Anxious (of course) to see the responses!!! Have you friended AdventureGuide? her journal has super good suggestions and many have helped me. I still can't figure out how NOT to wake up anxious.

Hi:
Me Too!
But I thought of something that worked for me in the past. Get some Deepak Chopra tapes, they teach us to live in the present.
Really soothing...

Yes, Adventurguide is wonderful and what she has provided helped me immensely.
I have been med free for over a year. Yes...the brain is able to be retrained but not instantly. It will take work on your part....but it is well worth the effort.
Meditation, listening to guided imagery for anxiety on youtube with headphones, and distracting yourself when having panic/anxiety are just a few things to work on right away. Your brain creates anxiety and it can banish it as well. Anxiety (most of the times) is created from a past or even more current trauma and negative thinking which snowballs out of control.
I have found making and consciously giving gratitude really helps reroute the brain. I acknowledge and embrace feelings of anxiety when it comes up (it is very rare and doesn't last more than a few minutes these days....it's getting better all the time).
Listen to the song "Happy" by Pharrel Williams and sing along....that song always gets me feeling better (love the video).

I also want to add that diet and exercise are also key components to ridding yourself of anxiety. Once you add that to meditation, hopefully sleep will get better as well.
I found out I was diabetic 1.5 years ago which contributed to symptoms (this does not mean you are diabetic.....this is just me). Once I changed my diet......I felt a 1000 times better and I also got relief from the anxiety.....a win win situation :)
I know see the importance of a good diet (not perfect....but much healthier).
I also found great relief in getting in touch with nature by walking and gardening. A good hobby is a great distraction and takes the focus off negative thinking and gives you good self confidence :)
Don't forget to love yourself. A good dose of self love to kick self loathing to the curb is also helpful....it will help change your attitude.

I wish you the best life has to offer and a new you :)

Ms Blank...you embrace the anxiety? First reaction was why...what / how does that work???
I'm pre diabetic but swear I'm a sugar addict.....it reallly helped to change diet? thanks!

I have heard that meditating is one of the best things you can do for anxiety. I have also heard it takes time and patience to learn how to meditate but don't give up. I know it will help you. Hugs GB

I do great during the day .. almost all days, just one or two anxious times here and there.

But every night it seems, when I'm the most relaxed I have time to think.. not that I want to :) ... there is no off button unfortunately.

I've try to distract my thoughts by playing books on tape on my Ipod, some meditation some just popular novels. Eventually it's off to sleep and play them again when I wake up too early.

In case anyone would like to try out really excellent mediation speakers here are a few of my favorites

Louise Hay, Steven Gurgevich, and Bernie Siegel

Msblank1 I like what you had to say. I believe that is all true.

Exercise really helped me but unfortunately this time around I can't right now because I'm going through treatment on my back.

I also want to pick up painting I think it would be a good distraction and make me feel like I'm accomplishing something and learning something.

As far as meditation goes, I have not mastered it. It does take patients and you really have to shut your brain off and listen to the soothing music or nature sounds and really concentrate on your body. I downloaded an app that teaches you how to meditate. It's called calm for your smart phone. And it talks you through it.

Meditation is just one key though. For me my anxiety comes from my loss of hope and direction in life. So pin pointing what causes your attacks is another good thing to do but sometimes you cant, sometimes you just have a panic attack out of the blue.

I journal almost every night and write done my panic attacks, how long they lasted, what caused it and what calmed me down. I read online that this can help.

Good luck with meditation edger, I hope you get relief.

Hi Edger,

Ms Blank is awesome. Her compassion and advise is spot on! Getting over anxiety....as Ms Blank said.....happens when you make positive changes in your life. Exercise, eating well, getting enough sleep, letting go of control, perfection and judgement. Most importantly learning how to change the negative thoughts that keep us chained to anxiety to positive.

Here's a secret.......Positive thinking people do not have issues with anxiety.

Hmmmmm....Now how does one become a positive thinker?

You work at it....one negative thought at a time. Even if you continually have the same negative thought over and over again. Write it down....then write down a positive response. Keep doing this until the negative thought no longer bothers you. This process works because of Brain Plastisty. When you do something over and over again, eventually you make a new neural pathway in your brain which will completely override the old negative one.

Pollybiz....I to used to wake up every morning in complete panic. I dreaded mornings and the pain that came along with it. Learning about the sympathetic nervous system and how it was responsible for my body sysmptoms is what helped me to overcome this horrible situation (I wrote about this in my 12 weeks if you want more information on it...good stuff). Anyways, after learning what the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system were I decided to give the breathing thing a try and see if I could control my sympathetic nervous system from turning on my fight or flight response.....

One morning as I laid in my bed...eyes still closed....I slowly woke up and as usual adrenaline began to pump through my body. Instead of filling my head with negative "here we go again"..."I will never be normal"...what's wrong with me" thoughts....I instead began to take very slow, very deep, very soothing breaths. All awhile I was telling myself compassionate things like..."there is nothing wrong with me"..."I just have a habit that I have created that triggers my brain into the feeling of danger and turns on my fight or flight response automatically"..."by breathing slow in my very safe bed I now can reverse my body response". I would then lay there and continually talk kindly to myself and breath slowly until my heartbeat would calm down.

It did not take very long but eventually I no longer woke up with a fast beating heart. I knew what those horrible feeling were...therefore they no longer scared me. That was five years ago and I never woke up in a panic ever again.

Let me know if you need any help with this.

My best to you all!

meditation works--it was an important part of me recovering from a huge anxiety meltdown? breakdown? flip-out? meditation teaches your brain how to focus, or not focus on the voices in your head- and helps you to calm your breathing and assess the tension in your body. I can get into a meditative state pretty quickly now--it is like a vacation from myself and my anxiety----and I was just thinking on my drive home from work today, that when your brain isn't filled with "what ifs" and worries you can fill it with all sorts of beautiful things, like music and grateful thoughts and beauty in the world.

Meditation works. Here are two good sites. Love their stuff:

http://www.brainsync.com/atozlist?gclid=CIC-65rXg8QCFQqFaQod2QoApA#oid=1374_1

http://www.soundstrue.com/store/

I need a guided meditation or my mind meanders and I either work myself into worry or fall asleep! So the guided ones really help.

There is also emotional freedom technique which looks weird but is incredibly effective. Here's a demo of it. You can find more on You Tube and there are also EFT folks around that you can hire to work with you:

http://eft.mercola.com/

I know that it looks weird but I was a practice dummy for it when a friend of mine was learning it and it really helped.

I feel ya I hate anxiety. It's the worst feeling. Couldn't hurt to try I think it could work.

I have yet to master meditation, breathing yes but 6 years if practice has not cured me yet of negative thoughts. i do know the more positive you can be the more successful you will be. Had anxiety 15 years ago and kicked it or atleast I thought I did. I had 1 unresolved issue and when it reaopeared 8 years later up popped anxiety with panic attacks this time. Older and not wiser I am still working on it. For many it depends on the symptoms, all are uncomfortable but most are not threatening. I had never had the panic attacks that make you feel like you are having a heart attack until recently and actually laughed about it and said to myself that's what people are talking about. Mine comes with such a deep burn that the pain is so unbearable i don't know what else to do but try to meditate - all this year I have meditated just to stay sane but got depressed as well. Life is a balance. Try your meditating along with exercise and distraction. Women tend to be multi taskers.

pollybiz ~ What I mean by embracing the anxiety is I identify and acknowledge that what I am experiencing is anxiety and not some catastrophic illness. Once I do that....I just let it happen and start my breathing exercise.....sometimes I start laughing becuz it is ironic that it shows up at the oddest times and I can't help but laugh. I don't even try to figure out the trigger (there are tons of them). I just breath and distract myself with a game on my phone, I draw, I get involved in some activity that interests/distracts me more than paying attention to the symptoms. I know without a doubt that the anxiety can not hurt me....otherwise I would have been dead a LLLLLOOOOONNNNGGGGGGGG time ago!

Being diabetic has helped me change my diet. It does indeed make a HUGE difference. I'm not so much a sweet eater (my mom is and she is also diabetic)....but I WAS a huge carb consumer. I still eat carbs.....but the healthy ones such as whole wheat breads (careful on these....2 slices of whole wheat bread a day is plenty), fruits, and veggies galore and a little (3 ounces per meal) of protein (meat, eggs, and almond/peanut butter)....and some fats are a well rounded diet and has helped reduce the anxiety/panic to such a low level, I hardly know it's there.
I find when you start LOVING yourself, you take better care of yourself....hence.....anxiety and health issues resolve themselves. I do understand that some people have some health issues beyond their control such as a thyroid issue or cancer that may be the cause of the anxiety....and the meds they must be on may also increase the anxiety as well.
I'm sure a good diet, exercise which will help ensure (most of the time) better sleep and reduce or eliminate anxiety.
Also a gratitude journal or meditation is so helpful, easy, and fun IMO and really helps change our thoughts to a more positive arena. I love listening to motivational speakers such as Tony Robbins to help build me up (his energy is contagious...lol).
Surround yourself with positive people and environment.....get away from the negative!
Hope this helps :)

Thank you. I've been finding 1001 reasons NOT to eat well, Guess I've run out of them. thanks.

Polly