Advice on getting over anxiety

Glad to hear you have been surrounding yourself with positive people, I think it really rubs off and is mutually beneficial. I also think it’s beneficial to mix with negative people IF you can encourage them, as I think all the encouragement you give them is also encouraging and reinforcing to yourself. But if they bring you down, avoid!

First about your treadmill experience. I think your feelings were totally acceptable given the circumstances and you shouldn’t beat yourself up over them. Literally millions of people get in a state over palpitations and now you have coped with it. Claire Weekes might argue that you could, if you felt comfortable, repeat the experience with a new “so what?” attitude, and really feel the palpations and listen to them subside as your body recovers from the exercise. Whatever happens, just accept whatever you think or feel and let it be there.

Stirring up old thoughts might not be a bad sign. I personally believe that panic attacks and phobias are your unconscious minds way of protecting you, and as we start to ignore that protective force we sometimes seem to drop through a layer. So old thoughts that come up are maybe closer to the root of your initial problem. I would be inclined to keep a note of those thoughts and explore with either a professional or a self help technique like EFT. (Go to a pro if they are traumatic), also feel free to tell me about anything that you want, sometimes it’s easier when the person is a faceless computer on the other side of the world! I think that without the CBT/Weekes element it’s very hard to overcome anxiety/panic, but maybe without dealing with some underlying thoughts it’s also hard to completely rid yourself off it. I may of course be wrong on that, it’s more of a hunch than anything scientific.

Being guarded against panic is normal, if you can accept being guarded in the same way you accepted symptoms then it will soon pass. You will probably just say to yourself one day “oh, I haven’t felt so guarded this week”. Try and let go of wanting to be rid of it.

People say it takes a lot of time but remember you are not them or an average, you are you! Claire Weekes claimed six weeks was possible and I am inclined to agree, it all comes down to not caring, to going with whatever comes up in the knowledge that it is harmless. I think sometime she talked about it as being like interference on a radio, just a bit of crackle in the background that will go away, or stop bothering you.

My recovery was not dissimilar to the way you are working. I feel that I learnt to accept the symptoms and indeed I haven’t had a panic attack for a long long time and the thought of having one doesn’t worry me too much. It’s hard to know when recovery equals a cure. I don’t think about anxiety or panic in my everyday life unless I am working on this website, so I think that’s pretty much a cure-state, although I couldn’t put my finger on a time and say “that was when I was cured”. I still do meditation, coz I think it keeps me feeling balanced. Of course not having anxiety doesn’t mean you don’t have things to worry about, nor does it mean you are 100% positive super-human. You still feel life’s ups and downs, in fact you feel them more so, as I think anxiety is quite numbing. You said that you are starting to feel things more and that is good! My anxiety used to be quite heavily linked to blood sugar, but now I can eat irregularly if work demands and not feel any symptoms or problems. Sometimes when I am stressed however I do need to keep my meals and snacks regular. I think I am lucky that I know that helps; colleagues who are under equal pressure to me are not able to help themselves in that way, remember that what you are learning now is with you for many situations in your life and future.

As for the underlying issues involved with my anxiety, general insecurity mostly, I think I am still working on them through my meditation. Again, I would say I am generally very happy with my life, but sometimes feel a little niggling absence, which is the remainder of my anxiety. I am torn a bit between accepting it as part of me and trying to resolve it. At any rate, the days when I used to fear anxiety and panic when I left my house are but a distant memory.

When you worry about getting worse not better, remember that it is your choice and will only happen if you give too much credence to symptoms which you know to be worthless. Claire Weekes thought setbacks were a part of recovery, and I wrote an article about it on my site coz I had several setbacks. Just keep going!!!! The setbacks I had always made me stronger and made me improve more than I had before, so don’t worry about going backwards. I don’t want to slander people that haven’t made and progress, but I get the feeling that they are people who are convinced that the answer lies outside them. They wish it would go away but won’t try and change their attitudes.

2 thoughts on “Advice on getting over anxiety

  1. you have alot of great information here.i truly believe that if you do not face the panic and anxiety head on that you cannot fully recover.the thing that is keeping us trapped in the cycle of panic is the fear of it.believe me when i say i know that this is easier said than done but its the only way to get over panic attacks completely.

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