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...
Today I had a situation where I had a thought of a snippet of something I had read (related to anxiety). I could not remember where I had read it and then started the search through my browser history. I wasn't finding if and was growing more and more anxious. I'm not sure how much time passed but I thought to look in a book that I had recently bought on my Nook. That is where I found what it was I was looking for. The amount of relief I felt was immense. While I was searching for if though, you would have thought it was life or death...my anxiety was so high and I was afraid I may end up losing my mind if I couldn't find it. Well, that was that....but wouldn't you know it, a few hours later I has a couple more snippets come to me....and that same urgency came over me to find them...to rememver where I'd read them....well I found one but not the other. There is a lot of anxiety associated with the one I couldn't find but I've decided that no matter how much anxiety it creates, I am just going to let it remain unfound. If I don't go ahead and nip this in the bud I invision many hours of searches that would come up short because as much as I read I could be getting snippets in my mind left and right and there's no way I can remember where I saw them all. The snippets of stuff I've read and the search for them is my obsession and the finding them is the compulsion.....finding them gives me a feeling of great relief. Has anyone ever had anything similar to this? My anxiety/ocd has been pretty bad lately....and now this.
Here's where I *think* it comes from.
I think we're pretty sensitive creatures - not weak - but very in tune with the world. I can't stand a fast paced, crazy, frenzied environment because it literally feels like my head is buzzing.
As children, we likely didn't have a lot of choice. We had to go to school, shopping, where ever our parents took us and it was often loud, crowded and crazy.
And parents are often rushing from one thing to another so they're always saying "hurry! hurry!" and for me - I always preferred to ease into and out of things. I wanted to take an hour after waking up to just lay there and adjust to being awake but within 10 minutes of being up, I was done with breakfast, teeth brushing and in the car to head to school or lessons. I wasn't even awake yet!
I remember feeling like I was in heaven when we went to a gallery or museum and I wanted to just stare at maybe 3 or 4 pieces over the course of an afternoon - reading the little info plaque and pondering every aspect. But my parents wanted me to see as much as possible. I felt I just could NOT catch my breath!
I had a lot of anxiety as a kid and no one really got it. Now, as an adult, I can take my time but as a kid, wow! And those messages are ingrained. So when I can't find a song title or whatever I feel like it's the end of the world because I get my parents' voice in my head telling me I have to hurry up or they'll be angry or I'll be disappointed.
Don't know if that fits for you. I've found the solution to just slow life down and take my time.