agile_beast
07-09-17, 11:26
Hello guys, I'm new here. I have previously had GAD brought on by an obsession with my physical symptoms. Last time, combined with extreme health anxiety it took me over a year before I fully accepted it and my anxiety faded without me noticing. Now that is a long time; but only because it took me so long to accept what was happening to me, let go of the past and convince myself that I wasn't suffering any tangible physical problems.
After a year of being ok, I was triggered again a week and a half ago. I felt myself slip slowly back into the worst anxiety I've ever experienced - amplified by the fact I'm supposed to be going travelling with my girlfriend in a few weeks time. I've been so terrified that it could ruin our trip, and worse, put a strain on our relationship. She's only ever been incredibly supportive, but I have guilt for how much I know this thing changes me.
I have near constant anxiety which seems to be brought on by a strange pain/discomfort in my chest, that can move around and sometimes lie in the pit of my stomach. It never really goes away, and the fear of what it is, and the anxiety it leads to has been feeding my anxiety. Then there's the rest of it - trouble sleeping, the sweats, the over thinking, and the tingling feeling of dread.
I was sat here at work an hour or so ago not knowing what to do with myself. It was overwhelming me. I was winding myself up more because the standard techniques didn't seem to be working at calming me down e.g. deep breathing. Then I stumbled accross an article, which I unfortunately am not allowed to post here because it's my first post. It bascially encouraged me to invite the symptoms on to myself, completely counter intuitive to what I'd been trying to do.
Accepting my symptoms was difficult - all I wanted to do (and some advice was given to me) was to ignore them, hoping they'd go away. I did what the article said and invited them on to me. That overwhelming feeling, tingles, worry, dread, just completely took over. It was really really scary at first, and just felt so wrong. But I kept at it, encouraging it all. Not getting frustrated that they weren't going away however, just sitting there with them. With some relaxing music in my ears, over the period of about 10, 15 minutes, I began to calm.
It's not the end solution, but to me it seems like an incredible attitude to have that completely disarms my symptoms and at least on this occasion has helped me relax when I didn't think it was possible. Onwards.
After a year of being ok, I was triggered again a week and a half ago. I felt myself slip slowly back into the worst anxiety I've ever experienced - amplified by the fact I'm supposed to be going travelling with my girlfriend in a few weeks time. I've been so terrified that it could ruin our trip, and worse, put a strain on our relationship. She's only ever been incredibly supportive, but I have guilt for how much I know this thing changes me.
I have near constant anxiety which seems to be brought on by a strange pain/discomfort in my chest, that can move around and sometimes lie in the pit of my stomach. It never really goes away, and the fear of what it is, and the anxiety it leads to has been feeding my anxiety. Then there's the rest of it - trouble sleeping, the sweats, the over thinking, and the tingling feeling of dread.
I was sat here at work an hour or so ago not knowing what to do with myself. It was overwhelming me. I was winding myself up more because the standard techniques didn't seem to be working at calming me down e.g. deep breathing. Then I stumbled accross an article, which I unfortunately am not allowed to post here because it's my first post. It bascially encouraged me to invite the symptoms on to myself, completely counter intuitive to what I'd been trying to do.
Accepting my symptoms was difficult - all I wanted to do (and some advice was given to me) was to ignore them, hoping they'd go away. I did what the article said and invited them on to me. That overwhelming feeling, tingles, worry, dread, just completely took over. It was really really scary at first, and just felt so wrong. But I kept at it, encouraging it all. Not getting frustrated that they weren't going away however, just sitting there with them. With some relaxing music in my ears, over the period of about 10, 15 minutes, I began to calm.
It's not the end solution, but to me it seems like an incredible attitude to have that completely disarms my symptoms and at least on this occasion has helped me relax when I didn't think it was possible. Onwards.