Where have you been on the scale recently?

What does it mean when you feel 1 most of the time but occasionally instantly jump to 4/5 as stressors built up without your awareness?
Cause that's me. Everything's fine till it isn't and I don't see it coming
- For me, that feeling comes from dissociating. Anxiety is so viscerally physically uncomfortable that i try to avoid it at all costs (which leads to feeling anxious about feeling anxious lmfao meta-anxiety ftw lol). Part of that avoidance entails not even mentally getting close to the triggers. So when they become unavoidable or pop up unexpectedly, it can feel pretty drastic. I feel like my avoidance of thinking about things is probably affecting my ability to understand, and the unknown is a wellspring of anxiety. Maybe it's different for you, or maybe this helps you understand yourself better. Either way i hope things get easier for you.
- That's how they describe panic attacks. If it happens enough that it affects your functioning, it could be panic disorder. It's a form of anxiety disorder.

6 years ago I was at 5. But I've slowly but surely been climbing. Today I find myself slightly above the chart, and I've been here for a year or two. Looking back I find it unbelievable that I lived at stage 4 for four years straight.
It gets better.
- Been living in stage 3-4 for too long now. Comments like these are one of the only things giving me hope. Used to be a lot more cynical but now i'll take anything I can get. Thank you
- Been doing the same journey and want to chime in that it be better. Still have my dips but they are so fleeting.

4±1. But 5 is rare
Fucking hell, I'm tired of being dysfunctional
- 3 is basically my baseline, but I never truly reach 5, so I've got that going on for me I guess.
  
  How do you cope with it? Or are you also just planning to get used to it?

Buspirone is a miracle drug. I used to think anxiety was just life. Now, with medication, I can stay around 1.5 or 2. For years I was way higher until my doctor said "No, that's not normal."
- love buspar. such an interesting drug. doesn't mess with anything, non abusive, non euphoric, non benzo anxiolytic.
  oh yeah and you can fuck on it.

I get anxiety just by looking at the awful job someone did filling the title background.
- It's a style. I don't personally like it, but it helps to know that it was deliberate.

1.25.
Had some mild panic attacks for some reason recently though. It was maybe a lack of sleep.

Thank you for this. Weekdays are average of 3 with peaks of 2 and valleys of 4. Weekends and average of 2 with same +.

High enough on the scale that thinking about where I am on the scale is mildly anxiety inducing lol.
Some day, I gotta just box that stuff up and shove it in a brain closet with locks on.
Which, I'm not complaining about the post, please don't take my abnormal form of joking about the matter as anything like that.
I'm using it as a sideways approach to saying it's been a bad anxiety day, trying to use a little humor to take the edge off while also venting a tiny bit.
Hell, it's been a bad week, a bad month, and a bad year. World be crazy, and it grinds. Hard not to have anxiety spirals when there's real world evidence that shit is pretty bad.

Anyone notice their is no 'zero' in that scale.
There's no zero... :(
- Zero anxiety and you'd never leave the couch

I've been between 3 and 4. This week I felt a greater intensity of discomfort. It's hard for me to get out of bed. Despite that, I've been going to walk every day, at least 1 hour... and I've read a lot: in the last 30 days I've read about 6 books. Still, my activity beyond that is zero, so I feel certainly bad about it. The "work society" drags you down, whether you're part of it or not.

In ER because I thought I was having a heart attack, and it looks like it was a panic attack instead.
Benzos are nice BTW. I can see why the docs can't and shouldn't prescribe them for regular use.

3-4 yesterday the whole day... seemingly for no fucking reason and knowing that made it worse.