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...
ok, so I'm still suffering from anxiety and I ran across an author I have, Jeffrey Schwartz, who talks about retraining your brain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcrGlUHlu4M
Then I picked up his book You Are Not Your Brain
so I went through his list of thinking errors and it''s no wonder that I suffer. I don't like how I feel and it will take some work to change my thoughts which have unfortunately gotten bad after my brother died.
First of all, there's all of nothing thinking. Either I'm doing everything perfectly at work or I'm making a mistake and none of the other things I've done good in my life matter anymore. it's as if I don't see them. I took a walk after work today and told myself of the good things I've done including writing a book and raising my kids. That made me feel good.
Catastrophizing - If I screw up at work I will lose my job, not get another, not pay my bills, lose my house, end up homeless and die a meaningless death.
Should statements - I tell myself I should be able to this or do that....particularly being perfect.
Mind reading - I think if I make a mistake or too many, people at work will not want me around anymore and will demand I get fired.
geez, what crap in my head. All because of the misery I had as a kid being picked on etc.
anybody else read Schwartz?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcrGlUHlu4M
Then I picked up his book You Are Not Your Brain
so I went through his list of thinking errors and it''s no wonder that I suffer. I don't like how I feel and it will take some work to change my thoughts which have unfortunately gotten bad after my brother died.
First of all, there's all of nothing thinking. Either I'm doing everything perfectly at work or I'm making a mistake and none of the other things I've done good in my life matter anymore. it's as if I don't see them. I took a walk after work today and told myself of the good things I've done including writing a book and raising my kids. That made me feel good.
Catastrophizing - If I screw up at work I will lose my job, not get another, not pay my bills, lose my house, end up homeless and die a meaningless death.
Should statements - I tell myself I should be able to this or do that....particularly being perfect.
Mind reading - I think if I make a mistake or too many, people at work will not want me around anymore and will demand I get fired.
geez, what crap in my head. All because of the misery I had as a kid being picked on etc.
anybody else read Schwartz?
That said, I still believe that anxiety is largely a physical illness. Give anyone a huge shot of adrenalin unexpectedly and they're not going to be able to think logically.
Changing our thinking is good but it's also good to have the support of medications or alternative therapies. People don't expect diabetics to change the way they're thinking even though if they go into diabetic shock they can't think straight. Instead, they provide help so they don't go into diabetic shock. They treat it as a physical illness.