vivid imagination

[claireuk]

Hello
Im imagining allsorts today.I keep imagining myself in social situations and having a panic attack and not being able to cope.Also om feeling guilty cos i havent seen my sister or my friends for over 6 months because of my intense symptoms and not feeling i can cope,feeling like im going to lose it and im getting new sensations keep getting warm rushes through my body and splashes of panic and fear my face feels really warm and im not sleeping.I thought it was never going to end in my bed last nite.I did try to do the method but i was so tense eventually i did get some sleep but it was broken sleep kept waking up.Also i keep thinking im never going to get well the thought of everything scares me simple things i even imagine bad things happening to me if i went out in a car.I got a text froma friend today saying they would like to see me but it terrifies me.Maybe im thinking to much.Im thinking ahead arent i thats the problem.Im trying to get my life back and i feel ive made some progress but i dont know if im doing enough.Yeah i go out for walks everyday sometimes twice a day and even venture a fair distance from the house and ive started going in shops even though its only down a few aisles.Its the thought of being around friends or family that scare me and its daft cos nothing bad will happen to me but its coping with my intense feelings whilst theyre here and trying to concentrate on conversation,My mind is just racing worrying.Sorry for ranting on needed to express myself.
claire xx

[NoPoet]

Hi ClaireUK,

It's not so much that you are over-thinking. You actually aren't putting enough thought into it.

For example, constantly worrying about social situations is vague, takes up a lot of time and energy, and creates an unstoppable behemoth of a problem which will only make you retreat from life even further.

What you need to do is put some time into the specifics of your problem. You need to think about why you fear social situations. You need to narrow things down slightly. So instead of a massive, unknowable fear of meeting with friends, what is it that is really causing the fear?

Are you afraid they'll ask you how you've been and you'll have to re-live all your anxiety by telling them about it? Are you worried they'll find you boring or offensive, or you'll make a fool of yourself?

It may be that you aren't afraid of social situations themselves - you may be scared you'll mess them up. In that case, bigging yourself up is a good way to beat this problem. You should consider listing all of the things you know you can do well. Maybe write a brief autobography of yourself. There's no need for false modesty and don't be shy, you aren't posting it on Facebook, it's for your eyes only.

In a sense this is kind of the same advice I am now giving to everybody. You need to put more specific thought into your problems. This will be tough at first, so don't push yourself too hard, but it does need to be done. If you can split a massive problem up into several smaller points you might be amazed at how "free" you may feel.

It's called divide and conquer: split the problems up and you can crush them one at a time. This means you will need to deliberately ignore some problems in order to beat others. You can always get to the other stuff later. Don't try to combat every little issue or negative thought: when you move up to dealing with the tougher problems you may find that lots of smaller issues such as negative thoughts and self-doubts go with them.

Try to deal with the less painful issues first. As with getting exercise, you are more likely to stick at it if you build your confidence gradually by starting with the easy things.