Your symptoms sound like you could be suffering from an anxiety disorder. I recommend visiting a therapist or psychiatrist to receive an evaluation. There is no need to suffer through any of these feelings alone.

Anxiety Disorders affect about 40 million American adults age 18 years and older (about 18%) in a given year causing them to be filled with fearfulness and uncertainty. Unlike the relatively mild, brief anxiety caused by a stressful event (such as speaking in public or a first date), anxiety disorders last at least 6 months and can get worse if they are not treated. Anxiety disorders commonly occur along with other mental or physical illnesses, including alcohol or substance abuse, which may mask anxiety symptoms or make them worse. In some cases, these other illnesses need to be treated before a person will respond to treatment for the anxiety disorder.
Each anxiety disorder has different symptoms, but all the symptoms cluster around excessive, irrational fear and dread.

People with a very common form of Anxiety Disorder called Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) go through the day filled with exaggerated worry and tension, even though there is little or nothing to provoke it. They anticipate disaster and are overly concerned about health issues, money, family problems, or difficulties at work. Sometimes just the thought of getting through the day produces anxiety.

GAD is diagnosed when a person worries excessively about a variety of everyday problems for at least 6 months. People with GAD can't seem to get rid of their concerns, even though they usually realize that their anxiety is more intense than the situation warrants. They can't relax, startle easily, and have difficulty concentrating. Often they have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. Physical symptoms that often accompany the anxiety include fatigue, headaches, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, trembling, twitching, irritability, sweating, nausea, lightheadedness, having to go to the bathroom frequently, feeling out of breath, and hot flashes.

GAD affects about 6.8 million adult Americans and about twice as many women as men. The disorder comes on gradually and can begin across the life cycle, though the risk is highest between childhood and middle age. It is diagnosed when someone spends at least 6 months worrying excessively about a number of everyday problems. There is evidence that genes play a modest role in GAD.

Other anxiety disorders, depression, or substance abuse often accompany GAD, which rarely occurs alone. GAD is commonly treated with medication or cognitive-behavioral therapy, but co-occurring conditions must also be treated using the appropriate therapies.

Panic Disorder is characterized by sudden attacks of terror, usually accompanied by a pounding heart, sweatiness, weakness, faintness, or dizziness. During these attacks, people with panic disorder may flush or feel chilled; their hands may tingle or feel numb; and they may experience nausea, chest pain, or smothering sensations. Panic attacks usually produce a sense of unreality, a fear of impending doom, or a fear of losing control. Some people's lives become so restricted that they avoid normal activities, such as grocery shopping or driving. About one-third become housebound or are able to confront a feared situation only when accompanied by a spouse or other trusted person. When the condition progresses this far, it is called Agoraphobia, or fear of open spaces.

In general, anxiety disorders are treated with medication, specific types of psychotherapy, or both. Treatment choices depend on the problem and the person's preference. Before treatment begins, your therapist or psychiatrist will conduct a careful diagnostic evaluation to determine whether a person's symptoms are caused by an anxiety disorder or a physical problem. If an anxiety disorder is diagnosed, the type of disorder or the combination of disorders that are present must be identified, as well as any coexisting conditions, such as depression or substance abuse. Sometimes alcoholism, depression, or other coexisting conditions have such a strong effect on the individual that treating the anxiety disorder must wait until the coexisting conditions are brought under control.

Boundaries are both physical and invisible. They include the physical space around us as well as the invisible zone around our bodies…Our “space”. Generally we define our invisible boundaries by limits of what feels safe and appropriate and what does not. We learn about our boundaries largely by the way we are treated as children. Then we teach others what our boundaries are by the way we let others treat us.

We also have and need to set emotional (or invisible) boundaries. We all have feelings and reactions that are distinctly ours. We respond to the world uniquely based on our histories, perceptions, values, goals and concerns. Setting emotional boundaries includes deciding what relationships we foster and continue and what relationships no longer work and need to be let go.

The following are some boundary analogies to assist in understanding:

Leaky- Offering too much information that is often times inappropriate or disturbing. This is often characterized by overly sexually explicit conversations, inappropriate questions, excessive touching and space invasions.

Absorbent- Taking on the weight of the world. Acting as a sponge to other people’s moods, words, behaviors and tone. Taking everything personally and feeling responsible for things that are well beyond your control.

Fencing- Distant to a fault. This may be defined as participating in relationships that require intimacy and appropriate sharing without the ability to receive or give back. Essentially blocking anyone or anything from getting in or getting out.

Enmeshment- This is where individuals lose their identity in the identity of another person. Most common examples are with parents and romantic relationships. Individuals will adopt a new belief system, taste, style, way of life because they feel it will please the other person, keep them around or provide the other person with an identity. This is commonly associated with people-pleasing, being taken hostage by someone, and neglecting your own needs for the needs of another.

There are two important components that truly qualify a facility to be equipped to appropriately support and treat the dually diagnosed: Staffing and treatment philosophy. Appropriate staffing is the most important component of a dual diagnosis treatment facility. When working with clients who are afflicted with both psychiatric and addictive disorders, it is imperative that the staff members attending to these clients are fluent in the treatment of both. Treatment facilities that specialize in treating the dually diagnosed operate with a team comprised of addiction counselors, licensed psychotherapists, licensed psychiatrists and nurses. The clinical team operating in a dual diagnosis must be acutely aware of the complex relationship between psychiatric symptoms and addiction.

There are many steps in the process of identifying the individual in treatment’s presentations. It is important to obtain and review the client’s history, previous institutionalizations and family history of psychiatric symptoms. Depending on the severity and specific presentation, various members of the treatment team will treat the individual. Chemical Dependency Counselors assist the individual with setting goals such as obtaining a sponsor, understanding the 12-steps and understanding the disease of alcoholism. Therapists assist with the behavioral and emotional symptomology and psychiatrists assist with the biochemical symptomology such as prescribing medications. Each member of the treatment team plays a role that is equally important and contingent upon the success and observation of another.

Similarly important is the treatment philosophy and approach that the facility implements. An integrated approach to dual diagnosis treatment planning offers the client equal clinical support to both their addictive and psychiatric needs at the same time. It is crucial to be able to identify the existence of a psychiatric disorder because if it were to go untreated or improperly diagnosed it would increase the risk of relapse in the addicted client and set into motion a vicious cycle of treatment episodes for the client.

The exact definition of dual diagnosis means that one or more psychiatric or medical disorders exist independent of the individual’s addictive disorder. Each disorder has a life of its own and is not dependent on another for its cause or continuation. Both psychiatric and addictive disorders are independent of each other in terms of what caused the other, but they most definitely interact during the process of diagnosing and treating the afflicted individual and must be equally treated and monitored within the same institution.

Two disorders can occur in the same individual and they can have independent causes. The cause of addictive disorders is biological. Addicts are born, not made. Psychiatric disorders, though similar in their biology, are slightly more complex in their genesis from individual to individual. Some psychiatric presentations are indeed a result of something the individual ingested. For example, a common side effect of methamphetamine withdrawal is active and potentially prolonged psychosis. The presentation of psychotic behavior in the addicted individual would not validate a diagnosis of Psychosis but rather addiction because the psychosis has been caused by the drug use.

The prevalence of addictive disorders in psychiatric populations is significantly high, ranging from 50 to 80 percent of individuals with a psychiatric diagnosis who suffer from addictive disorders. The rates for individuals with a psychiatric diagnosis who are also suffering from addictive disorders are as follows: 50 percent in schizophrenia, 30 percent in major depression, 30 percent in anxiety and 50 percent in personality disorders. In terms of the general population, 15 to 25 percent of individuals suffer from addiction.