How do you lower your baseline anxiety?

[LiveAboveIt]

Still struggling with anxiety over pretty much everything. It feels like my mind is STILL overreacting to all things that would normally induce a small worry, it's treated as an epidemic with the way I immediately feel panic to just thoughts alone.

It drives me crazy and I can't figure out how to eliminate this problem or fix it. It's to the point now that anything I have a thought geared towards anxiety or anything anxious, I feel an immediate fear response. This lasts all day it seems like, with brief respite. Sometimes talking to someone will accidentally distract me away from it, but I can't distract myself on purpose.. And when I am idle, my thought patterns immediately turn negative and fearful. It's exhausting trying to stay distracted all day.

My thoughts immediately start as "I can't stop worrying about this or thinking about this. It's okay just be okay with the thoughts and they will pass. Are you sure? Are you actually having this these thoughts or is your brain racing because of something that the drug did? No, it's just normal anxiety. But I can't stop thinking about this. Why is everything a fear? Why are all of my thoughts causing fear and discomfort, even just these thoughts? It's just anxiety. Yeah, but it's still really uncomfortable. How am I supposed to live like this?"

It goes on and on from there, until something distracts me and resets the process. I've tried constant distraction, I've tried acceptance, I've tried ignoring. It seems like the thoughts continue regardless and the fear just strengthens with each thought which leaves me in a hole.

I have NO idea how to break this process. I've chalked it up to the fact that I'm just stuck in a really high anxiety state, could be my CNS is sensitive from withdrawal, but I don't know. I feel like if I could just lower the anxiety somehow, the thoughts wouldn't pack such a punch and wouldn't be so invasive-feeling.

It's the strangest feeling to have an awareness of the anxious thoughts and still have them even though you know they are just thoughts, and STILL be afraid of them. Totally feels like my brain is messed up.

I just need some reasurrance. Am I doing this right, will this pass eventually? Does Klonopin help with this sort of issue or are meds the only way?

Has ANYONE ever been in a place like this?

[nutty nic]

Hiya. So sorry to hear you are suffering but I can assure you it WILL go eventually. You say that you can't figure out how to fix it and I think this is your biggest problem! I suffered from non stop anxiety for over 6 months and tried anything and everything to make it go away. No matter what I did, nothing worked.
Eventually I read a book where the first line was "you will not get better until you stop trying" and it was absolutely right. I realised that I was looking for something or someone else to get rid of the anxiety when the only one who could actually cure me was me. It's all about acceptance. Yes, the anxiety is a horrible feeling but actually that is all it is - a feeling. The negative "what if?" thoughts are just those - thoughts. There is no evidence that any of the "what ifs" will actually happen, especially the "what if I feel like this forever?"
Once I realised where I was going wrong I was able to move forward but recovery didn't happen overnight. I stayed on medication but stopped waking up every morning wondering why it wasn't kicking in and making me better. I carried on with cbt and counselling but stopped expecting to go to the sessions and be given all the answers. I realised that the anxiety had come about due to a build up of stress over a period of time and that it was going to take time and acceptance to get better. Acceptance is hard and doesn't happen overnight but just keep telling yourself it's just a feeling and try and go about your normal life.
You may be thinking that it's easy for me to say but I can assure you this time 2 years ago I was at my lowest ever ebb. I thought anxiety was going to rule me for the rest of my life. However, I went to work (even though inside all I wanted to do was run away) and eventually I'd have a few minutes where I'd realise I had forgotten the anxiety. After that it would be 10 mins, an hour and so on. It was not a quick recovery and I have had setbacks but I have got there and am now reducing my medication slowly.
Be kind to and patient with yourself. You will get there xx

[Mindknot]

Still struggling with anxiety over pretty much everything. It feels like my mind is STILL overreacting to all things that would normally induce a small worry, it's treated as an epidemic with the way I immediately feel panic to just thoughts alone.

It drives me crazy and I can't figure out how to eliminate this problem or fix it. It's to the point now that anything I have a thought geared towards anxiety or anything anxious, I feel an immediate fear response. This lasts all day it seems like, with brief respite. Sometimes talking to someone will accidentally distract me away from it, but I can't distract myself on purpose.. And when I am idle, my thought patterns immediately turn negative and fearful. It's exhausting trying to stay distracted all day.

My thoughts immediately start as "I can't stop worrying about this or thinking about this. It's okay just be okay with the thoughts and they will pass. Are you sure? Are you actually having this these thoughts or is your brain racing because of something that the drug did? No, it's just normal anxiety. But I can't stop thinking about this. Why is everything a fear? Why are all of my thoughts causing fear and discomfort, even just these thoughts? It's just anxiety. Yeah, but it's still really uncomfortable. How am I supposed to live like this?"

It goes on and on from there, until something distracts me and resets the process. I've tried constant distraction, I've tried acceptance, I've tried ignoring. It seems like the thoughts continue regardless and the fear just strengthens with each thought which leaves me in a hole.

I have NO idea how to break this process. I've chalked it up to the fact that I'm just stuck in a really high anxiety state, could be my CNS is sensitive from withdrawal, but I don't know. I feel like if I could just lower the anxiety somehow, the thoughts wouldn't pack such a punch and wouldn't be so invasive-feeling.

It's the strangest feeling to have an awareness of the anxious thoughts and still have them even though you know they are just thoughts, and STILL be afraid of them. Totally feels like my brain is messed up.

I just need some reasurrance. Am I doing this right, will this pass eventually? Does Klonopin help with this sort of issue or are meds the only way?

Has ANYONE ever been in a place like this?

I think you are spot on with your observations. You're still very 'wired' and your brain will take some time to get used to re-thinking your anxieties - but it will eventually! Just keep plugging away at it piece by piece. If you have a worry about X, write it down and analyse/correct it - like is taught in CBT - until it becomes automatically a less anxious thought. Once you've dealt with some percentage of all your thoughts/anxieties, you will suddenly realise that you feel less anxious generally, and then you'll keep on and the level of anxiety will go down again... until you hopefully find a new balanced point where you can handle any 'new' problems in a much calmer fashion. Think baby steps - no one leaps to the top of a mountain.

Also, remember that you are looking for a balance that suits you, anxiety is a normal emotion that everyone experiences from time to time, it'll take a whole bunch of little adjustments to find where your point of balance is - accept a little bit of anxiety from time to time, ignore some of it, rethink and correct other things. I guess what I'm saying is if you can start 'chunking' it up, you deal with each bit of the worry in the best way to get it gone. :)

I don't know if that sounds a bit vague and rambly, but that's how I dealt with mine, it's just hard to see how it'll work when you are at the worst points. Chip away at it :)