It does just go away ya know!!

[candie]

Hey everybody,i just wanted to say a few words if i can...
Ive suffered with anxiety and panic for the best part of 15 years now and ive come to a conclusion..when youre having a s$*t time it will just GO AWAY OF ITS OWN ACCORD.I'm ok at the mo after suffering probably the worst setback ive ever had starting at the beginning of summer(well in May).Straight away i reached for all the books/cds/downloaded e-books/ that ive spent a fortune on over the last few years and started immediatly doing everything it said;deep breathing,facing it head on and all that and eagerly awaited the results.Guess what..? NOTHING!! So out came more books and more techniques and still nothing, but i did find that the only thing that does work is that the less attention i paid to the way i felt,the less i started to feel that way so in my opinion all the techniques in the world wont work unless you stop paying too much attention to it.So going through books/cds and the likes still keeps your mind fully fdocused on the way you feel if ya know what i mean.When ive talked to shrinks before theyve all asked me what i did to conquer it before and ive said what i always say,that i didnt do anything and it just went away of its own accord.Thats not to say i havent been to hell and back but it really is better to live with the symptoms and manage them as best you can instead of spending every minute of every day wishing them away.Im not saying that reading etc isnt useful but eagerly wishing it to go away is useless and that i know for a fact!! After 15 years of this(on and off) and 6 crap months of this latest setback on and off i now realise this.I would be interested to know what you guys think,sorry to ramble on and all that..
Anybody wanna chat feel free to pm me and remember;PANIC CANNOT SURVIVE WITHOUT FEAR!!
Take care to you all,Candie xxxxxxxx:D:D:D

[Granny Primark]

Thanks so much for your post,
It really does make so much sense cus the more we worry about something and wish it would go away the worse we feel. Basicaly we are teaching ourselves to be afraid when weve got nothing to be afraid of. It is difficult to deal with but maybe its because subconsciencly we are making it difficult to deal with. We are always worried and frightened as to when the next panic attack will happen and it makes it so difficult to relax. A fear of a fear.

Take care
LYNN xx

[candie]

Hi Lynn,thanks for taking the time to reply.I'm glad someone can see just where im coming from.If theres one thing about anxiety it can make you feel crazy at times but as i said,dont give it any attention,it doesnt deserve it!!
Take care,Candie xxxx:D

[nomorepanic]

Sounds like you are doing really well to me so well done on that.



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

Nicola

[spuds]

You get good at what you practise. We practise being anxious. It is good advice to distract yourself - clean, go for a walk, sing aloud, anything, when you feel anxious. I found this very difficult when I was at my worst though, and I must say that Claire Weekes books helped me because they say what you said - it all comes down to fear.

When my husband feels nervous he goes off and does something because he says that sitting around thinking about it makes it worse. I did read a CBT book that said that we spend too long waiting to feel motivated in order to do something. You should just do something (anything) - motivation follows action, not the other way around. The more you do the more you feel up to doing. I certainly feed my anxiety by always expecting the worst; it does pass if I ignore it.

[W.I.F.T.S.]

Hi Candie,

I think there's a lot of truth in what you said. When you wake up everyday asking yourself "am I better yet?", you won't be. It's when you wake up and just get on with your day.

I know with me that I need to proactively relax and that I hold a lot of tension.

It really is hard for me to remember what I used to be like because I'm very prone to depression and I have an anxious personality, but hopefully I can manage those things better in the future and it won't limit my life like it has sone for the last 4 years. I like how Stephen Fry put it, that it's like living with asthma. There are things that I can do to help myself and to control the condition, but it might never go away totally.

Ships in harbour are safe..but that's not what ships were built for.

[candie]

Hi wifts,you know its funny you said that because i can remember me being so outgoing before i started with anxiety,i still am like that to everyone else but inside noone genuinely knows what we go through do they? Sometimes i think its a mistake to think of what we used to be and wish we were like that again because this has happened whether we like it or not and theres nothing we can do to change that so we need to look forward cos it does make you stronger in the end!! Take care,Candie xx:)

[Paddington]

Hi everyone,i agree with candie too,also,when i look back to the pre anxious me,iwas less compassionate and more selfish than i am now.It has taught me empathy and patience with others too,So what that i was more outgoing,i now accept me for me,this is who iam and iwont be defined by my disorder!Iam more than a disorder,tho till i joined here i could not see that at all! I am as well as i will ever be i think and thatis fine too.I dont watch and wait any more and it does work,i just stopped it,the worrying about what MIGHT happen,if it all goes wrong i deal with it and let it go.This means every day is new with wondeful possibilities.It is the key to our release ,exeptance!Love mary rose.xxxxxxxxxxxxx

we are all in the same boat and can guide each other ashore

[becky1000]

I absolutely agree. I gave my condition the name of "monster"and that's how I always referred to it in my mind. Whenever i talked about it or did research on it I felt I was feeding my monster so I went all out to starve him. I stopped telling people about my condition, even if I felt really bad. I became the world's best actress! But guess what - it worked! I ignored him and he left.
And I also agree that people who have been through this are far better people afterwards. We are more sympathetic to other sufferers for a start. We are caring and understanding because we've been there. As much as I suffered I'm glad I went through it because I'm a much better person today because of it.

I've beaten depression, panic attacks and anxiety.