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'm a person who has had anxiety attacks for years, but I've recently come to understand that I lived my Whole Life being anxious. The attacks did not start until my late 30s, but the way I've been Living, all my life, probably created a scenario for the attacks.
Not everyone with problems gets anxiety attacks as a result. And to me, there is a difference between getting a short panic attack, due to a fear of something (like being in crowds, or being in an elevator, etc) - and having generalized anxiety, accompanied by attacks.
I get the full-blown kind now - different from how it was 15 or so years ago, when they first started. And mine are getting downright Unhealthy, as I get older.
I take medication for mine, because I have been So fearful! And the meds help. But I am also observing something Else, that is helping - and I expect it to Continue to help. It's called 'Being in the Now', which is probably similar to what they teach in a DBT class or something, and it is Working.
I'm never thinking about Right Now; I'm doing something, but I'm thinking about Later, or Yesterday, or something. I'm washing the dishes and thinking about what Else I have to do. I'm in the car but I'm thinking about where I'm Going, what I'm going to do when I Get there, etc etc. I am never just "In the Now".
And it causes an imbalance; my body is Here, but my brain is There, and it's like a contortionist inside, trying to be one place And another! My energy is all messed up when I do this, every time. It's no Wonder I get anxiety attacks.
So I'm practicing affirming where I Am, and what I am Doing, when I am there - like saying aloud, "I am washing the dishes", when that's what I'm doing. When I'm in the car, I will say, "I am riding in the car."
Sounds funny? Hey - it's Working. I need the verbal reminder, by saying those things, that I Am 'right there where I am', doing what I'm doing - it takes my mind away from all the Other things I am worrying about - things that already happened, or things that haven't happened yet! - and I can Feel my body relax when I am only One place, doing One thing, at a time.
Long post, but I thought I would share. Being in the Now does not replace my need for medication at this time, but it's a Help, in ways I never Knew I needed.
Do you find yourself thinking too much about where you're going, or where you've been, to enjoy being in Your 'Now'?
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I did the dumbest thing today. I charged my earbuds, unplugged the block and put the block in my little bag instead of the earbuds. I wasn't happy about that when I got to the gym. What a dummy!
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Years ago, I won a mirrored armoire from my job. It's in my bedroom but I rarely stand in front of it. Yesterday, I had to have a dexascan done so I had to change into a gown. There was a full length mirror in the changing room. I'm aware that I gained 5 to 7 pounds over the last year from cheating on Keto but I didn't know what it looked like. It was a reality check.
Here is an article about Vetiver Oil that might help also. I have not tried it but I think I might.
https://draxe.com/vetiver-oil/?utm_source=promotional&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20161109_newsletter_curated_leakygutcombo&id=christinaperez3@yahoo.com
When I don't sleep well I am more susceptible to anxiety. I have found a natural help, with L-theanine, called "Tranquil Sleep" at the health food store.
Also, I have been trying Stress Magnesium from the same store; it helps me when I have, like, social anxiety and such :)
if you think of the past you can resolve it emotionally, which is vital, but you can't change it. Understanding what you've got out of it, learning everything it can offer is a worthwhile way to handle the past. Anything else however is NOT a worthwhile thing to do, so there's no logical point doing it.
If you think of the future you can plan for it. But you can't affect it. And often when you get to the future, you realise the plan you made doesn't work. So you learn from experience to work out your timing for addressing things.
I decide when I will decide something, and I don't think about it till then. I had to learn this. It didn't come easy. But it means I can offload the task for now, and live more relaxed in the now, enjoying what now has to offer.
Now is the moment of power. Now is the thing you can affect. How dreadful to mess up all of your nows because your head wasn't in the game.
All of our problems can boil down to our head not being in the now when our body was. Us saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing, because we were distracted, because we didn't sleep last night, because we didn't have a good dinner... all sorts of reasons. But imagine if we were always operating well in the now. Doing now what we need to do now so that the next now we came into we were free to do that now's stuff?
Anxiety is the biggest enemy of getting life right I know. It has impacted so pointlessly on so much of my life. it has made me obsess for hours over something I did or said that probably was immedicately forgotten. Nobody else in the world hyperanalyses the way an anxiety sufferer does. And nobody is as self-obsessed. The rest of the world isn't thinking about me 24/7 and putting me down for what I did wrong. The rest of the world is at their friend's house having a beer, or watching the game, or doing their lawns. The rest of the world doesn't give a stuff if I die tomorrow. They don't care what clanger I might have dropped, or bad report I might have written. They're over it.
Because they're living in THEIR now. That's how normies live. And that's why they're not screwed up like us. :D They let things go immediately.