, especially our kids. They are being adorable about it, even my 6 year old son, who I didn’t think was going to be happy about it.  They are calling it “our baby”.  My mood has been pretty good.  I’ve switched from depressed and crying sad tears all the time, to having joyful tears bubble up out of me.  Laughter will bubble up too.  The emotions are really intense when they bubble up, it even feels like strong anxiety until I give in to them, but at least they are mostly positive.  My town opened up the parks, and the motocross track even opened so I got to go riding on Saturday.  Having a little freedom returned and seeing a way back to normal did wonders for my outlook and mood, but today they just closed the parks again.  Not sure if the motocross track is going to close again.  Our hospital has 18 coronavirus patients in it. I’m not sure why they think they need to close down again. This crap has me getting depressed again.  

[invalidusername]

There you are you see. You have found the reason behind it all. This time is getting to everyone, and when you have your freedom, your emotions piggyback on it and you have some real "moments". This is great. Just bad timing for the other stuff.

 

Point to reflect on is that it is possible. Your brain is not completely defunked as a result of all of this. It will all return in time...

[Mxpro32]

its funny, consciously I'm mostly good with the new baby coming, but I'm still sleeping like crap for 4-5 hours and waking up with anxiety and racing negative thoughts.  my sleep was good before.  I'm thinking its a stressful event even though its positive, and my stress intolerance is showing up.  I keep thinking of all the things that could go wrong, like my wife dying or something being wrong with the baby, or losing my business, etc.  its stirred up a lot of the issues I was having dealing with the uncertainty of life.  I've been distracting myself in unhealthy ways like too much social media and getting pissed off over covid.  I'm thinking it might be healthier to avoid distractions and let myself feel the uncomfortable emotions. 

 

question, what do you guys think of exposure therapy for anxiety?  i think its pretty well documented that avoiding things that give you anxiety causes the anxiety to grow.  is that still true for people going through withdrawals?  my work stresses me out, so I've mostly been avoiding it as much as possible, but I'm wondering if that is just making it worse.  I also basically have no motivation to work or even do anything fun, so that doesn't help.  thoughts?

[Mxpro32]

I'm really struggling with how much my emotions/depression/anxiety are just due to cymbalta withdrawal still, and how much is under my control or life circumstances.  I'm getting down lately, and I still have no motivation.  I'm not sure if its something I can help by getting my mind right or if I just need to accept it and have patience and wait for my brain to heal.  early on it was so bad, it was clear my brain just needed to heal.  I feel like i'm in the middle in limbo now, where its harder to tell.  I guess I'm only 7 months in so its probably just my brain doing its thing and I need to stop worrying about it.  

[fishinghat]

I have been told that exposure therapy is used mostly to treat phobias. Examples; a fear of horses then you would go to a stable and slowly be exposed to horse in a safe manner until your fear fades. Exposure therapy during withdrawal would be a bad idea. Your brain neurotransmitters are out of whack and exposure to any type of stress would evoke an anxiety response to these chemical reactions.