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...
Hello all - I am fairly new to the group, but haven't posted my own thread yet. I am a marraige and family therapy student and am currently in recovery from GAD. I have participated in my own individual treatment on and off for almost my entire life - which inspired me to pursue therapy as a career. I joined the group as part of an assignment for my group therapy class - but have realized how much the group assists me in continuing to process personal issues that trigger my anxiety. Lord knows recovery does not mean that my anxiety is gone. I manage it well the majority of the time, with the help of herbal supplements, meditation, and the coping skills I have acquired over the years. I was able to come off Xanax years ago. But I do recognize that who I am and my environment make it difficult for me to truly take care of myself. I'm a high-functioning overacheiver - which does not lend to self-care. I find myself scheduling yoga into my day and trading it for answering emails or writing papers. The more I neglect taking care of myself and just vegging out - my anxiety rises. The times I do slack - I feel guilty and restless.
I am sure I'm not alone in this self-care struggle. But hey - that's what this whole support group thing is for - to know we aren't alone in the struggle. Does anyone have any nifty tricks for not feeling guilty about not self-caring - which seems so contradictory...
Much love and peace to you all.
I have always suffered from anxiety but have always managed to control it through mediation, breathing exercises, bio-feedback and periodic psychologist visits with talk therapy. I have avoided prescription drugs which has been beneficially to me in the long run. This time my anxiety is worse and I notice how hard it is to focus only on taking care of myself--eating a proper diet, going to bed early and getting 8-10 hours of sleep,doing meditation and generally just relaxing. It's very hard to do for an active, workaholic like me. I can relate to what you're going through.
Save guilt for hurting people or animals. Damaging their lives. making them bleed.
That is what guilt is for.
Personal disappointment? Sure. You can tell yourself off and slap your wrist if you don't go to yoga: but it is not a moral issue and you need to correct your guilt programming, and not allow yourself to indulge guilt when you have done nothing morally wrong.
Yoga is a free moral choice. Go or do not go. If you blow it off, and you think that's silly, who are you to say you didn't need to release the stress of your email backlog more? How big is the picture you're looking at, here?
If you make rational decisions based on the issues in front of you every single time you make a decision (hard to do) you won't have to suffer guilt. You won't have to suffer disappointment, and you will accept your own humanity a bit better.
Human beings need to do what they want for a certain amount of time in a day. They need to just do what they want. Whatever that may be. If you are not factoring in this requirement you'll go barmy. I require about 2 hrs a day minimum. And I take them. and I certainly don't waste any time feeling guilty about this: after a nervous breakdown, I know it's not negotiable. :)
Be good to yourself. :D
You are not alone is seeking employment in the metal health field because you have regarded yourself as a user. I did that years ago expecting that I would learn more about myself. Not sure if that happened and it made me feel more depressed. I worked with disturbed children and that became hard. Disturbed children are the product of disturbed parents and I couldn't fix the parents.
time relaxing and sitting in silence. I was taken off my meds and decided I refused to get back on them. So, I am extremely aware when I am in a stressful situation that I need to process it different which has been really good
for me. I have completely changed my environment years ago because certain people around me who kept me stressed or having anxiety so that was a definite change that had to happen. However, there has been situations
I have not be able to control where I just had to say ,breath and process how you feel and then deal with the situation and it has worked great for me. Have you considered asking any of your therapy professors about self-care? Self-care is an important part of the helping profession. Try not to feel too guilty, it might take time for you to figure out what works best for you. Praying for you.