Anxiety Support Group
Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...
For the past few nights now, I keep waking up in the middle of the night all of the sudden feeling like I'm completely detached from myself to the point that I feel like I'm insane. This scares me so much, I'm afraid Ian having psychotic episodes or something. I'm really scared I feel like everything around me looks different or just isn't real and I feel like I don't know who I am but yet I do. Is this just anxiety or am I going to loose my mind? Please someone help, this really scares me. :(
Your fight/flight switch is not only on but it is on RED ALERT. You are just super sensitized right now and that will get better.
People with high anxiety and panic attacks fear and feel like they are going crazy or losing control but you won't. It is just bodily sensations out of whack and you need to practice relaxation and calming methods to reset your switch.
Feeling like you are not yourself or like you are in a dream mode and not being able to focus or concentrate is also responses to anxiety.
The more your focus on your feelings/sensations and fear, the more your switch is going to flip. It is like a car whose alarm goes off when the wind blows. There is not burglar or car jacker. It is just the wind.
Please go to these two web sites and read them fully. Write down tips to help you. www.panic.cure.com and www.anxietycoach.com. You are not alone. This will get better and when you are more informed about it, you won't be so freaked out about it. Have faith and trust in yourself and don't think the worst.
Wishing you some peace!
I too have anxiety,and been going through many episodes lately myself,,iam trying to learn how to deal with it,,alot of advice they gave you,i didnt know,and its helpful to me too!!
Hang in there!
Were all here for you!!
bren
AND, because our minds are so creative - it will follow any direction you send it - because it assumes YOU know what's going on! i read a book once called, "The Power of the Subconscous Mind". It describes YOU as the captain and the subconscious as the workers down in the bottom in the boiler room. When you - the Captain" say, "Danger ahead - more steam, danger, danger!" The workers down below don't have any idea whether that's true or false - they just follow your orders. It's the same with the "higher" and "lower" parts of our minds. The lower mind is entirely based on survival, the higher is aware of peace, beauty , the present moment, etc. But, now the captain says there's danger ahead, so what happens to reality? Nothing - you've just temporarily used the power of your mind to "make" a scary movie in your head.
So, when you are saying, "Oh, the room looks funny, nothing looks real, I feel detached from my body, etc." You are actually telling you mind that's what is happening and it gives you those pictures that you asked for - amazing, isn't it? But it happens all the time.
But it happens more with people who think too much, are insecure, have creative imaginations and have had bad experiences (thought they were "real" so, of course, they think they will happen again).
Next time, you feel scared, talk rationally, use common sense. Look calmly at your surroundings. Let the objects around you be just as they are. Don't feel like it's up to you to give everything a meaning - it already has a meaning - it's there for you because you chose it to be in your environment. You are the captain of you ship! Choose to sail in calm waters, and if you feel a storm approachng, learn to navigate yourself back to your calm center, where everything is truly peaceful, calm and loving. Nothing in this world or in other world can cause you to fear - unless you give it the power to do so. That is what all the spiritual teachers, past and present point us to - the truth. Let things be as they are, learn to love yourself and others and you will realize that you are fine and always have been fine. When Jesus said, "love the Lord, your God with alll your heart, soul and mind and your neighbor as yourself - and you will be saved" he didn't mean you will be saved in some future time, he meant that you will realize at that moment that that is the truth - and you will be "saved" from yourself!
Also, (as I continue to go on and on!) remember - you are not your mind! By that, I mean, you HAVE a mind that is yours to use, but don't let your mind use YOU! Learn to be a master - by realizing that you have the power within you because it has been put there by you Creator for you to create the beautiful, the true and the loving - and that's the truth!
After saying all this, try not to think about it too much. If you FELT that if made sense, made you feel calmer, let that feeling sit you you a little. Experience yourself feeling peace. Tell yourself "this is who I am" . You might even feel a little joy rise to the surface - more of "YOU". Ride on those peaceful waves, and even chuckle a little that you thought that your little mind could compete and overcome the calm, peaceful present moment that has been eternally given to you by the One Who Loves You!
Peace and Love - Pursah