Surviving Anxiety

Before anyone starts making fun or being rude..this is a serious, real, and life changing illness! It might just be my survival instincts kicking in, but I always feel the need to protect myself from people without anxiety. Growing up my mother was diagnosed and dealt with it frequently. The panic attacks were never graceful and never easy. It was a few years after highschool before my first experience. It was horrible. I couldn't eat and I didn't want. I lost 20 pounds over night and I'm not exaggerating. I was throwing up and having other issues as well. The worst part was feeling like a weight was on your chest. It never went away. It was always paired with feeling like you can't breathe even when you know that you are. People who don't understand often down play the symptoms or bully you. They will never understand the worst kind of sick is when your body is fighting your mind.

 

Anxiety is indeed a terrible condition. Anxiety drives my autoimmune disease into action, took away the function of my nervous system, ate away at my joints, and even caused me to develop an eating disorder. My mother suffered from panic attacks when I was a child, and I will forever remember those moments when she transformed from a strong woman to a veritable puddle of goo on the floor. Then I had to go and inherit the same issue, haha. But you know something? Despite the horror of anxiety and the craziness of panic attacks, I refuse to let it damage me further. I've learned through yoga and dance therapy how to control my anxiety. Cognitive behavioral therapy taught me how to use my analytical skills to assess why I'm feeling the way I am rather than spiraling out of control and overthinking scenarios that don't exist.

Sure, people might think you're weak or like you're damaged goods. Let them talk. People who handle anxiety disorders and similar afflictions are warriors, in my opinion. We fear the most redoubtable of foes daily--ourselves. We face our fears everyday, break down, build ourselves back up and keep pushing forward. Remember that whenever things seem impossible. You've survived before. You will continue to survive.

 

Valerie is right. Cognitive behavioral therapy can help someone deal with anxiety. It's the one thing that actually does work better than anything else [re: zoloft and other drugs].

Something else that could help is hypnotherapy. There are a number of people who say it helped them but problem is finding a hypnotherapist may not be easy.

And you could try meditation too. It may also help a little.

 

When my husband experienced the very first anxiety attack, he thought it was a heart attack. His extremities were cold and numb, his chest is heavy and breathing is a bit difficult. One thing that is noticeable is the air that he burps once in a while. And he also had a bit of difficulty talking because his lips were shaking. We went to a doctor and nearing the clinic, he jumped out of the vehicle when it was on a traffic stop and ran his way to the clinic. The doctor was surprised why it looked like an emergency. The doctor said that if it was a heart attack then he couldn't run that far.

That's the main problem with anxiety, the more you are scared, the more your breathing will be difficult. The more you think of your anxiety, the more you get anxious. And the best treatment is a relaxant or tranquilizer. I cannot imagine to be in a survival situation and my husband would have an anxiety attack. Maybe he would die, I really cannot say. Right now he is trying to learn how to control that attack by his mind power. Sometimes he succeeds, at other times he needed a tranquilizer.

 

I used to be an anxious wreck until I learnt to dissociate myself from my emotions. A person suffering from panic attacks has to resolve to wean him or herself out of it. Deep breathing exercises as well as periodic withholding of breath quickens the heart rate releasing feel good hormones like endorphins and norepinephrine to reduce these attacks.

 

I am dealing with the same thing and therapy and Celexa helped me out a bunch. I had a really traumatic experience that led me to have panic attacks. Now I have PTSD and agoraphobia. Yay! I am just being sarcastic, but I find that taking short walks in the morning and in the evening help me relax. Exercise and moving my body while listening to some self hypnosis tapes on relaxation is the best 20 minutes I can have to calm my mind.

 

I'm always the anxious type. Whenever I have to do something new, I always get anxious, and it stops me from enjoying anything and everything in front of me. That has always been my case ever since I was a kid, and I have found that doings some deep breathing exercises really do the trick for me. I also started wearing glasses, which helped when I am in public, because I hate being around people, and I have also learned wearing headphones do the trick as well. Combining all of these, and I have found the perfect barrier for my anxiety, which has helped me immensely through the years.

 

My wife had a miscarriage, then she had to go for gallbladder surgery. The first incident gave her mental pain and second gave her physical pain. Under these circumstances, my wife developed anxiety disorders. She went for medication for anxiety disorder, however, her condition did not improve for couple of weeks. Her pressure increased to 140/110,which other wise would be 110/70 and her heart rate was 144 beats in a minute.Anxiety disorder can go worse of not treated soon.

 

It's very unfortunate that we live in a world where mental illness is such an issue.. I wish you didn't have to start your post by telling people to take you seriously. As people have been saying in this thread, mental illness is as serious as any other illness. And the only way you can get better is by recognizing this, and getting help. You wouldn't try to get over pneumonia on your own. So why would you do that with anxiety? Get help! There are many qualified, understanding professionals who will go out of their way to help people with mental illnesses.

 

I tried meditating and going out as much as possible to survive anxiety. It had gotten to a point where I had multiple panic attacks per day and I couldn't hold a job down. Going out with friends constantly and having meaningful conversations helped a ton.

 

Wow Valerie, you are a survivor.

Lately, I've been letting anxiety destroy my life. I could learn a thing or two from you.

 

Thank God I don't have that kind of problem. I think the closest I got to having some "anxiety attack" was when I planed my first trip - to another country - alone, without the help of anyone. It was so damn exciting!

 

No one can make fun of you, I mean seriousely who never experienced Anxiety problems even once?? I agree with everything you said And most of people have anxiety problem But they are not even aware of it, for me that'sa serious issue that we should consider to deal with seriousely, If you notice these common symptoms like canstant fatigue, sweating, insomnia, Eccess fear or irritability you need to seek professional assistance but for me I'm a fan of yoga so I would also recommand to practice some meditation to help find some peace from inside you and communicate with the self

 

I think everyone experiences some level of anxiety from time to time. The major reason we experience anxiety is because of hopelessness at that point in time.
There was a time when I was very anxious about my career that I almost got depressed. God delivered me by His words of encouragement. That was how the healing came for me and I was able to move on.

My advice to an one in such a situation today is to put your whole trust in God's word.