My anxiety status, and whats helped!

[Craig80]

Morning folks. Iv not been on here for a few months for one reason or another.

I started suffering from anxiety around May time, after a night out....the next morning, I woke up having my first panic attack, and it scared the crap out of me. Since then I had been suffering Anxiety, first health anxiety, i was paranoid i was having serious health probs, heart probs, brain probs, organ probs, etc, then just general anxiety for no reason at all! just constantly feeling anxious inside. It was effecting my life, a lot!

After the doc said i was healthy, and gave me some tablets to calm my heart down if i needed, I went off in search of how to deal with this in my own head. after all its in there where all this comes from in the first place! I only had 2 of the tablets over a few months, as I didnt want to take them unless I really needed to.

Anyway to cut a long story short, iv now learned how to not feel anxious, both from info from this site, from reading 'self help for your nerves' (great book) and also making a few significant changes in my life.

- I sorted my finances out (big big releaf of stress)
- I've stopped spending so much time on a computer
- I've got out of a relationship which wasnt working
- I've started seeing another girl who i really like
- I've started spending more time with friends
- I've stopped eating chocolate, sweets, caffeen, other than on the odd special occasion.
- I've started on a very healthy diet, including taking vits and fish oils
- I've started back at the gym on a regular basis, and have a strict routine planned out.
- I've got back into a hobby of cars which iv always loved.

As well as all this lot, iv come to accept in my own mind, that the feelings I had inside where all created by myself, and that it was completely stupid of me to let this happen.

If i get a strange pain, or ache from anything, i dont automatically get that instant feeling of fear like before, i just let it pass, and am completely calm, and as if by magic, it dissapears!

then once the confidence builds up inside, the calmness comes, and i can honestly say that after feeling anxious 24/7 the feeling of complete calmness inside is the best feeling in the world!

I will say that im not 100% over it just yet, I still feel the odd thing lingering in the background, particularly after a night out, or if im feeling crap and tired, but it never comes through fully. its kind of just hovering around, and im subconciously fighting it away. im confident that this will also stop soon enough!

Luckily this whole experience only lasted a few months, and I know a lot of people suffer for years, but i can guarantee anyone can get through this, you just need the right frame of mind, and the confidence inside that you can get through it, so the best of luck to anyone trying, and please believe me that it can be done!

[tam]

hi craig just like to say well done for what youve achieved.Iwill definatly think about the things youve said and try to apply that to myself i know were your coming from but its very hard to do as you probaly know .well done again and hope i will be posting something like this soon.tc:)

[Craig80]

it is very difficult. and its impossible to understand unless you have experienced it.

it might sound mad, but when i felt it coming, i would say to myself inside, bring it on...give me your best shot, and just relaxed myself completely, and it then passed and it never came!

after a while of doing this, i started doing it automatically, and without even realising it, and it was out of mind!

its definitely good to have things to do to take ur mind off of it also! if you have something else to genuinely occupy your mind, not just making the effort to take your mind off of the anxiety, then this helps also.

good luck! you definitely have it in you to get over it all! :D

[Sue K with 5]

Well done to you craig


Great post and so pleased that this was all so achievable for you, its great when someone manages to achieve their goals and you have done so well.

I think You have really helped yourself and maybe thats something which I could try doing to help achieve my goals.


Thank you



sue

scknight

[nomorepanic]

Craig

Well done and thanks for the great post and update.

"People will forget what you said
People will forget what you did
But people will never forget how you made them feel"


Nicola

[heavymind]

Brilliant is the list of things that you have changed. Keep it up.

Regards

asdf

[strawberrie]

hi Craig, well done on all you've achieved.

i was just wondering if you had any ways of motivating yourself to actually stick to the things you have done?

Most of the things on your list are things i identify with and would like to do, but i find it very hard to motivate myself to do things, and even if i start something (like an exercise regime) i end up giving up after a while.

I feel like I do know what things i should be doing to make myself feel better, but i think because there's so many of them, it all seems a bit overwhelming, and i don't know where to start [Sigh...]

Did you choose a few particular things to concentrate on, or did you just suddenly wake up one morning and think 'i'm going to change my life'?

any advice would be much appreciated.:D

mag

[ceecee]

hi craig what a really great post that is!!!i,m so pleased for you!!!it,s like you say our minds are our own worst enemy at times,but only we can turn our minds way of thinking around!!!
i wish you the best of luck in the future(an anxiety free one)!!!!
take care rachel x

[Craig80]

hi :)

i think the key is to genuinly have things to think of, and thus taking your mind off of the anxiety naturally, without trying to hard to keep your mind off of it.

i would be driving home from work, and suddenly remember about the anxiety thing, then id be constantly reminding myself about it! this would happen quite a lot, but i would then try and get back onto what i was originally thinking about, without trying too hard to keep my mind off of the anxiety!

its very very hard. It's basically mental torture. i think of it as the bad 'devil' on one side keep prodding me and reminding me, and on the other side the good 'angel' thats evertything good in life keeping my mind on other 'nice' things!

I think my main thing was the diet/healthy eating. My aim was to put on a lot of size, so i read up no end of info on the internet about what i should be eating, what vitamins, suppliments i should have, learnt how to cook new things, and made myself a different dinner every ngiht as well as food for work, made myself a strict gym routine, with goal, and basically stuck to it! my mind was on that almost all the time, was i was eating every 3 hours, and in the gym 4 nights a week.

At work, i tried to get into some projects, and things that required more of my attention, to keep my occupied. at the end of the day, id think wow, felt great today, mind has been off any bad anxiety feelings, and its helped no end!

i also stopped smoking (only ever social smoked), and limited drinking to a sat night only. cut out all unhealthy foods, which made my confidence of health a lot higher, which has helped no end!

i had a lot of chest pain originally, shooting pains, the usual, and they used to scare me, but iv learnt to not let them, and if they are there then so what, let them pass, and dont worry in the slightest about them. they are part of anxiety, and are not harmfull. this has helped reduce them no end.

just completely relex your whole body, take slow deep breaths, and let any bad feelings pass through you!

i read that the way to combat anxiety is to not fear fear!

the reaon that we feel anxious inside is because we are scared of feeling anxious, and you end up being stuck in a viscous circle, and the cause then produced the symptoms, which then produce the cause and so on!

after all we are the greatest creatures on earth, and we can control these thoughts and feelings, it just takes time and effort to train your mind to do so.

good luck!! [8D]

[spuds]

Excellent post Craig. I think diet and exercise really help. The permanent cure definitely comes from within I think. Well done.