Here is my reply to yesterday’s email.
“Hi!
It sounds to me like you’ve been going great guns at dealing with your panic
attacks! I think that’s great and I would love to publish an article by you
on my site. I think you could inspire a lot of people! Just write about
whatever you want that would be most helpful to others. Also, with your
permission I would like to put a few extracts from your email in my blog and
discuss them a little. If that’s cool with you let me know if u would like
your name mentioned or withheld.
I think what you have done with your recovery is great, but I will add my
two-cents worth just coz you asked! 🙂
You said :
“Anyways, so I know there is no cure for anxiety, but you can say now that
you’re recovered from dealing with the constant strain of it?”
I would argue that there are many people who are cured, as they no longer
have any symptoms or have it interrupt their lives. So if that is the case
how can they be said to still have an anxiety disorder? Ok, so the human
body always has the capacity for the flight or fight response, so its always
there. And maybe if you have had anxiety or panic attacks in the past you
are more in tune to those feelings and might recognise them and label them
as anxiety or panic, where’s others might just see them as the outcome of a
stressful situation. But that does not mean you have an anxiety disorder.
If I were you I would believe that you can completely overcome this. And it
sounds to me like you are well on the way! Perhaps the idea that there is no
cure is a little negative thinking creeping in?
You said :
“I just think I’m afraid of losing my mind or reverting back to my old ways”
Anxiety and panic never make people lose their mind, it only ever makes them
think they will lose their mind. I dunno if you are religious or not, but
whether you believe in evolution or creation someone or something went to
great lengths to make the flight or fight response into a highly effective
mechanism in almost all living things to protect them from danger. It is
effective because it makes you feel very very very unpleasant. That is why
it is so good at making you run away from danger. When you try to ignore it
you are going up against god/4 million years of evolution! But you can win!
Because although it is unpleasant it is harmless, and i mean totally
harmless. It is the worst feeling which can not ham you at all, all other
nasty human feelings can harm you, like the sensation of being burnt by hot
food, and make you act coz its physically dangerous. Flight and fight is not
dangerous at all. It just is specially designed to appear that way to make
you move. It is also always temporary. As your body recognises that there is
no danger god/evolution comes on your side, and quickly calms you down. The
less you demand it the quicker it comes. The old paradox!
If you want to, you can chose to react to your symptoms and go back to your
old way (presumably avoidance and fear?|). That will be your choice, no one
else will make you do it. So do you want to react to them or let them be? It
is up to you. Don’t worry that you might go back to old habits in the same
way as you might worry that it may rain at the weekend. You can’t control
the rain, You can chose not to react to your harmless symptoms safe in the
knowledge that they will never make you mad or crazy!
You said:
“It’s so hard when you feel nervous though – its hard to keep those thoughts
at bay “
Well, I think Claire Weekes, if she were still alive, would say “Why keep
them at bay? Let them come, let them be there, let them go, accept them.”
This is a bit similar to the Sedona Method, if you go into them and let them
hover in your mind you will see through them. Learning to accept and
therefore paradoxically get rid of thoughts like these is very important.
And it sounds like you are doing really well at it!
So, there are my opinions, hope its not critical, its not meant to be! I am
just left wondering if you ever considered tackling causes or underlying
beliefs? Can be powerful and also frustrating and long winded. I found that
my anxiety turned from phobias to generalized free-floating anxiety, and
then to depression and insecurity as I removed layers. Just a thought, let
me know what you think about it. And do write that article(s)!
Write back soon!
