Hi, I wanted to ask you guys if any one had any tips on dealing with chronic anxiety without medication. I've tried various anti-anxiety medications over the past four years and all of them have had adverse numerous side effects that out weighed their usefulness.

I'm at my wit's end. At the mature age of 44, single and unemployed, I'm starting to really contemplate how I want the rest of my life spent. I don't want to live this way anymore. It seems as though I won't be married and my children bearing days are behind me. Acting as my mum's carer for the past 3 years has also added to my low self esteem and has brought down my social skills with little or no interaction with society. It's like I'm caught in a prison of my own making, yet I cannot find a way out.

Today my anxiety has hit really hard as I'm trying in the first time in years to deal with it without medication. I would love to run to the doctor's and get something to use like a crutch until I reach better days but even he has said medication doesn't seem to mix well with me.

Has anyone found a way to live some kind of life with this mental illness? I know you cannot eradicate anxiety but have to learn how to manage it but sometimes it seems hopeless and I end up sitting on the floor crying like a baby because of my fear and loneliness.

Any help right now would be truly appreciated. I know life is so precious and as I grow older I know that time is running away from me and my life is just passing me by.

I just can't bear to live in this state anymore

Ive read this board for well over 10 years i just joined right now, so this is my first attempt. I know how you are feeling im 39 and no kids. Something happened at the end of last year that created so much anxiety i haven't left my house more then once every 6 weeks and only if i have to. I have felt this way before often, never this bad though. I can only tell you what helped me in the past and what could help me now. Its endorphins, excercise, diet, nature...I cringe as i write it because i know that it is the very last thing you want to do when you feel this way. Believe me i get it, was easier in the moment to medicate but in the long run you waste your life away. One day you will look back at 44 and think i wish i did it then, the way you might look at it now wishing you had tried something else when you were younger. I know how you feel and hope someone else has something to add. First and foremost you must be in the mind set to change and not an easy solition...to really fix this anxiety will be one of the hardest things to do.