I kind of need some advice/opinions…
My boyfriend has been struggling with only God knows what for what feels like forever now. I'm frustrated and just want it to go away but neither of us knows what is wrong. Sometimes I think he's just working himself up…but who knows?
Here's what's been going on:
He can't fall asleep until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. Even when he gets woken up at 8:00am, he still can't seem to go to sleep before midnight.
He has what I've been calling "depressive episodes" at night. He begins worrying about school, work, money, how unproductive he is, etc.. He becomes very needy and upset almost entirely out of the blue. Just whiny, very negative, very down on himself saying things like, "my family's sick of me, you're sick of me, I'm sick of me" and it's so out there that I find myself getting angry and wanting to yell at him for it.
He's also been having panic attacks. He describes the symptoms as follows:
"nausea, tremors, dizziness, hot and cold feelings, aches and pains, stomach pain, heart palpitations
weird headaches
feeling that I need to leave, need to move, need to run away or get out
feeling like I'm going to die
adrenaline rush feelings through my body
a feeling like there's water in my blood I also get when I take my migraine pills that I think is migraine related. it feels like my blood has this rushing feeling through it in certain parts, mainly my head"
Oftentimes, he says, "I can feel a panic attack coming on" but I didn't know that you could "feel a panic attack coming". =/ I never really felt mine "coming on", I was always fine and then BOOM, heart racing, eyes tearing up, tapping my feet/fingers, pacing, etc..
He constantly seems to have trouble focusing. When he starts on this kick about how he is so unproductive, I tell him to go do something – write, read, practice playing the piano or guitar, go for a walk, get some fresh air, make a website, ANYTHING! He says he can't focus. Hell, I feel like he says that he can't focus so much that I want to bash my head against a damn wall just thinking about it. His grades are terrible, he's wasting money and time, and all because he "can't focus".
If you haven't noticed, I'm pretty upset with him over this. Angry. I feel like he's overly dramatic, kind of a crybaby, and needs to straighten up but this has been going on for what feels like at least a year and I don't know what to do. He has no access to any kind of therapy and I end up feeling guilty because he says that he makes time for me but I don't make time for him but he does this every night, just as I get tired or want to read or play a game or watch a movie, he starts in on, "I'm so depressed and can't focus and I'm sorry to burden you" and all this shit and I sometimes stay up way too late because I feel bad leaving. What the hell am I supposed to do? He drags my own damn mood down!?! What can he do to, I don't know, fix something, ANYTHING? What could be wrong? Depression/Anxiety?
