Pre-Nursing Student with Anxiety- is nursing for me?

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hello everyone.

to make it a long story short, i suffer from social anxiety, ocd, and general anxiety. it is not severe where i get panic attacks everyday, but it does affect my cognitive thinking and make it very hard to make a decision sometimes. almost three years ago i did not know what i wanted to do with my life. i went from local job to local job trying to find myself. i was depressed at the time also because i just didnt know what i was going to amount to. i always kept telling myself that im not smart enough for college and i cant do it and will drop out. well 2 years ago around this time i finally opened up and had a long talk with my cousin (who is a nurse himself) and he made me realize that someone could do anything with a positive attitude and a heart to win. i never thought in a million years i would be where i am today completing 26 college credits and carrying a 3.5 gpa. i never thought i would have "As and Bs" in AP I and II and in all my other courses.

My deliema is that im still having anxiety issues and get nervous and shy when around groups or talking to someone directly. im afraid when i am called for nursing school this will have a definite impact on me. i think of things like.... will i be able to handle it?, im not a good communicator!, my spelling is terrible and i get nervous a lot, im not good in math, etc. i guess all i am thinking about is negative thoughts about entering the program and setting myself up now for failure before i even get there. im going to go back on medication and seek therapy again, so im willing to work on this now, but everyday i keep thinking if i should change careers and enter something less scary. i dont plan on being called probably until next fall 2011 and ill be 27 years old. i feel i want to get the ball rolling since im not getting any younger and want to start my life. but i believe somewhere deep inside a part of me is saying stay where i am, fight this and move forward, but like i said these negative thoughts just keep pulling me further away every time i get excited about nursing. i dont know whats wrong and why i cant beat this.. please help if you can!

i would appreciate any advice and wondering if anyone else has had this same problem. thank you

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this sounds a litte like me. i dont have severe anxiety but im in general a nervous person. i panic at interviews, ive worked with co-workers for years and years and still have trouble talking to them and opening up and sometimes i feel depressed about the future too because 70% of the time im being negative! I also want to start my life soon and feel imma be so old when i finish nursing but u know what were gonna get there anyways so might as well stick it out. I think that you have accomplished sooo much by getting where u are today (looking back how u were before). I thin you can definetly do it and you have the heart obviously since you keep pushing yourself. I wold recommend to take some classes to calm your nerves and talk to a counselor or therapist or whatever to help. Also if you can handle it, try volunteering at a local clinic to get comfortable. Good luck and we can do it if we put our mind to it and repell those negative feelings :rolleyes:

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Specializes in Medical Surgical/Addiction/Mental Health.

Okay. Now that you have listed all of the challenges you face in becoming a nurse, will you respond to the thread by listing the positive ones. List all of the attributes you posses that will enable you in being a good nurse. You mentioned that you don’t do well in math. Okay, but if you have a 3.5 GPA in the 26 credit hours of your college career, you clearly have some good study habits. How can you incorporate those habits in your math course? I am a terrible speller too. Thank God for spell check J

Seriously, respond with all of the positives. I would like to read them.

Talk with you soon.

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My positive attributes that i have that will make me a good nurse would be im caring towards others and like to help make them feel better. i like the rewarding feeling you receive by seeing a person who is in pain and making them simile. i am hard working and organized. i am always willing to go beyond my own work to help out another who needs it more. im a good listener.

i couldnt really think of anything else at the moment, how was that?

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