Tell us what anticipatory anxiety feels like for you. In what kind of situations do you recognize feeling these types of feelings/difficulties?⁠ ⁠ PS: ERP can help with this, too!⁠

For me, it's the fears that my fears will come true and I will end up in a place where I feel like I won't have much help or support left. That's the only reason these thoughts are kept alive: It's because of the uncertainty I have with them, the regret I carry from the past, and my addiction not making it much better.

It’s crazy this has showed up, because this is exactly what I was googling a little while ago. My anticipatory anxiety is about future events that are unlikely to happen but because the themes terrify me, it creates anxiety and a sense of impending doom.

Going into heavily crowded places and feeling like I will inappropriately touch or be touched.

Any situations indoors or situations outdoors with people we know very well who will get too close/touch/ huge me or my children

Thanks for the description, it will be great if you also include the way to handle this

For me it’s just a stream of what-ifs about a future event. Usually the what-ifs are themselves anxiety-related, like “what if when I go to this place I have a panic attack? What if I’m anxious on the way there?” Etc etc etc. Thankfully I’ve learned that the anticipatory anxiety is usually worse than the event.

Going to bed

going to bed and to therapy and out where people drink and to places that trigger my real event ocd

When I know I have to leave my apartment and will very like bump into children. I get anxious and OCD flares up. When I tell myself, I will not allow myself to do compulsions, I get extremely anxious and panicky, the thought of not doing compulsions in those situations feels unbareable.

Packing for trips is the worst!

Starting a new job or just going into work every day not knowing what to expect. I used to get like this whenever I would start school as well. I would not eat much for two weeks because of how much anxiety I would get. It started in kindergarten when I was afraid of being away from my mother then it just progressed…

Restarting couples’ counseling later this week. Feeling a compulsion to prepare and control. Feeling physically and mentally awful.

It sucks so much lol

Doctor appointments, confession and absolution at church, answering or making phone calls, social events, church coffee hour, therapy sessions.

I start writing scripts in my head of what I’ll talk about at each of these appointments about what is bothering me and confessing and reconfessing embarrassing thoughts, even to the point of doing it while I sleep in my dreams. I do the same recounting my symptoms I need to tell my dr about over and over and feel really afraid I’ll forget one or I will decide to tell an embarrassing one and then back out in my mind and then decide to share the though or symptom and go in a continuous agonizing cycle until the appointment arrives .

I am in this right now, expecting to have a lot of anxiety tomorrow bc I like the numbers 9 and 4 and tomorrow is 4/9 so my OCD says that will be a good day to actually do harm and I hate it, I don’t wanna be at home. It’s such mental agony…

Going to bed next to my partner, wondering if I will have anxiety sleeping next to him.

I feel like I need to be in the best mental space before an event. And that I will embarrass myself or those I’m with if I’m not. But the more anxious I get the farther I get from a good mental space.

I have anxiety today too ofc but I expect it to shoot through the roof tomorrow…

When I have an anxiety it takes over making me feel like it’s hard to breathe