kab92
11-02-14, 03:52
Hey all,
Somewhat new user here, but I've been reading/following the forum a lot for the last three months or so, while I've been battling some moderate GAD.
Just some background on where I am now. I am on 30mg Citalopram (been on it for about a month, was on 20mg for a month before that). I have been seeing a counselor every other week, and have done some work using various self-help and CBT modules on my own. I also started practicing mindfulness meditation about 5 weeks ago.
So far it's been a little bit of a rocky road, but I've definitely noticed improvement. The mindfulness has helped a lot in calming my thoughts down. A theme I've come across over and over again, both in meditation and on this site, is the idea of accepting thoughts non-judgmentally, and recognizing that they are just thoughts, not facts.
Since working on this, I have noticed that my worrying has gone way down. I no longer tend to let anxious thoughts spiral out of control, and I am often able to "catch them" earlier and earlier. Moreover, some of the thoughts have lost a lot of their bite. If I think something like "am I feeling anxious right now?" or "has some part of me changed since the anxiety?" the thoughts usually don't scare me as much. The physical symptoms have subsided, and I can usually just take a deep breathe and say "okay, let's get back to what I was doing over here," and let the thought drift out of my mind as I refocus my attention.
However, one thing I have noticed is that the frequency of the thoughts hasn't seemed to decrease. Throughout the day my mind will constantly jump back to the same thoughts, almost checking in on the anxiety, but there won't be much there. I wanted to see if this was a normal part of the recovery process for most people who have tried this method? I know I have to be patient, and perhaps even by posting this I am giving too much power/credit to the anxious thoughts, but I wanted to be sure what I am doing sounds like true acceptance of the thoughts, or if I should be doing something more/taking it a step further to begin reducing the frequency of the thoughts. Will this start to dissipate on its own?
Cheers,
-kb
Somewhat new user here, but I've been reading/following the forum a lot for the last three months or so, while I've been battling some moderate GAD.
Just some background on where I am now. I am on 30mg Citalopram (been on it for about a month, was on 20mg for a month before that). I have been seeing a counselor every other week, and have done some work using various self-help and CBT modules on my own. I also started practicing mindfulness meditation about 5 weeks ago.
So far it's been a little bit of a rocky road, but I've definitely noticed improvement. The mindfulness has helped a lot in calming my thoughts down. A theme I've come across over and over again, both in meditation and on this site, is the idea of accepting thoughts non-judgmentally, and recognizing that they are just thoughts, not facts.
Since working on this, I have noticed that my worrying has gone way down. I no longer tend to let anxious thoughts spiral out of control, and I am often able to "catch them" earlier and earlier. Moreover, some of the thoughts have lost a lot of their bite. If I think something like "am I feeling anxious right now?" or "has some part of me changed since the anxiety?" the thoughts usually don't scare me as much. The physical symptoms have subsided, and I can usually just take a deep breathe and say "okay, let's get back to what I was doing over here," and let the thought drift out of my mind as I refocus my attention.
However, one thing I have noticed is that the frequency of the thoughts hasn't seemed to decrease. Throughout the day my mind will constantly jump back to the same thoughts, almost checking in on the anxiety, but there won't be much there. I wanted to see if this was a normal part of the recovery process for most people who have tried this method? I know I have to be patient, and perhaps even by posting this I am giving too much power/credit to the anxious thoughts, but I wanted to be sure what I am doing sounds like true acceptance of the thoughts, or if I should be doing something more/taking it a step further to begin reducing the frequency of the thoughts. Will this start to dissipate on its own?
Cheers,
-kb