PWO_Nathan
01-05-18, 21:46
Hi all,
Another essay inbound haha!
So I have suffered from what I would personally say is severe anxiety since 2013. This has been mainly health related fear but also branched off onto everything from Asteroid impacts to WW3.
While suffering from HA for 5 years now in no way qualifies me to give clinical advice, I feel it most certainly qualifies me to know how god awful this "condition" is.
It is therefore my hope that what helps me personally, may help someone, even if its only one person out there.
When I am having an anxiety attack about something I ask myself one very simple question (to follow). This helps me immensely and a few minutes later, while not subsided, it (anxiety) is far less and my once imminent trip to A&E is cancelled.
So what is the question?
Well I phrase it differently each time but the basis is the same - something along the lines of "If I wasn't an anxious person, would what I am feeling now cause me concern?" or "IF I take away the mental feeling and concentrate purely on the physical symptons, what are they"?
So for example, Tuesdays / Wednesday each week are my guaranteed "bad" days. About an hour ago, I had severe abdominal pain which spread to my chest. I laid in bed (safety behaviour! MY bad!" and began imagining my kids without their father etc, I then got the phone ready to ask my partner to leave work and come home to look after the kids while I went to A&E to have my heart attack. I then did the above, I literally said, OK so what am I actually feeling, not thinking, but feeling... the answer was... absolutely nothing. There was no pain in my chest or abdomen, my breathing was a little fast and my heart rate seemed high but other than this, what did I feel? Nothing. So I then went onto OK so what do I think I feel? Chest tightness, OK so where does this take me? Heart attack (couldnt possibly be indigestion given I eat about 30 mins previous - had to be worse case). Right so its a heart attack, checklist time (in my mind)... nope, nope, nope and nope - not one single thing I felt lined up with heart attack symptoms and god knows Dr Google has more than made me an Consultant in this area.
So what then? Then is now - I did as I always do, I came on here. I come on here when my anxiety is really high not to seek help but to try and provide it. See the funny thing is, I am all very well giving rationale advice to people who suffer from anxiety but practising what I preach fails to land every single time.
So there you have it, the question that has made my "condition" manageable and succeeded where countless CBT re-runs failed. This question is my take on CBTs challenge the thought process. For me, challenging the thought had no impact as it was a little like boy who cried wolf. Specifically asking myself if I was not an anxious person, would what I am feeling cause me concern, has helped me countless times. IF the answer is ever "yes" then I ask another question, OK so how long have I felt this chest pain for example. 5 - 10 mins, ok lets give it ten mins and see how I feel then. Every single time, 10 mins later its either gone or I am confident its in my mind.
Anyway I will leave this here now as selfishly my anxiety has completely gone and I can get back to not dying :wacko:
IF this helps at least one person, mission accomplished. Just give it a try, I know its hard (not sounding as condescending as possible) but next time you have a panic attack, just hit stop and say "If I take anxiety out the equation, like a time before I was an anxious person, would this cause me concern" or "what am I actually physically feeling", ie turn into a robot and analyse yourself.
I hope this helps
Another essay inbound haha!
So I have suffered from what I would personally say is severe anxiety since 2013. This has been mainly health related fear but also branched off onto everything from Asteroid impacts to WW3.
While suffering from HA for 5 years now in no way qualifies me to give clinical advice, I feel it most certainly qualifies me to know how god awful this "condition" is.
It is therefore my hope that what helps me personally, may help someone, even if its only one person out there.
When I am having an anxiety attack about something I ask myself one very simple question (to follow). This helps me immensely and a few minutes later, while not subsided, it (anxiety) is far less and my once imminent trip to A&E is cancelled.
So what is the question?
Well I phrase it differently each time but the basis is the same - something along the lines of "If I wasn't an anxious person, would what I am feeling now cause me concern?" or "IF I take away the mental feeling and concentrate purely on the physical symptons, what are they"?
So for example, Tuesdays / Wednesday each week are my guaranteed "bad" days. About an hour ago, I had severe abdominal pain which spread to my chest. I laid in bed (safety behaviour! MY bad!" and began imagining my kids without their father etc, I then got the phone ready to ask my partner to leave work and come home to look after the kids while I went to A&E to have my heart attack. I then did the above, I literally said, OK so what am I actually feeling, not thinking, but feeling... the answer was... absolutely nothing. There was no pain in my chest or abdomen, my breathing was a little fast and my heart rate seemed high but other than this, what did I feel? Nothing. So I then went onto OK so what do I think I feel? Chest tightness, OK so where does this take me? Heart attack (couldnt possibly be indigestion given I eat about 30 mins previous - had to be worse case). Right so its a heart attack, checklist time (in my mind)... nope, nope, nope and nope - not one single thing I felt lined up with heart attack symptoms and god knows Dr Google has more than made me an Consultant in this area.
So what then? Then is now - I did as I always do, I came on here. I come on here when my anxiety is really high not to seek help but to try and provide it. See the funny thing is, I am all very well giving rationale advice to people who suffer from anxiety but practising what I preach fails to land every single time.
So there you have it, the question that has made my "condition" manageable and succeeded where countless CBT re-runs failed. This question is my take on CBTs challenge the thought process. For me, challenging the thought had no impact as it was a little like boy who cried wolf. Specifically asking myself if I was not an anxious person, would what I am feeling cause me concern, has helped me countless times. IF the answer is ever "yes" then I ask another question, OK so how long have I felt this chest pain for example. 5 - 10 mins, ok lets give it ten mins and see how I feel then. Every single time, 10 mins later its either gone or I am confident its in my mind.
Anyway I will leave this here now as selfishly my anxiety has completely gone and I can get back to not dying :wacko:
IF this helps at least one person, mission accomplished. Just give it a try, I know its hard (not sounding as condescending as possible) but next time you have a panic attack, just hit stop and say "If I take anxiety out the equation, like a time before I was an anxious person, would this cause me concern" or "what am I actually physically feeling", ie turn into a robot and analyse yourself.
I hope this helps