Anxiety, our friend?

[Stormsky]

I know that anxiety is a fear response to a situation preceived to be dangerous, fight or flight response. And i know that due our irrational fears, we can constantly feel anxious, when we are not actually in danger. And that our constant fears keep the anx alive.

However, i have also liked to believe that its also a way of our mind/body talking to us, telling us to stop thinking that way, or telling us it doesnt believe our irrational worries and we need to make some changes in our thinking/lives.

For example i used to constantly tell myself i was going crazy, and would be in a mental hospital eventually... i got to believe the anxiety this caused was my mind saying its not true and telling me to STOP IT ....and i eventually let that thought go. I found more comfort in believing my mind was trying to help me by telling me its not true, your not mad, than just believing the anx was a fear response to my fear...i mean that way, to me,if its just a fear response, it was still a fear that could be true. (although irrational)

So me being me, just me believing this isnt enough, and have trawled Mr Google, to see if there is any other belief in this thought...and found this-

http://www.robertjsolomon.com/anxiety.html

im not saying anxiety is not a fear response, it is, but im saying perhaps its a sign from our mind/body too thats actually trying to help us...

What do you think?

[sickandtired]

thanks for sharing that stormsky....very interesting.....and really makes sense
I especially liked this bit....
"Experiencing anxiety is no different then feeling hunger pains. Anxiety is the body’s attempt to direct our attention inward to our inner wisdom. Each of us has within an incredible resource whose purpose is to maintain and promote our well-being by reestablishing balance in our lives. Thus when we are feeling anxious, the first thing to do is to connect to this inner wisdom and ask for guidance as to how we have gotten out of balance and what we need to do to get back in balance.
The answer could be as simple as that we are working too hard, not getting enough sleep, worrying too much, or not spending enough time connecting with friends or family. It could be any number of different things. The important point to remember is that the answer is always within us and completely available to us."


i NEVER ever thought of my anxiety as my 'friend' but this has really got me thinking :unsure:
maybe the panic attacks were a wake up call??

[Stormsky]

Its like when you feel a gut feeling about something, be it a relationship thats maybe not right, or a job..... that too is your mind/body telling you something needs to be changed as its not right... i mean your gut feeling could just be a mild form of anxiety surely anyway!

[sickandtired]

oh yes....those gut feelings are usually very right!!

[lizzie29]

Re the bit about anxiety being no different to hunger pains - I've been trying to tell myself something similar for a while now. With anxiety, you often worry about being worried and fear fear. As I don't suffer from HA, I've been telling myself "you wouldn't worry if you had a sore throat, so why worry about these other physical feelings?"

I like the idea of anxiety being a means of telling us something, but I guess it takes a lot of practice to have it 100% believed by your brain.

Interesting post, thanks!

[Stormsky]

oh yes....those gut feelings are usually very right!!

I remember being in an interview for a job with boss of the company, and all the signals and gut telling me this is not for you, i didnt like his attitude in the interview, certain things he said made me feel im not going to like him!! but i took the job anyway, and sure enough hated every bit of my time there! left after 8 months,... if only id listened to that gut feeling!!

---------- Post added at 21:36 ---------- Previous post was at 21:32 ----------

[keta]

Hi stormsky
it's quite interesting reading, if i put it into practise i'd say some of my increased anxiety is down to my relationship and i always had a gut feeling that this won't ever work, but my anxiety initially started with my pregnancy or just before and i still can't work out why. maybe if i had the answer i would be able to deal with it better.

[Stormsky]

My problem has always been overthinking everything... i get an answer for something, then think what if that answer wasnt right and theres a different explanation.... perhaps my anx kicked in to tell me to stop overthinking! maybe my overthinking caused the going mad feeling, or maybe my mind made me feel that, so that i would get anxious enough to stop thinking so much!
see im doing it again, looking for a different explanation for my thoughts again!

[keta]

it's like a vicious circle isn't it , sometimes i think it's best not to think at all, but i'm just like you over thinking everything what's going n in my life, then i start doubting myself and think it's probably all my fault what is happening to me

[Stormsky]

Your right Keta, best not to think...i mean we will never really know the answers to everything, or if our thinking or analysing is correct... whatever correct is? different to all of us im sure....
i think im going to stick to the anxiety feelings i get are my mind telling me to stop my stupid thinking and stupid thoughts, as theyre not good for me!

[sickandtired]

mmm....at the moment my meds seem to have stopped my intrusive thoughts......but its hard to know when a normal thought or worry becomes intrusive......I find myself thinking...."is this a normal worry? or am i making it worse in my head?"
I suppose even though Im feeling much better,there,s still that 'what if?' whispering in the back of my mind.....
so long as it stays a whisper,i,ll be happy

[Stormsky]

So, is anxiety just our bodies response to our fears...as we we have just triggered our fight or flight, whether its valid or not....
or is our body responding to our negative fears by giving us anxiety as a message its not happy with our thinking and to stop it?