CHALLENGING YOUR THOUGHTS

Hiya,

I finally feel i am getting better and it mainly down to challenging my thoughts!! i remember in a post way back Meg said that she regretted causing her family so much worry (not a direct quote but something like that) and I remember thinking 'IT ISN'T MY FAULT i HAVE ANXIETY'. no it wasn't my fault I got it but it certainly my fault it has spiralled. Now I stop myself when having these thoughts I tell myself how irrational I am being and stop avoiding things. I have now got to a position where I can stop myself checking my throat (to see if it is closing up and I am going to die!!)
I can now replace 'bad' thoughts with rational ones.

I think the lightbulb moment has arrived and I now accept the only way I get get better is by accepting it is me who is making myself worse and changing it!

With the help of this forum, lifestyle changes and the above I finally feel i am getting somewhere. If i can stop these thoughts or at least change them around I think I am going to be OK. I know I might fall down sometimes along the way but that's okay I'll just get back up again (nothing can be as bad as a few months ago when I thought i had a mental illness!!!)

Thanks Guys
Love
Lucky

Hi Lucky

So glad you are feeling better. I have had a period of reckoning too, and realise that whilst I have not made myself ill in the first place, or let myself get any worse, my negative thoughts (built up over the last three years) are stopping me from improving.

It's really great when you realise that you can challenge your mind and re-gain control over your thoughts, minds and bodies.

And to anybody who is reading this who is thinking well it's ok for them, I'm really ill, they don't know what I feel like, well .....

Yes we do.
We have been there.
We have thought we were literally going insane.
We could not see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I had resigned myself to living the rest of my life feeling like this, it was my "normal".

But with the help and support of people on this site, and following advice from them, doctors, taking CBT, and generally being determined YOU CAN DO IT TO.

Well done Lucky, keep on getting better.

And to everybody else, little steps, you WILL get there


Charlie

Dear Lucky and Charlie,

Wow, well that's progress for you. It takes an awful lot for us to finally admit it and Lucky thats perfectly right- We don't cause it but we do allow and even perpetuate it. I just didn't see it or click for ages and ages either...

It's a hard road to travel and it's not the one definative answer as you both say but I would say it's well over the 50% mark.

It now takes time to ingrain it and whilst anxiety may never disappear in a puff of smoke , knowing how to handle it does take away much of the unpredicability of the fear it commands.

Congratulations to you both..


Meg

Watch your thoughts, they become your words...
Watch your words, they become your actions... Watch your actions, they become your habits... Watch your habits, they become your character... Watch your character, it becomes your destiny...

I am happy to read your post. I have discovered the same.
All along I have been waiting for some words or some Doctor
to give me something or say something that will make it better.
I have recently discovered that it is only me that can make the difference. I either want to be happy or sad. Sane or insane.
I can worry or not worry. Now I know what to do, it is just doing this. Somedays though is not as convincing as others. My fear is that maybe my worry is less than normal and the pains will start up again or I still think about the what ifs. So I guess I still have a ways to go. But reading your post makes me feel I am on the right track.
Trina

Trina

Excellent! I'm so glad you are feeling better.

Love, light and Best wishes
Liz xxx

[:p] Panic Monster & Scatty Eccentric

lucky,and charlie,

you are two wonderful ladies,and over the past few months,you have both come on leaps,and bounds,and ime so proud of you both.

it has to start,with little steps,you both used this as your mantra,but as meg says,keep working at it,cos that bright lite,is nearly in reach for you both.

best wishes..bryan.

Thanks Bryan

And without you, Meg, Nic, Sadie, Sarah, Pauline and all the others who've contributed to my mad ramblings, I wouldn't be where I am now.

MEG - 50% bugger, I'd hoped I'd hit 75%!!!!!

Still 50% of 100% is better than 50% of nothing!!!

Love

Charlie

Hiya guys,

Trina - I was the same, i was hoping one day I would wake up and it would have disappeared but it didn't really register (or i didn't want it too) that it had been a long time coming and it would take some time (and work) to get rid of it and it was TOTALLY up to me.!

Charlie i totally agree that we have all been there and done it which is why this forum is so great because we know we aren't alone!!!
It does take however a while (in my case anyway!) before it clicks to you that it can get better but you have to work bl'''y hard at it - As i said in my post Meg told me a few times of lightbulb moments and of getting 'better' but unless it actually clicks that we are feeding our fears with our actions (and it has just clicked to me) we will carry on being 'over anxious' (for want of a better way to put it!)
I'm so glad you are getting better mate your support has been endless and you have listened (well read) to me being panicky, upset, anxious, neurotic and insane, you always replied to me even when I was gibbering and you'll never know how much i appreciate it!! (and you send me lovely little fluffy things!)


Liz - thanks for your kind words it is messages like these that make me feel happy to be part of this forum!

Bryan - Thanks Bryan for your nice words (as always) your support has been amazing (from Piles to horses and back again!!)
baby steps all the way (it seems to be working as well)

Meg - Your support and kind words have also been invaluable as has your immense knowledge and realism!!

Anyway i know I have gabbled and I have read this through and it sounds like I won't be posting again. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. This forum helped me regain alot of my sanity (well get back what little I had)and I know I have a long way to go yet but hopefully someone new reading this post from me can look back at some of my earlier posts and see you can get better and I have come from my introducing yourself post to this feeling better post and gain some hope from it(or getting there post however you want ot look at it)

Thanks Guys
love
Lucky

Well Done Charlie and Lucky,

I am so pleased that you both are finally feeling that there is light at the end of this scary road. You have worked hard to finally feel they way you do now...you have perserved and been patient with yourselves. Keep up the good work and this year will be yours to be free of the PANIC MONSTER!!!

Keep us posted on your road to recovery.

Take care

sadie

It's good to read of these success stories. 2004 has been anxiety free for me so far, and this forum has definately helped. It just reassures me to know that everything and anything anxiety has thrown at me has been experienced by someone else, and that a new-ish symptom isn't necessarily something "really serious this time". I would say, however, to be prepared for setbacks and, when they appear out of the blue, dampen them down with positive thoughts. After all, it was my last serious encounter with the panics that found me this website!

Jim