Bad anxiety is back

[Pete_uk]

I don't know how on Earth to start.

A couple of years ago a neighbor moved in who was very abusive to her kids. Suddenly I found myself with nowhere to run to get away and nowhere to hide from the dreadful anxiety it brought. It brought into focus things like work, money and parents age and health.
Anyway, she thankfully moved and a quiet couple moved in which was great but they then moved last year and another young single mother with three kids moved in. She is a lot quieter but as any parent will tell you, you sometimes need to shout at the little buggers. Also there is a worry between myself, my mother and father (we live together) that money will be tight as because of mum's health she is taking less hours at work.

So I wake up this morning with bad anxiety. Its the sort that won't go away and clouds everything. I'm back at the stage where I don't know how I will escape these feelings, or how to 'get out'.

Everything is so nerve racking!

:scared15:

[garyR]

Hey Pete,

No Anxiety is bad anxiety, treat them all the same, as they all stem from the same source, and they all carry the same emotion, yes they can have the illusion that one is worse than the other, but from what you have said this is a clear GAD and should be treated like one.

First of all you need to get yourself in the right frame of mood and mind, tacking your 'real' problems like money will be a lot easier if you first deal with the Anxiety.

Turn that Anxiety into strength, remember anxiety is caused by a re-wiring process in the brain that sends information to the emotional side before it gains a chance to be rationalised and sorted, almost like a mail man posting everything to an emotional inbox without looking at where it should really go.

By doing this, all information is left unfiltered and associated with a feeling of anxiety, trying to rationalise is difficult because the concerns already have a negative emotion attached.

Trust me, if you didn't FEEL anxiety, these problems would be much easier to rationalise, you wouldn't be worrying and you would have the motivation to do something about the real issues like money and health in your life, which you will and can overcome.

So focus on the anxiety bit first, treat it for what it is, its just an emotion, the concerns cannot be taken to be real as like i've just said, you cant rationalise due to a rewiring in the brain, everything is becoming attached with emotion, illogically but certainly naturally, you're not alone and certainly this isn't uncommon.

When you get anxiety, just focus on the emotion, and say to yourself 'im not going to worry about this because I cannot possibly rationalise it whilst I am feeling anxiety, so the best thing to do it just treat it as FALSE and the only reason I am worrying over it is because my brain is processing information (neuroligcally, through the amygdala instead of the neocortex, research this if you may) so there is no point me worrying over it the only thing I should be is treating it as a unncessary and pointless emotion that holds no evidence and i'm going to focus on the important things in my life'

Important things in your life are mostly stuff that make your life better tomorrow than it was today, anything that fits into that category.

Keep improving, and keep believing in yourself, only you can make the difference in your life, and you can make it better for all those around you, instead of seeing fear as an emotion that brings you down, see it as motivation to keep moving forward, keep doing better, dont fear anxiety, it's not a real emotion and it holds no evidence, focus only on the emotion, because once the feeling of anxiety goes, all of your worries go, so there's ultimately no point on focusing on individual worries, take them all down at once and lose the fear of anxiety by understanding how pointless it is and how it holds no evidence, its just a rewiring of the brain, and its just an emotion.

I noticed nobody had replied so chose this topic to reply to first, I hope this helps, and remember, focus on the feeling, not the thought!

As Qui Gon Said, your feelings serve you well, but dont let them cloud your judgement!

G

[Lan69]

I have just got to say Gary I think your advice is great. I've actually copied and pasted it to refer to when I'm struggling
Thank you

[Pete_uk]

Thanks Gary.

There is what I call a 'core' feeling deep inside that centralizes everything. It puts me off food and makes me feel sick.

I've always had a problem with angry people. I think it may come from the fact that when I was young my teenage brothers fight like cat and dog then dad would blow his top. I am ALWAYS looking around when I am out, scanning the shop or street for something about to kick off. If I think there is likely to be trouble in a certain place I will avoid it. If I have to walk all around bow-wow to get to where I'm going so be it.

Just had to get that out :)