Anxiety?

[daveindales]

You really should se a doctor. Anxiety can be a symptom of other diseases. They will probably do some blood tests. If they come back clean, then its definitely anxiety. I have suffered from it at times. Its under control at the moment, but I do get flare ups. I personally believe a lot of its to with your gene makeup. I'm very lucky to have a brilliant and understanding GP.

 

I find keeping busy and keeping the mind occupied help a lot. I was at my worse when I had too much time to think. Yes, as someone else said, take a look at the stress thread on here.

Edited April 1, 2013 by daveindales
mistake

[nepia]

Stress is an essential part of life - we all need it to a degree. Age and time do indeed reduce its effects, hence my somewhat lackadaisical attitude to most things!

 

What I found helped was to micro-analyse: what exactly am I fretting about? Break it down to its bare bones and it usually doesn't seem that bad after all.

 

For example, you're lying awake worrying about your finances.

Detail what you know is going out, what you know is coming in, what you reasonably expect to come in, what you can avoid going out even if temporarily. Chances are you'll realise that by not eating out for a few weeks or by cutting back on the booze for a bit the sums will add up.

Most things aren't as bad as our imaginations make them out to be when examined closely.

 

Another thing; a problem shared is a problem halved - don't bottle it up.

 

 

Best of luck; things will improve.

 

Jon

[Stephen Blair]

Great post Jon, I focus on the tiny problem and don't celebrate all the good stuff enough.

[LumberJake]

Go for a nice long relaxing climb, do a couple of limb walks then sit out on a limb for a while. Nice and comfy.

[Gerbutt]

Meditation!! I've had hypnosis before and it's fantastic, got rid of a bad fear of dogs when I was a kid and also for calming me down in my 20's when I was a bit of a psyco. The only down side to me about it is you have to pay.....but if it does the job then all's good I suppose. I'm now calmer than I've ever been due to taking up meditation. I've always had a fight or flight that was like a hair trigger and now it's not even thought about. There's a saying that goes, someone with depression lives in the past, someone with anxiety lives in the future, someone who's calm live in the now, the present moment. It's so true, when you meditate the first stage is present moment awareness, once you are totally in the moment then you start to watch the breath. You will have thoughts coming and going but just let them do that and return your attention to the breath. With practice the thoughts will fade away and you are just left with the breath. At this stage you will feel totally calm. The next stage when watching the breath, the breath starts to disappear, when this happens the feeling is blissful. When you come out of meditation you feel wonderful. The mind naturally loves to be calm, with practice it soon starts to trend towards this way. It's all good making plans for the future, everyone has to, but once they are made bring your mind back to the present moment. If you keep them in your head its like carrying round a big heavy bag and that will make you tired, unhappy and you won't sleep with all the thinking about them. Once you've put it down you'll feel light, energetic and you'll sleep like a baby as there's nothing on your mind. Just go back to your bag as and when needed to get the stuff of the moment out. A good example of present moment awareness, and the bag, is say a big tree dismantle. The tree has 40 branches, one of which is going to be a real challenge. Anxiety way of dealing with tree, look at tree, see hard branch, make plan for hard branch, start working on tree thinking about hard branch, worry through whole takedown and then get to hard branch, deal with hard branch using plan, all's good, finish tree. Present moment way, look at tree, see hard branch, make plan, put plan down, have a really good time and enjoy the moment on all the other 39 easy branches, get to hard branch, pick up plan and put into action, all's good, finish tree, fantastic day had by all! It was exactly the same day, just one thought of in the future and one in the now. See what I mean?

 

I could write for hours on this subject because its made such a difference to me and my life, and all friends I have taught it has changed their life's too. There's lots of FREE info on meditation on the net, don't go paying loads on any of the sites that say they will change your life for £xxxxxx......anxious people are easy to make money out of because they'll do anything to get rid of it.

 

Hope that helps. Have typed it on phone so may not be perfectly put across but hope it makes sense.

Edited April 1, 2013 by Gerbutt

[Paulfreebury]

Thankyou all for your replies, I feel slightly better for getting out in the open, I don't want to drag my wife down with me As she has enough to cope with, ill make an appointment to see my Gp for an mot and ill find a local hypnotherapist

And I might even squeeze into a little black number and run around the garden;0) Joking aside! I really do appreciate all your replies

Regards paul

[Paulfreebury]

Meditation!! I've had hypnosis before and it's fantastic, got rid of a bad fear of dogs when I was a kid and also for calming me down in my 20's when I was a bit of a psyco. The only down side to me about it is you have to pay.....but if it does the job then all's good I suppose. I'm now calmer than I've ever been due to taking up meditation. I've always had a fight or flight that was like a hair trigger and now it's not even thought about. There's a saying that goes, someone with depression lives in the past, someone with anxiety lives in the future, someone who's calm live in the now, the present moment. It's so true, when you meditate the first stage is present moment awareness, once you are totally in the moment then you start to watch the breath. You will have thoughts coming and going but just let them do that and return your attention to the breath. With practice the thoughts will fade away and you are just left with the breath. At this stage you will feel totally calm. The next stage when watching the breath, the breath starts to disappear, when this happens the feeling is blissful. When you come out of meditation you feel wonderful. The mind naturally loves to be calm, with practice it soon starts to trend towards this way. It's all good making plans for the future, everyone has to, but once they are made bring your mind back to the present moment. If you keep them in your head its like carrying round a big heavy bag and that will make you tired, unhappy and you won't sleep with all the thinking about them. Once you've put it down you'll feel light, energetic and you'll sleep like a baby as there's nothing on your mind. Just go back to your bag as and when needed to get the stuff of the moment out. A good example of present moment awareness, and the bag, is say a big tree dismantle. The tree has 40 branches, one of which is going to be a real challenge. Anxiety way of dealing with tree, look at tree, see hard branch, make plan for hard branch, start working on tree thinking about hard branch, worry through whole takedown and then get to hard branch, deal with hard branch using plan, all's good, finish tree. Present moment way, look at tree, see hard branch, make plan, put plan down, have a really good time and enjoy the moment on all the other 39 easy branches, get to hard branch, pick up plan and put into action, all's good, finish tree, fantastic day had by all! It was exactly the same day, just one thought of in the future and one in the now. See what I mean?

 

I could write for hours on this subject because its made such a difference to me and my life, and all friends I have taught it has changed their life's too. There's lots of FREE info on meditation on the net, don't go paying loads on any of the sites that say they will change your life for £xxxxxx......anxious people are easy to make money out of because they'll do anything to get rid of it.

 

Hope that helps. Have typed it on phone so may not be perfectly put across but hope it makes sense.

 

That makes a lot of sense, thanks

[Rob D]

Sorry long post in the end! As said books and books on the subject!

 

 

 

 

Used to work with people with anxiety (as an occupational therapist) and also have suffered myself.

 

 

My experience is that anxiety takes a while to get the stage to the point u think 'I can't cope with this any more ' - but just in posting this thread up you've accepted there is a problem which means you can now deal with it.

 

 

Anxiety is something that everyone can suffer from given the right (or rather wrong) circumstances... but sometimes it becomes a 'rut' that you feel you can't escape from.

 

 

As human beings we tend to condition ourselves all the time with internal thoughts. These are far more powerful than you give them credit for and also they don't necessarily have an instant effect.

 

 

With anxiety you tend to start programming yourself without realising it to be on edge and worried. Picturing worst case scenarios and how you would feel if they happened. I think this is a sort of protection for yourself gone wrong - you think that by worrying about something and picturing it you can then figure out what you would do if that happened.

 

 

That's fine and good but there are infinite bad things that can happen out there so by replaying numerous bad situations in your head your sub conscious is going to start thinking they are happening - that's when you get the 'flight or fight' response (quite a good vid here if a bit cheesy from 2.40 [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g25d7_Afmc]Adrenaline: Fight or Flight Response - YouTube[/ame]). So you get the symptoms of heart racing, sweats, heightened awareness, - a good reaction if you're running from a fire - not good if you're trying to sleep .

 

 

So some coping strategies:

 

(bear in mind - it takes a while to get to the stage when anxiety is a problem in your life, it's going to take a while to get back again. There is no instant pill IMO).

 

 

 

• Practical ways - try to cut down on tea, coffee and alcohol. Note - cut down not cut out altogether! Eat healthily. Stay hydrated. You tend to grab at quick foods when stressed and anxious.
  

 

• Meditation/relaxation - plenty of info out there. This helps stop the flight/fight response from flaring up at the wrong times.
  

 

• Often it's when you have time off, holiday or similar you can get a surge of 'symptoms' - which is more worrying because you think "I've had a lovely day and I'm feeling like this!!!" Stress and anxiety do not work like light switches... they can pop up at the strangest of times.
  

 

 

• When you worry try not to invent fictitious situations. Save your worrying for things are are actually happening not that might happen. My stats would be 30% of the time I worry about things that deserve to be worried about, 70% of my time I worry about 'what if' scenarios.
  

 

 

 

• Try and use that 70% wasted energy to then problem solve your real worrys so that then you know there's plan in place so you don't have to worry about them!
  

 

 

 

• Challenge negative thoughts - whenever you drift into negative thoughts challenge them with facts i.e. "I'm going to have a bad year this year because the phone has been dead, I only have enough work for 2 weeks, how will I pay the mortgage?" with "the phone is always quiet this time of year, I have a couple of quotes to do that may come off, I've been in this situation many times before and always paid the mortgage so chances are things will work out this time".
  

 

 

 

• Be kinder to yourself - a lot of stress is self generated. Goals are good but not if they are un realistic. Take some pressure off yourself - we all make mistakes, we often don't perform as well as we'd like. Don't batter yourself with things that have already happened or things you have no control over.
  

 

 

 

• Feel the fear and do it anyway - a good book to read! Bad things can happen to us all at any time and often do but don't let that stop you living life. Have the confidence in yourself to say 'ok this may happen but if it does I'll deal with it'.
  

 

 

 

• Decision making - try and make decisions that put you and family first rather than work and other responsibilities. Stress is the mainstay of anxiety and so you need positive things in your week that you enjoy to combat it. Putting work first sometimes has to happen... but keep doing that and you run into problems.
  

 

 

 

• Work smarter not harder. You may think that there is nothing you can change to make things run smoother - but usually taking a step back, getting advice, changing the way you look at things can free up time and money. The old Abraham Lincoln quote is always a good one "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."
  

 

 

 

• Serenity prayer - there are a lot of things in life that are outside our control - so by trying to figure out a way to control or predict these things we often cause ourselves a lot of stress. There is a good message in this prayer.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,Courage to change the things which should be changed,and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Living one day at a time,Enjoying one moment at a time,Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,Taking this sinful world as it is.'

 

 

 

[Gerbutt]

Good I'm pleased it does. Remember the only way to stop it is start doing something different, so have a google and start 20mins a day. Defo try this before going down the tablet route, they will just mask the feelings, good for a while but meditation has no side effects......apart from bliisfulness and a big smile. Hypnosis is very good if you can afford it, but back it up with meditation too 👍

[Stephen Blair]

Great posts guys, Gerbut well done!

Now who's the video of the mad guy in the dress running around the garden:lol: