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...
Hi everyone. I enjoy reading about others' successes on here, so I thought I would share my recent success.
This semester I have had a REALLY rough time with my anxiety. I am currently student teaching and my anxiety made this very difficult in the beginning. I spent a lot of time this semester feeling anxious, overwhelmed, upset, and frustrated. I have felt lost and lonely. I felt like there was no escaping the bad feelings. I had no idea what to do. I felt like I was not going to make it through student teaching. I started accepting that crying was just an expected part of my day.
I recently went through an assessment with a psychiatrist to be put on medication for my anxiety. He wanted to write me a prescription for lexapro and insisted that I NEEDED medication to get through this and past the feelings. This and other comments he made to me made me uncomfortable and even more frustrated. At the same time, it encouraged me to prove that I could do it without medication. And that is exactly what I did.
Recently I have completely changed things around and I'm doing really well. Both mentally and physically I have been feeling very calm and relaxed. I have been taking an adaptogen and vitamins which I feel have been helping me a lot. I also have been running a lot because that is very stress relieving for me. I actually ran a 10k a couple days ago that I was training for. I ran it in my goal time of 1 hour and 15 minutes. The training paid off :) Just added another thing to be happy about in my life. I have made huge progress with my anxiety in terms of teaching. It doesn't make me nervous or want to cry anymore. The biggest lesson that I learned that has turned things around so much is to not be afraid to make mistakes. Each new subject that I took over cause me SO much stress. I would be so nervous planning each lesson and teaching each lesson. I was terrified to make a mistake, do something wrong, not have things work out how I planned. Recently I took over the writing lessons. At first I was a little nervous but I tried not to let it get to me. My first lesson did not work out how I planned at all. While I was teaching I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. A few weeks ago this would have made me so upset and stressed and I would have been even more nervous for the next lesson. But I didn't let it get to me. I just told myself, well I won't teach writing like that again. I learned from my mistakes. I don't know that I would even call them mistakes now. I LET myself learn from it. My second lesson went better and my third lesson (which my supervisor came for) was even better and she was very impressed too. Learning from my mistakes and letting myself be ok with them was a huge step for me, especially because that has been the main problem for me with all of this. I've learned that the things that don't go well help me learn just as much or even more than the lesson that do.
Learning this has made the biggest difference in my life. I feel like in the past I always learned how to get through stressful times, but when faced with a new situation I had no idea what to do. I didn't know how to apply the skills that I learned through therapy in the past 4 years or just through my experiences. But I think I've reached a point where I finally can do that. I've learned so much about myself through all of this and feel like I have a better connection with myself and who I am. I feel like I am really figuring out how to get past the anxiety in my life and am heading in an anxiety-free direction!
I want to thank everyone who has helped me since I found this group for all of the advice, guidance, and encouragement that has been given to me. This is the start of a new chapter in my life...a very good, positive chapter in which I will continue to grow, improve, and learn!
This semester I have had a REALLY rough time with my anxiety. I am currently student teaching and my anxiety made this very difficult in the beginning. I spent a lot of time this semester feeling anxious, overwhelmed, upset, and frustrated. I have felt lost and lonely. I felt like there was no escaping the bad feelings. I had no idea what to do. I felt like I was not going to make it through student teaching. I started accepting that crying was just an expected part of my day.
I recently went through an assessment with a psychiatrist to be put on medication for my anxiety. He wanted to write me a prescription for lexapro and insisted that I NEEDED medication to get through this and past the feelings. This and other comments he made to me made me uncomfortable and even more frustrated. At the same time, it encouraged me to prove that I could do it without medication. And that is exactly what I did.
Recently I have completely changed things around and I'm doing really well. Both mentally and physically I have been feeling very calm and relaxed. I have been taking an adaptogen and vitamins which I feel have been helping me a lot. I also have been running a lot because that is very stress relieving for me. I actually ran a 10k a couple days ago that I was training for. I ran it in my goal time of 1 hour and 15 minutes. The training paid off :) Just added another thing to be happy about in my life. I have made huge progress with my anxiety in terms of teaching. It doesn't make me nervous or want to cry anymore. The biggest lesson that I learned that has turned things around so much is to not be afraid to make mistakes. Each new subject that I took over cause me SO much stress. I would be so nervous planning each lesson and teaching each lesson. I was terrified to make a mistake, do something wrong, not have things work out how I planned. Recently I took over the writing lessons. At first I was a little nervous but I tried not to let it get to me. My first lesson did not work out how I planned at all. While I was teaching I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. A few weeks ago this would have made me so upset and stressed and I would have been even more nervous for the next lesson. But I didn't let it get to me. I just told myself, well I won't teach writing like that again. I learned from my mistakes. I don't know that I would even call them mistakes now. I LET myself learn from it. My second lesson went better and my third lesson (which my supervisor came for) was even better and she was very impressed too. Learning from my mistakes and letting myself be ok with them was a huge step for me, especially because that has been the main problem for me with all of this. I've learned that the things that don't go well help me learn just as much or even more than the lesson that do.
Learning this has made the biggest difference in my life. I feel like in the past I always learned how to get through stressful times, but when faced with a new situation I had no idea what to do. I didn't know how to apply the skills that I learned through therapy in the past 4 years or just through my experiences. But I think I've reached a point where I finally can do that. I've learned so much about myself through all of this and feel like I have a better connection with myself and who I am. I feel like I am really figuring out how to get past the anxiety in my life and am heading in an anxiety-free direction!
I want to thank everyone who has helped me since I found this group for all of the advice, guidance, and encouragement that has been given to me. This is the start of a new chapter in my life...a very good, positive chapter in which I will continue to grow, improve, and learn!
Here is my happy story... I was recently triggered by a story here on DS that sent one of my inner children running...I started to dissociate. I was able to identify which inner child was leaving and was able to bring her back into my physical body and calm her down within just a few minutes. And no lingering anxiety and panic either. There was a time when this particular trigger would have created an anxiety episode that lasted months..and now it lasts minutes. How great is that!? I was very happy and did a happy dance! :-)
Great post!
And thank you for sharing your success too! I love hearing about how others are able to overcome their anxiety. It is very encouraging and just reminds me that it is possible. That's great that you were able to get through that situation so quickly! Congratulations to you too, that really is something to smile and be happy about!!