'Anxiety, I wouldn't give it up for the world'

[Fuzzyrug]

Does anyone else recognise the benifit of being anxious, the gain. Anxiety,
I think can become your world, 2nd gain, this can keep us anxious, Jesus said to trust him, but we don't, why? maybe anxiety gives us a way out, we can avoid things becouse of our anxiety and we can get attention also, this I think is a difficult pill to swallow, Im not saying that anxiety is nice, we all know how bad it feels, Im just saying that to move forward in recovery we may need to be honest and I think anxiety has its rewards, Jesus wants us to lean on him and thats hard as what he wants us to do can be difficult, or is it just me?

 

[Bellicus]

Anxiety as a mental sickness have no benefits. I think this is just you trying to find something good in something bad, so you can feel something good about it.

 

[Amhacajo]

Anxiety is a reaction that everyone I believe experiences in their lives. The fight or flight response for example. It's when this response starts to affect how you live your daily life that it becomes a problems and myself personally I would love to be rid of it so that I can live a more normal life.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

You can have mine.

 

[Angeldove97]

I can get very anxious about stupid silly things--- from making a simple phone call (I won't even call to order out food sometimes) to going shopping to real-life ministry chances (as much as I love God). With all the time I waste making excuses to calm down my anxiety, I realize how much I'm not living the life God wants me to have. Yes it might be technically safer for me to not take chances, to get out of too much work, etc--- but what a boring life that would be!!!

As terrified as I've been getting ready to be a teacher this year, God has helped me be calm through most of it or just fake it until I can realize DUH you're doing fine!!!

I don't see benefits from anxiety, I just see painful and embarrassing excuses that waste our time and keep us from having amazing lives.

 

[Fuzzyrug]

Anxiety does have rewards, for example this forum is good if not even pleasurable. Suffering can have rewards in general, i.e. bringing us closer to God, now people may not like that idea as its obscure, nevertheless its real, the more we suffer the more we lean on God. We can become defensive around this issue as it feels like an accusation i.e. ‘you’re just putting it on’ this is not the case, its more like yes we do suffer this terrible anxiety and mostly we examine the pain, but with pain comes some gain and all I am saying is that in the dark there can be a small flicker of light.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

You are entitled to your opinion. The Bible says, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" (Matthew 6:27) and "An anxious heart weighs a man down" (Proverbs 12:25). I agree that suffering brings us closer to God, sometimes. However, not everyone decides to lean on God when they suffer. Sometimes people decide to stop talking to God altogether, like I did when I was a teenager. And then I eventually stopped believing in God. I don't see how that made me closer to Him. In other situations suffering did bring me closer to Him, but the example I just gave is an exception. I am lucky that I started believing in God again and leaning on him, but some people never do go back. In those cases suffering definitely does not bring the person closer to God.

For me, the effects of anxiety outweigh any benefits of having it. The reason I am not at church right now is because of anxiety that kept me up all last night. I fail to see how this makes me closer to God. If I had not had the sort of night that I did, I would be at church and taking communion with God right now.

I was diagnosed with agoraphobia 8 years ago and I spent periods of time unable to leave my home. I was not going to church and I was not getting out into the world to serve the Lord. God is the one who helped me and motivated me to fight that and get back out into the world again -- and it is a battle that is still going on. Fear is not from God, IMO, it is from Satan and it is a tool he uses to try to put a wedge between myself and the Lord. It has the potential to keep me from doing what God wants me to do. If I were not afraid I would be a lot more useful to God.

IMO, anxiety is not something for me to embrace and be happy about. It is something that hinders me and something I need to fight back against.

 

[Fuzzyrug]

You have good points, although fighting anxiety is what keeps it alive, anxiety is fear, the body’s natural response to the messages we send it (thoughts), so the body acts on what we believe to be true, all animals have this, including humans. So we believe that we are in danger or going to feel fear when we are outside, so the body responds faithfully to us and releases adrenalin and Cortisone, feelings of terrible fear, the way to reduce this is to except that for a time your body is sensitized i.e. ready to react quickly to fear thoughts, embrace the fear, go with it, allow it to happen, welcome it, sounds crazy but works, and it works because, you are sending a different message, one of reduced fear, this will reduce the amount of chemicals in your blood and also relax your nerves, when you start to see that this is real and works and why it works you will recover (according to Dr Claire Weeks), I know this because I have been through it and recovered well 90% and I have helped many others to recover. God is important in this, he wants anxiety to be exposed for the thing it is so that people are released from bondage.

 

[flying_kiwifruit]

I don't see any good in having axeity, especially when your a teenager, it wrecks my life, it damages my school work and hinders my friendships. I don't see the good, in having it.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

I think it is nice that you are on here trying to reach out and help people -- I do that myself sometimes -- but I have to tell you that when you include advertisments to your own website in posts, that's going to make people question the authenticity of your concern. (I know the link for you site is not there anymore, but I noticed it before the staff edit.)

You have good points, although fighting anxiety is what keeps it alive, anxiety is fear, the body’s natural response to the messages we send it (thoughts), so the body acts on what we believe to be true, all animals have this, including humans. So we believe that we are in danger or going to feel fear when we are outside, so the body responds faithfully to us and releases adrenalin and Cortisone, feelings of terrible fear,

Yes, anxiety is natural and it serves a purpose. However, when people have an anxiety disorder, the excess amount of fear they experience is actually counterproductive to survival.

the way to reduce this is to except that for a time your body is sensitized i.e. ready to react quickly to fear thoughts, embrace the fear, go with it, allow it to happen, welcome it, sounds crazy but works, and it works because, you are sending a different message, one of reduced fear, this will reduce the amount of chemicals in your blood and also relax your nerves,

This description is very vague and really doesn't make any sense. You have no operational definition of what "embracing the fear", "going with it", "allowing it to happen", and "welcoming it" actually means. How would you measure these things? If you were doing clinical research on the method of treatment that you are trying to describe, you would be required to give patients specific instructions on what to do. "Embrace the fear" would not cut it in a psychological laboratory.

when you start to see that this is real and works and why it works you will recover (according to Dr Claire Weeks),

I know this because I have been through it and recovered well 90% and I have helped many others to recover.

You need to keep in mind that people are different and what works for you
may not be effective for someone else. Also, pushing your own methods on other people will typically make them react in a defensive way. Whatever you were describing may work well for you, but for me, I am going to stick with my doctor and continue doing systematic desensitization.

God is important in this, he wants anxiety to be exposed for the thing it is so that people are released from bondage.

I agree with this.

 

[Fuzzyrug]

All I can say is I have more or less recovered, and I have helped many people to recover, I'm not here to help you recover, I'm here to offer support and encoragment to others becouse I know what its like to have acute anxiety and sometimes it helps to hear from someone who has recovered, please do not try to stop people helping others people just becouse you dont want it, you have made me feel unwelcome to this site, not very Christian.
My website is a not for profit site.

 

[Fuzzyrug]

The difference between theory and practice, my 24 years in the field at the top working with acute anxiety may just be worth something to someone not to mention that I am a recovered acute anxiety sufferer. I’m here to offer support and encouragement I’m not here as an expert, I think that position belongs to God. I know my limits, tried and tested.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

I am not trying to drive you away from the site. I have been stressed out and grumpy in the past week and that is probably showing up in some of my posts. I am sorry if my posts in your thread have made you feel unwelcome. That was not my intention. You said that you wouldn't give up anxiety for the world and asked if people felt the same. I do not feel the same way and said as much, and I offered explanations for why. Just because I disagree with you does not mean that I am trying to get you to leave. Most if not all of the other people who responded to the thread did not agree with you, either. In my last post, I offered some speculation as to why that might be. If your website is non-profit that's great, but people here aren't going to be automatically aware of that. My point still stands that members may think you are just trying to get them to go to your site.

 

[Fuzzyrug]

Sorry, I misunderstood you , as you see I still have some anxiety, I’m not trying to drive people to my web, numbers are too small, but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t want people to visit. I like being here on this site; in fact this is the site I recommend on my web for people with anxiety to visit, hopefully we will get new people here that can meet with Gods people

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

It's OK and I am sorry, too. I'm glad that we cleared things up in the private messages. Maybe you should post what you said in PM to me about your site and why you made it. We can't put links to our websites in threads on here but we can put links in our profiles.

 

[Fuzzyrug]

I’m a bit worried about talking about my website as I nearly got kicked of CF. For those who are interested they can pick up the name of my website on my profile. I started this site to try and compete with the hundreds of anxiety sites offering the cure to anxiety, so I wanted to give Christianity a voice amongst the many anxiety sites, this has been my calling/mission for God for many years, it’s difficult to compete, but the one thing that I have that the other sites don’t have is God on my side, so I pray that one day my site will be up there competing with the rest, for the glory of God.

 

[EbonNelumbo]

I really see no benefits in anxiety. I guess my paranoia can make it to where I am less able to be hurt by others, but at what cost?

Anxiety is like an acid circulating through my veins.

 

[Fuzzyrug]

I know what you are saying Oddbeani,I think anxiety seems to bring out our paranoia,Ifind it difficult to trust people. I worry about making friends as I'm sure that they will leave me at some point. Acid in your veins is an interesting way of describing anxiety, a little scary.

 

[EbonNelumbo]

I know what you are saying Oddbeani,I think anxiety seems to bring out our paranoia,Ifind it difficult to trust people. I worry about making friends as I'm sure that they will leave me at some point. Acid in your veins is an interesting way of describing anxiety, a little scary.

I don't even find it difficult to trust people anymore, FR, I am incapable of doing so.

I see anxiety as a foreign entity that eats away at my soul, at my body, and in that, it's acidic, hence the acid in the veins paradigm. Each day it seems as though there's a little less of me, and a little more of the acid, as if it self-replicates and feeds upon it's own destruction.

 

[Fuzzyrug]

I think this acid in the veins is scary, although I do understand, maybe it’s on the surface of your body i.e. nerves, as we have millions of nerves all around our body, although we do carry anxiety chemicals in our blood cortisone, adrenaline and such like, I don’t think it really is acid as such. Also I think medication can have side effects, tingly spasms, restless leg syndrome, that sort of thing, when I had anxiety bad, I had sort of electric shocks in my head, I think this was some kind of stress build up releasing itself, what I have found is no matter how weird it feels there is an explanation.