^
Just to highlight how issues can link together, just looking at your list there I can do something of a timeline of my own spiral.
Since I was a very young child I had (then unrecognised) Social Anxiety disorder. This was absolutely crippling. It affected my education from day one and right through until I left school at 16 with no prospects and no hope. This led to depression. My overwhelming insecurity left me with a terrible fear of bereavement. I agonised over losing my Mother for decades. I mean to the extent where it impacted greatly on daily living.
I then turned to Self Harm as a coping strategy. I used to cut with glass, razors etc. I was full of anger, which I turned inwards rather than hurt others. That rampant insecurity and lack of confidence and esteem saw me develop controlling behaviours in early relationships. My crippling anxiety also heavily impacted on my relationships, as did my lack of employment prospects. This led pretty early on to quite serious suicidal ideation. To this day I still have a 'suicide kit' stored in a box.
I heavily abused alcohol just so I could go out and socialise. I could only do it when pissed. I also developed issues around food. Binge eating, putting on weight then losing it all again before repeating the cycle. I was constantly stressed, permanently anxious, either couldn't sleep or would sleep far too much. I'd have regular panic attacks in public and would up and leave numerous situations without giving any reason. I upped and walked out on two jobs I did eventually get because of panic and overwhelming anxiety.
Health anxiety was rife. A headache was a brain tumour. Palpitations were an imminent heart attack.
As you can imagine, all that has been a hell of a lot to work on. The way they all link up is really obvious to me now. This is why I think it's so important to tackle the root cause. Once that is tackled, other issues (symptoms of the main issue) can fall away quite naturally.
Anxiety was my main issue. The rest built up as symptoms of it. Knock-on effects, if you like. The thing with anxiety is it's so misunderstood because everyone has it. It's a normal aspect of life and it's designed to protect us from harm. Because we all know what anxiety feels like, it's easy to believe that it shouldn't really debilitate others. It's a bit like how many people also believe Social Anxiety Disorder is ''just shyness''. The truth is they are vastly different. Anxiety disorders genuinely destroy lives. They can be overwhelmingly powerful. If normal and adaptive levels of anxiety can be compared to waves that lap the shoreline on a breezy day, anxiety disorders can be likened to walking on a beach then suddenly being faced with a 200 foot tidal wave bearing down on you. The sheer panic and helplessness can freeze you to the spot, awaiting your fate. The physical processes involved fill your body with cortisol too, and that's not good. I ended up with a number of psychosomatic illnesses, such as IBS and muscle problems in my neck and shoulders due to constant tension. Of course, eating and alcohol issues don't do your body or mind any good either.
But anyway, yep, so many issues can be traced back to your main issue, if only you can identify it.
