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...
I have suffered from anxiety as far back as I can remember, only recently have I realize just far reaching effets it has had in my whole life. From leaving college, to giving up promotions because I knew the anxiety would just paralyze me. I can function sometimes very well just like everyone else and then i will have a full blown attack. Sometimes they are because of really stressful situations at home or at work and sometimes they are totally ridiculous. I finally accepted a promotion at work that i really wanted and now I have an anxiety attack every morning before I go there. If my husband was 10 minutes late coming home from work at night I thought he was in an accident and killed. If I couldn't find my thirteen year old son in the neightborhood where he said he would be I would think he was missing. SOmetimes I can be just fine and other times I am paralyzed by it. DOes anyone else ever feel this way. I have had birthday parties for my kids where the morning of the party I wake up shaking worrying that it will turn out okay. I hate worrying over ridiculous things. I have tried coping strategies and meds. THe meds help some and the coping strategies help sometimes. I am just wondering if there are other people out there who find that anxiety can be life altering and really hold them back from doing the things they want to do and if so how they cope with it.
NAL
NAL
Welcome to the group. You will find lots of shoulders here and lots of people in the same boat.
I have had that paralyzing panic. It's HORRENDOUS! My situation was that the boss was leaving for a couple of days, leaving me in charge... and there was one employee I didn't care for. As she was getting ready to leave, I was sitting at a table. I was FROZEN. I was trying to do the deep breathing and look calm on the outside but inside... I wanted to scream, faint, cry, be taken away in an ambulance... you know the routine.
I must have looked okay, cuz the boss left. I don't know how but I got to my feet (I thought my legs were not working) and I got through it.
I find that positive self talk is imparative. The little negative mind chatter, that spirals the panic and anxiety, takes over and perpetuates your feelings.
Deep breathing really helps. In slowly through your nose, hold for a count of 4 then exhaling slowly through your mouth repeatedly WHILE thinking to yourself, I am perfectly calm and relaxed. I am totally healthy and happy. I can do anything I set my mind to.
Try to physically replace the negative with positive. The physical part is that you deep breathe, you talk to yourself, you replace the negativity. Even if you feel like you're kidding yourself as you spout positive messages, that's the anxiety trying to keep you negative.
Hope this helps a little.
HUGS
thanks for the suggestions and most of all for caring.
nal