What are you doing to feel better?

[cpe1978]

Afternoon guys, hope you are all doing well and it is great to see that yet another day has passed without one of us getting one of the conditions we fear.

Not sure quite how to phrase this, but I am genuinely intrigued given that this is a HA forum, what people are doing to recover from their anxiety? I get that asking for reassurance is part of a process, we have all been there. But it absolutely isn't part of the journey to recovery, in fact you could argue that in some respects it is actually counter productive when it comes to recovery.

Recovery isn't something that is just going to happen to you, not even a tiny bit. It isn't something you can sit back and hope will arrive. It is something you have to work at. Not in the casual, 'I tried a couple of sessions of therapy and it wasn't for me' way, but really work on it as if it is the most important thing in your life.

There are people who visit this forum on a pretty regular basis who are in a better place than you are now, and get this.....they are willing to help and support you, yet many don't feel able to offer anything when it comes to symptom threads.

So why don't we try a few more threads that offer one another peer support through a process of recovery, the rough the smooth, the setbacks and so on. The symptom threads will always exist - you may even post some sometimes, but try and find time to concentrate on recovery from the one thing that absolutely everyone here has in common - anxiety.

Remember though, if it was easy no one would suffer from anxiety.

[Rennie1989]

I agree that there needs to be a focus on recovery. If you're concentrating more on 'I feel terrible' and 'when will this end' then recovery won't happen. There needs to be more of a 'I CAN do this', 'OK, today wasn't great, but I give it another go tomorrow' etc.

It worked for me.

[Fishmanpa]

Exactly... what are you doing?

When I see threads with symptoms and replies come back asking this question it's like I can hear crickets! Kinda like now.

The site is a great support for those struggling and it's comforting to know you're not alone but nothing will change unless you decide to change it.

What CP says rings true "if it was easy no one would suffer from anxiety."

Positive thoughts

[luc]

Hi CPE,

There are threads at present on the forum that you propose - granted they are few and far between. I am in a very similar situation to you and agree wholeheartedly with your other post. It is a difficult one because why ask questions about conditions on this site when there are hundreds of sites dealing with illnesses. That is where the line is blurred between those on the forum who recognise they have HA but still need to seek reassurance and those who are panicking about a disease/illness and have found this site. I don't tend to get involved in posts that are not about recovery and whilst I have been where the reassurance seeker is and sometimes really feel for the person I have decided that I am not about to engage in something I know is only helpful for an hour.

Lucia.

[spacebunnyx]

What am I doing to feel better?

- Exercise - cycling, boot camp, yoga
- Supplements - omega3, multivitamin and dhea
- Seeing friends, focussing on Work
- Signed up for counselling
- using an eye mask to get good sleep
- Avoiding caffeine

[cpe1978]

That's great SpaceBunny, I have just started exercising much more too and it is making me feel great. Have decided to train for a rowing marathon (which might make me feel not quite so great)

[wnsos]

Blocked webmd etc from my browsers. Searching just makes us catastrophise and I suspect that's a large part of what helped put me here. I'm taking my dog out every day as I always have. As of tomorrow, I'm not going to let myself lounge in bed all morning wishing the pains would go. I was on a really strict diet that helped me lose weight but wasn't very good in that it didn't let me have fruit etc, so I've been reintroducing fruit. I'm talking myself out of going to the doctors every other day. Need to curb that. And I'm going to talk therapy as soon as I can be referred. Small steps but steps.

[susan64]

Hi all, I'm trying to push myself to do things out of my normal day to day routine. Instead of my usual Friday routine, today I met up with an old school friend, went for lunch and a walk round our local beauty spot! Felt good, want to get back into doing excercise dvd but haven't got round to that one yet! Like you've all said, it's too easy to moan about how we feel when we should be focusing on doing what we need to do to not feel like we do!! We can't help anyone if we can't help ourselves.

[PBL80]

I exercise daily, eat well and I've also cut down my caffeine I have two coffee's in the morning, in the afternoon it's green tea and nighttime camomile. I'm taking a lower dosage medication and will be starting CBT soon.