Anxiety..

[MehGuy]

Does anyone here suffer through anxiety?

I do, while it's mainly an annoyance sometimes it can flare up real bad.

I'm worried its going to flare up soon, I sure hope not.

Anyways, anyone else suffer through this? What do you do to cope?

 

[KitKatMatt]

Anxiety rules my life. It's a horrible experience and it's really difficult to explain to anyone who hasn't experienced it themselves.

I'm sorry you have to deal with it as well *hugs!*. It's not a pretty thing.

My coping mechanisms have to do with my triggers. Sounds and light are two triggers that I can (sort of) control. I have to take an iPod to work to drown out the sounds of people talking in the next room, and I set up my stuff in the darkest corner of the office with the light off.

I bring books and a gameboy wherever I go to try to take my mind off being nervous. I am extremely thankful that my boss lets me do these things at work and adjusts things like scheduling and such when I need it.

I also take klonopin to take me down a few levels when all that can't help alone, which is pretty often. But it keeps me able to function and does not impair me in any way so that's good.

 

[agua]

Does anyone here suffer through anxiety?

I do, while it's mainly an annoyance sometimes it can flare up real bad.

I'm worried its going to flare up soon, I sure hope not.

Anyways, anyone else suffer through this? What do you do to cope?

Is the anxiety fear based ?

 

[BlessedLYT]

I do and I worry so much. As a person it is a hindrance but as a Christian it opens up my heart when I pray. When i feel it getting the best of me I have to find a silent place and be silent. I can not even say my prayers out loud during this time frame because when it gets bad I am not sure what is God and what is not. I guess that is why the word says be anxious for nothing but in prayer and supplication...

 

[MassiCo]

Taking walks early in the morning help a ton. Being home for a long period of time worsens my anxiety and depression.

Hugs!!

 

[blackribbon]

I do. I have a new symptom. My throat closes up and I can't swallow. I used to believe that I was going to die when this happened because I was afraid that it would close up and I wouldn't be able to breath. But I stopped and realized I could breath just fine in spite of the sensation. What was closing up was my esophagus (the tube from the mouth to the stomach). Funny thing is that I can even swallow though it feels otherwise...and it is one of the scariest feelings I have ever experienced. However, I just pause for a moment...remind myself that this is temporary and I am not going to die...and just slow my breathing down for a few moment. It does go away.

I don't necessarily fear anything. I am just living a life full of extreme stress...both emotional and actual. I do have an old bottle of ativan from an issue I had several years ago. I have taken a few out of that bottle even though I know that their potency is probably reduced. I am trying to find the time and strength to head back to the psychiatrist office because I know I also need anti-depressants to get me through this latest patch of hardships and a new prescription of ativan that actually works would be nice. I am very careful with the ativan because I realized a long time ago is that it helps only if I only take it occasionally. The initial prescription had me taking it daily through a certain stress event...but although it helped the first couple days, by the 5th day I realized it actually was increasing my anxiety and I stopped taking it except when I knew I was in high stress. It is a med you can become dependent on...but I never had those issues because I knew it didn't work well for me except for occasional usage.

I wish I knew other ways to deal with the anxiety. I know at times I have to force myself to go out in "the real world" because it gets worse if I shut myself up in the house. Mostly, I just take a pause and slow my breathing down and determine to do that which I need to do. I have some of my deepest and most desperate talks to God during these times too. However, I know that God is in control and although I have been through some really rough times, God has never let me down and has always provided for every need...and even throws in some luxuries now and again. It is seldom the way I would have chosen...but it is a way that always works out of the best when I have time to step back and do some hind-vision.

Maybe the anxiety issues are just to remind me to slow down and talk to God...and that I need to realize I am not in control but I am loved anyway. I don't know. I know mine are tied to the situational depression that I fight with from time to time since my husband died. It may also keep me humble since I am a part-time psych nurse at the hospital. I know it keeps me compassionate toward my patients because I know how close I sometimes get to the line that brings people into my floor. Often God is the only piece that keeps me on the "healthy" side. I hope that I am not too proud to seek help if I ever find that I have crossed that line because help does exist...and both medications (though be careful with anxiety meds) and talk therapy do help.

Sad to say, when I am at my lowest I sometimes have to decide how much time to spend at church because Christians often have a hard time with mental health issues. It is easy to believe that cancer or diabetes is a medical issue that needs prayer for healing and isn't assumed to be caused by sin anymore. However, with mental illnesses, they tend to believe that it is a heart and sin issue (what unconfessed sin needs to be dealt with?) and not the fact that high stress (my problem) or genetics can also cause chemical imbalances in the brain that can be corrected no different than a diabetic uses insulin to balance their blood sugar imbalance. I know for the one year I finally got close to being dysfunctional, they were the difference between fighting to get out of bed each day to making straight A's in school and getting accepted into a very competitive nursing program. I know that it was a brain imbalance issue because every time I tried to quit taking them on my own, I'd have horrible side effects...but when the stressors finally got undercontrol, I had zero problem going off them...in fact, I just started forgetting to take them. It took one year on the anti-depressants to heal and go off them. Now I am looking at probably another year...or maybe this time will be a longer time but I know that they do help and it is getting hard to just pick myself up by bootstraps once again. I believe that it isn't lack of faith but rather sometimes God uses medicine to heal people. If I didn't believe this, I certainly couldn't be a medical nurse (I do both medical and psych nursing in the hospital setting.)

I don't find that most people's version of encouragement helps at my worst times. Throwing their favorite verses at me like they have the solution often makes me feel worse. Telling me "things will get better" doesn't help much either because honestly, none of us really knows that. It may not get "better" until I reach the other side where God has promised us a perfect life. And having people point out all the "good things in my life" is very annoying because I am very aware of the ways God has blessed me but I feel like they are minimizing the things that are weighing me down...it is like they want to make me feel better so they don't have to worry...and the focus is really on them. So I smile and let them feel better.

I usually can't read much during the high anxiety periods...but I have found I can listen to the Bible and have a favorite website that will read the Bible to me. I can get through whole books of the Bible easily and feel that I often learn new things when I am not hindered by struggling through the verses with hard names of places and people when I can just listen to the story that the Bible really is. I can also feel God's presence (which often feels so far away during these times) as I listen or at the very least, I realize that it isn't about "my feelings" because I am surrounded by the proof that God cares in spite of my current situation or my feelings.

 

[RedDragon4444]

nvrmind.

 

[ReesePiece23]

Anxiety - though crippling, and seemingly complicated, is actually a very simple thing.

To quote Earl Nightingale: the mind - just like the soil, doesn't care what you plant in it. It only serves to return whatever you sow. The mind is entirely passive, and is only dictated by what YOU put in.

So, for example, you could plant a field of deadly nightshade - it was entirely your choice, and in your full control. It's toxic, just like the thoughts that you have allowed to enter into your head. What can you expect to yield in turn? Yup, you guessed it, poison - or in this case, anxiety and depression.

Keeping very much on the premise of our minds being soil - remember, it doesn't care what we plant; what would happen then if you chose to plant a field of wheat instead? - a profitable crop, a live giving crop, a POSITIVE thing. What do you expect to yield then?

Remember, this is always your choice. Anxiety IS a choice, you're not a victim to it.

There's also a lot to be said for putting all of your negative thoughts into a big balloon, and then letting it go. Enjoy watching the balloon float away into the distance in your minds eye, as the balloon carries all of the damaging thoughts with it. (This is a form of meditation by the way.)

Don't be afraid to challenge your perceptions either. If a bad thought creeps into your mind, be hard on yourself, and demand evidence to support its claim. How can something be true without evidence? And even if you convince yourself, does it make the thought any more true?

 

[KitKatMatt]

Remember, this is always your choice. Anxiety IS a choice, you're not a victim to it.

No. Anxiety is not a choice. Anxiety isn't just getting worried over something and not choosing to "think positively".

Anxiety is a medical disorder. Treatment for anxiety varies from therapy to medication depending on the person and the severity. Therapy isn't "think positive!", therapy is learning coping mechanisms and learning what your triggers are so you can avoid them or lessen their effects.

Anxiety is like constantly having your fight or flight switch on the "on" position. I am constantly under a feeling of impending doom. It's not negativity, it's the same doom you'd feel if a tiger suddenly burst out of the shadows at your face. Only it's not one instant of "Tiger!", but continuous instances of "Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!... Tiger! Tiger!" for sometimes HOURS at a time.

Anxiety is NOT A CHOICE. People with anxiety are VICTIMS to a medical disorder. Thinking positively is as much a treatment for anxiety as it is for someone with heart disease.

 

[MehGuy]

No. Anxiety is not a choice. Anxiety isn't just getting worried over something and not choosing to "think positively".

Anxiety is a medical disorder. Treatment for anxiety varies from therapy to medication depending on the person and the severity. Therapy isn't "think positive!", therapy is learning coping mechanisms and learning what your triggers are so you can avoid them or lessen their effects.

Anxiety is like constantly having your fight or flight switch on the "on" position. I am constantly under a feeling of impending doom. It's not negativity, it's the same doom you'd feel if a tiger suddenly burst out of the shadows at your face. Only it's not one instant of "Tiger!", but continuous instances of "Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!... Tiger! Tiger!" for sometimes HOURS at a time.

Anxiety is NOT A CHOICE. People with anxiety are VICTIMS to a medical disorder. Thinking positively is as much a treatment for anxiety as it is for someone with heart disease.

This.

If it were a choice, it wouldn't be a mental problem.

Once a year my anxiety gets to suicidal levels, and if I could choose to stop the attacks I would. Who wouldn't?

 

[KitKatMatt]

This.

If it were a choice, it wouldn't be a mental problem.

Once a year my anxiety gets to suicidal levels, and if I could choose to stop the attacks I would. Who wouldn't?

*Sends you many hugs!*

Mental illness is still very stigmatized and misunderstood. People who have never experienced the medical disease level of things like anxiety and depression don't really understand how they work or feel like.

Mental illness is ugly, pervasive, and tenacious. It needs to be taken seriously, and I swear if I hear one more person suggest to me "Be positive!" "Do yoga!" "Eat oranges!", I'm going to hit them.

 

[MehGuy]

Yeah, mental illness is kind of like a drunk man trying to choose not to be drunk anymore.

You can't just flip through your brain state like that.

 

[ReesePiece23]

^ For me - and many others, it's a choice. Anxiety can still cripple me even to this day. On top of that, I have high functioning Autism... But, hey, eventually, there comes a point when you just say to yourself "screw this, I'm not letting these things rule my life any more. I'll put up a fight, even if it's terrifying."

People who have their legs amputated, have gone on to win gold medals in the Olympics. Colour blind people, learn how to HEAR colour through frequencies. You're only bound by the limitations you set yourself.

And believe me, anxiety has brought me to the brink of suicide in the past, so I know how damaging it can be. But building a wall up, brick by brick, doing a little bit each day to move towards an end goal, is the best way to go. (It was over a year of therapy for me.) It takes a long time to learn how to develop a mental 'switch' - but it IS doable. It just takes a lot of work.

 

[agua]

Anxiety - though crippling, and seemingly complicated, is actually a very simple thing.

To quote Earl Nightingale: the mind - just like the soil, doesn't care what you plant in it. It only serves to return whatever you sow. The mind is entirely passive, and is only dictated by what YOU put in.

So, for example, you could plant a field of deadly nightshade - it was entirely your choice, and in your full control. It's toxic, just like the thoughts that you have allowed to enter into your head. What can you expect to yield in turn? Yup, you guessed it, poison - or in this case, anxiety and depression.

Keeping very much on the premise of our minds being soil - remember, it doesn't care what we plant; what would happen then if you chose to plant a field of wheat instead? - a profitable crop, a live giving crop, a POSITIVE thing. What do you expect to yield then?

Remember, this is always your choice. Anxiety IS a choice, you're not a victim to it.

There's also a lot to be said for putting all of your negative thoughts into a big balloon, and then letting it go. Enjoy watching the balloon float away into the distance in your minds eye, as the balloon carries all of the damaging thoughts with it. (This is a form of meditation by the way.)

Don't be afraid to challenge your perceptions either. If a bad thought creeps into your mind, be hard on yourself, and demand evidence to support its claim. How can something be true without evidence? And even if you convince yourself, does it make the thought any more true?

Sometimes anxiety can come from irrational fears. Sometimes the fears are rational though and how we deal with them is the key as you say. Some people suggest anxiety is genetic but I'm not so sure and lean towards it being environmental or learned. ( from personal experience )

 

[KitKatMatt]

Many people with anxiety can simply cope, and do nothing more.

I'm one of those people. Thinking positively helps in the small way it helps for normal people, but it definitely doesn't stop a rise in anxiety levels or a full on panic attack.

I also have high functioning autism. Some of my triggers are related to some of those issues. I can't stand the sounds of people talking (especially kids), I am sensitive to light (and at work we have very large windows). Having talking + light = very bad day for me at work, where I can't avoid them. At home I have light blocking curtains and I run a fan to create white noise.

I've never seriously considered suicide because of my anxiety, but when it gets bad I have panic attacks and go straight into full fight or flight mode- screaming, running, and sometimes hitting or biting at someone to get them away from me. Right now, I am barely in control of this. I've gotten treatment for my anxiety for a number of years with therapy, which helped a little (helped a lot more on the autism side regarding social cues and communication).

Right now I'm on "emergency" medication for anxiety that I have to take every day, which helps a LOT more than the therapy, yet still not enough. I might have to move to Xanax one day.

 

[MehGuy]

Man I wish I could get my hands on anxiety medication..

 

[Bobthemotorcycle]

.

 

[KitKatMatt]

Man I wish I could get my hands on anxiety medication..

It's infuriating how hard I had to fight for that medicine. I could have used it YEARS ago, but my (former) GP scared my family by convincing them that anti-anxiety medication was highly addicting and would stunt my growth.

My new GP told me he was extremely uncomfortable prescribing medication for mental disorders but thankfully did give me a temporary prescription later last year for Klonopin, and I was able to find a psychiatrist (that wasn't a local quack, which I have been to many of those) who extended it.

I wish you luck in getting help! It's a hard road, but it has been taken before, and there are people to lend you support! If I can do anything to help, I am always open to messages

 

[Nanopants]

I had severe anxiety contributing to depression for most of my life, from childhood and related mainly to approval issues from bad relationships with step parents. Unfortunately it dominated a lot of my relationships well into adulthood, it never got any better but later kind of climaxed at about the time that I had a major reconversion and head change about 10 years ago. At that point it was so bad that there was just nothing to be done, no pill could have relieved the problem shy of incapacitating me, and I seriously could have killed myself, but instead I ended up snapping under the pressure, experienced something like a stroke, and ended up wandering hundreds of miles away from home for about a week, into a desert, without food and only a little water.

I nearly died, and I didn't recover right away, but over time the extreme nature of the experience left me less anxious about just about everything. So, that's why I suggest to people that they challenge themselves, and get out and experience things other than their anxiety and depression, no matter what it is as long as they're not endangering themselves. If your depression is your life, then a change of focus could make a difference, even if it doesn't feel like it at the time.

There's also a lot to be said for putting all of your negative thoughts into a big balloon, and then letting it go. Enjoy watching the balloon float away into the distance in your minds eye, as the balloon carries all of the damaging thoughts with it. (This is a form of meditation by the way.)

Don't be afraid to challenge your perceptions either. If a bad thought creeps into your mind, be hard on yourself, and demand evidence to support its claim. How can something be true without evidence? And even if you convince yourself, does it make the thought any more true?

^That's pretty solid and works for me as well. My version is burying the past in sand, especially if I'm stressing about what other people think. No matter what, as long as I'm not in prison or something life altering like that, It's kind of like I bring myself to remember the negative things just don't matter over time, to kind of realize that it's ok to just forget it.

 

[goofypusher837]

^ For me - and many others, it's a choice. Anxiety can still cripple me even to this day. On top of that, I have high functioning Autism... But, hey, eventually, there comes a point when you just say to yourself "screw this, I'm not letting these things rule my life any more. I'll put up a fight, even if it's terrifying."

People who have their legs amputated, have gone on to win gold medals in the Olympics. Colour blind people, learn how to HEAR colour through frequencies. You're only bound by the limitations you set yourself.

And believe me, anxiety has brought me to the brink of suicide in the past, so I know how damaging it can be. But building a wall up, brick by brick, doing a little bit each day to move towards an end goal, is the best way to go. (It was over a year of therapy for me.) It takes a long time to learn how to develop a mental 'switch' - but it IS doable. It just takes a lot of work.

There is definetely some validity to what you are saying. I've found through many different methods and by the grace of God anxiety can be managed. However, there is no known "panacea" for anxiety.The chemical component doesn't just "fix" itself overnight. That being said, I think it's safe to say anxiety can be coped with yielding great results like kitkat said.