You did well not to hit him if he pushed you off your bike into a live carriageway. Totally unacceptable behaviour.

Im not a doc but 12 hour days, 7 days per week sounds a lot to me. Im betting you are run down and stressed about your symptoms.

However get a doctors diagnosis to be sure.

Ok thanks, will try a fox bushing.

Is there anything external that she is worrying over or is she just fearful of the anxious state she is in?

If the latter see anything by

Dr clare weekes
Paul david
Dr sally mclaren
Charles linden

Done properly theyll eliminate the high anxiety and associated thoughts and feelings over a few months.

Enjoyed that.

i know how you feel as i had anxiety and panic for quite a while.

You can recover though.

Dont get into a habit of feeding the anxiety by continiously researching how to get rid of it. You cannot beat it that way.

Books id recommend by,

Dr claire weekes
Dr sally mclaren
Paul david
Charles linden

Reading them itself wont cure though, tou have to actually do what they say. The anxiety naturally comes down by its lf over a few months.

Although it feels s*** at the moment, its only temporary once you know how you are maintaining it and how to stop this behaviour.

Thanks for the replies. What type of weights do they come up as?

Could you plasterboard over the wood, then pink it?

As for the solid wall i think youll have to hack off whats loose, then build it back up in sand cement, then pink it.

You cannot and should not measure yourself against others.

Maybe the wife is cheating, the kids are unruly, massive debts paying for the big house and car. The perfect job could be really stressful causing mental health issues.

Ive learned that you cannot buy happiness, dont go looking for it, just go back and do the simple things in life and limit internet time!!!

You will feel tired, its only natural.

Your body (and mind) is always primed due to stress hormones. Adding excersise on top will make you feel really tired.

Just take it easier with excercise while you recover – by quitting the negative behaviour.

I got trapped in this behaviour for 5 years so know how hard it can be. Just focus on other, more positive things and things will get much better over time.

Your symptoms could also be of chronic stress.

Do you spend a lot of time looking for whats wrong with you? googling, reading books, visiting forums, dr’s etc. This behaviour can maintain fatigue after the initial catalyst has gone? All this behaviour is doing is activating your flight fight response, and symptoms of chronic fight flight can be what you are listing.

Those of us who gets or have had anxiety/ps issues tend to be worriers, perfectionist, somewhat controlling. Then when things go wrong we tend to react in a way that is detrimental to our mental health. It is the reaction thats the problem.

Best thing really is to start accepting the situation and taking a step back and some time out to recover. This might seem very difficult but what other option is there? Note that accepting and worrying are two different things. Anxiety and pa will fade away if you stop feeding yourself with more worry and stress (although a very difficult situation).

I havent got any advice regarding seeing his daughter, maybe someone else will know more on that.

Go with him to see your GP and see what they say.

Note that recovery is possible following a breakdown. I had one in 2009 and am fine now, back working in a demanding job, no medication, etc so although things look bad at the moment it will get better.

With an hours commute to my current job I’m not home until 6pm, so if I travelled down I would be there until 10pm, or slightly sooner if I stayed further. Same if I travelled back on the day of the assessment, wouldnt be home until very late. (Ok it could be done by just taking a day off but would mean two very long days with 10hrs travelling (inc 2hrs for work), full day at work and a days assessment)

You cant consciously reason with fear – im afraid youll have to do it, feel the fear, do it again, feel slightly less fear, and again……. After repeating and doing it a few times youll notice that you havent felt nervous, and the fear will be gone. Dont get into a mind battle with it, leave it be there, accept youll feel nervous and just keep repeating it. Go slowly to start with.

Thanks mat,

Which trails would you recommend to do?

Dont pay that much for something you havent viewed or driven.

£5.3k for an 11 plate T5!!

I think the epic would be too similar to a 29er racy hardtail.

Id go for a tallboy or czar, but for longer distances ive found that weight isnt the be all.

Anyone find uploading from a garmin (810), via bluetooth, to an iphone very slow?

There are some idiots in all walks of life, including cyclists. Its not the activity that defines the person, but the person itself.

I tend to agree that strava does contribute, especially when you see segments on green and blue trails.

Depends when sky or terrestial tv decide to go 4k. I think some bt channels ar now 4k.

Would be interesting to visially compare hd and 4k.

Not much help im afraid.

I purchased a large hd tv last year, based on the fact i couldnt get a 4k signal at the time.

Another way to think about it is that anxiety or fatigue isn’t really the problem. Yes the feelings and thoughts that come with it are really unpleasant. If you could consciously leave it be for a few months, then the excess energy in your body would dissipate and all the symptoms and thoughts would ebb away and you get back to normal.

It is our worrying about anxiety / fatigue which maintains the stress chemicals in our bodies, keeping us in a loop. Anxiety or fatigue will never leave you if you are worrying and trying to beat it, you will have to leave it.

Reflect on the past year and be honest with yourself, write down everythin you have done to ‘beat’ the fatigue?

This hasn’t worked for you so it surely isn’t the right path to recover mayby?

It took me a long time to see this, but what you are doing to ‘beat’ the fatigue, is stressing you and causing more fatigue. Keeping you stuck in it. It is like breaking your arm and trying to consciously fix it, which you cannot do.

I had a nervous breakdown and was then stuck in an anxiety loop (fatigue was a symptom of this as well). I spent over 5 years trying to ‘beat’ the anxiety but it never worked. It was only when i let the anxiety be and got on with my day that the anxiety level came down over a few months. It didn’t happen instantly and you will feel fatigued and tired while you recover. Ihad other symptoms as well.

I take you get other symptoms as well as extreme stress probably manifests in other ways too, nervousness, anxious thoughts, body tension, brain fag..

Just an idea for you to think about?

Only reason i ask is that there is a segment which is the same as my overall ride (trail centre) and the overall ride time is always less than the segment time, which would account for the stops.

Remember that feelings are there to be felt – dont get into the trap of trying to control them (ie changing them).

You seem to have been through a lot, so its OK to feel confused, scared, down …..just dont start battling them as youll amplify how you feel. Feelings of fear are always accompanied by anxious thoughts, what if this, what if that.

Have a chat with your gp if you think it may help.

What about your overall ride, is that just moving time?

Having seen that video i do feel for the young girl – i think it was correct to fine him for speeding like that on a pavement. The reason it probably made the news is because of the cctv video with it, visuals and everything!! Important thing is that no one was seriously hurt whoevers fault it was.

You need to identify what you are worrying about and why? If it is just your job then take some more time off and try CBT. cBT will help teach you to react differently to what your doing at the moment. But it also depends on the job your doing, say they expect you to do 12hrs worth of work in a 9hr day, every day then you will feel stressed (especially if you are a consciencious type) and then it mayby time to move on.

If you are worrying about everything in general, chance is you have sensetized your nervous system, and need to lower that level – see books by a dr claire weekes. This general worrying will include worrying about how you feel, a vicious circle. The worrying feeds the feelings, and the feelings feed the worry, its like battling in quicksand.

You have to put your own health before your job.

One last thing, do you have to give a reason to your employer why you want to reduce your hours?

Thanks all, pretty much the responce i expected. ill have a chat with the employer this week, I’m 50/50 whether I will be allowed to reduce to 30hr week.

I’m currently commuting 2hrs a day, so it will help by reducing this as well.

If you have a lot of work on, don’t let him offload more onto you. Politely decline giving the reason why you can’t do it – too much other work. The more you do the more is expected.

Work your contracted hours, nothing wrong helping out from time to time by working more, but not consistently, otherwise it is expected of you all the time.

Do fun things at home/away from work, even if you initially don’t feel like it.

Learn something like mindfullness, which is to detach from your thoughts. You can’t control your thoughts, you are also not your thoughts. Stop being pulled in by them and analysing.

When you can have a chat about workload with your manager, if you can’t get any sense from him, talk to the next manager up from him.

Last resort, if nothing changes, mayby look for something else?

I would never really shout at someone to get past, but would wait for them to pull over or if not just follow them down.

There is always somewhere to pull over at trail centres.

Ive has severe anxiety disorder with some depression but am fine now.

Best advice i can give is you need to learn to detach from that little voice in your head, the thinker. You cant consciously control it but you can ignore it. Dont get caught up in what its saying, otherwise they can become your beliefs and i bet most of the thoughts are ridiculous.

Plenty of books about on mindfulness, but you have to practice it.

Goodluck, i know its not a nice feeling.

Dont get into a habit/loop of trying to control your thoughts and subsequent feeling. Youll go around in circles ad i did for around five years.

I renovated a house and used makita power tooks, which were absolutely hammered, and they still work fine.

Do something for charity. Great idea.

I think id be offended if you gave the bike back.

Ive learned that dwelling on the past (its been and gone) and worrying about the future (what ifs) made me unhappy. So Learning to be present and not be caught up in silly thoughts made me much happier. (I did suffer from anxiety though).

Notice how many times a day your thoughts take you into the past or some what ifs in the future, and the next thing fifteen minutes has passed whilst you have been trying to reason or resolve this thought.

Personally, money hasnt given me happiness, yes its nice, but I had some wonderful times when a poor student.

I think being more of a yes person and quite loud is more important than what you do, ime.

I use my hardtail for local, door to door, xc type rides which includes some tarmac, forest roads and some singletrack. I use my fs more on trail centres and so forth. I’d buy the bike thats more suitable to your riding curcumstances or one of each if you tend to mix up your riding.

Anxiety will raise BP, tell your GP about your anxiety.

I had that when i had high anxiety. Difficult to believe at the time.

Get it checked by a Dr.

Look after yourself, if there is a bullying culture there would you want to go back to work there anyway?

If there was a problem there before and still is I would say something. When you leave does the council ask for a written feedback on why etc? Maybe thats the place to air it.