So what’s the next step?

[pablo0977]

Had health anxiety for as long as I can remember but it really escalated after I became a father. About 18 months ago I had a panic attack and started twitching afterward. Of course I became convinced I had CJD, ALS, MS and etc. Eventually I found my way here. Through the help of some wonderful people here I came to grips with my actual illness: anxiety disorder. I had some luck with CBT and Buddhist philosophy and it helped me to get functional again. About a year has passed and while I still twitch and still panic about it, I am able to rationalize for the most part.

But what’s the next step? I’m certainly not free yet. I still find myself watching my my calf twitch or studying the dent in my left forearm. X-rays suggest I have talonavicular arthritis but I find myself wondering if atrophy caused it. I guess I have hit a plateau. I’m in a much better place, but I want to get past this once and for all. I guess I know what the answer is. Keep my head up. Soldier on. Rome wasn’t built in a day, blah, blah, blah. I guess I’m just here to get this off my chest and maybe get some feedback and or insight.

[ankietyjoe]

I think you just need to keep doing what you're doing. CBT style thinking and Buddhist philosophy (I myself used meditation a lot in my recovery) work, but need constant practice over a prolonged period of time.

I found that once I fully realised the problems were being created in my head and reinforced by my behaviour, it probably took 2-3 years for me to fully recover. And when I say fully recover I mean about 95% or more free of anxiety. I generally don't experience panic or anxiety any more and HA has disappeared completely. HA in particular is a condition that is reinforced by the sufferers own behaviour, and the process of checking things is the main cause of the problem, in my opinion.

It's often said, but I found exercise to be a great tool that aided in my recovery. It doesn't have to be strenuous, just regular and intense enough to be recognised as your body as something more than the norm.

[pablo0977]

Thanks for the reply. Glad to hear from someone a little further down the road. I’ll definitely keep at it.

[ErinKC]

This is sort of where I am, too, though maybe a bit further down the road and a bit not at the same time if that makes sense. I will get to a very good place where I'm not worried about anything at all, but also have a tendency to get triggered now and then (like once or twice a year) and fall all the way back down the hole.

For me, this generally happens when I am not taking care of myself mentally - letting too much stress build up, not sleeping enough, not eating well, etc... I'll start to see small signs of slippage, but not address them. I always say I'm going to keep up with my therapy regularly, but when I'm feeling really good I tend to forget to make appointments and fail to follow up.

I think one of the best things to do with anxiety is to continue to treat it even when it feels like it's improved. Those small behaviors - either checking or avoidance - keep the anxiety alive. I think this is where regular therapy sessions become so important. Even when I feel good, I've never been at 100% since my anxiety struck postpartum 4 years ago. I'll probably get to like 75 or 80% and then plateau like you.

Then, when something big happens I backslide all the way down.

I plan to meet with my therapist in 2 weeks and I want to come up with a good long-term plan. I want to make appointments with her into the future and see her at least once a month and I want to have a game plan for chipping away at the anxiety behaviors that stick around even in my best days.

I've talked to her about how anxiety can be really cumulative. You have one panic and even when that subsides whatever you were panicking about leaves residue behind. One example for me is that I had a major anxiety state about botulism. Even though that subsided more than a year ago, I still haven't cooked anything from a can since then. I'll eat canned food that other people prepare, but I've not been able to bring myself to open a can myself for fear, not that it will contain botulism, but that it will trigger my anxiety of botulism.

But, every time I stop and make the decision not to buy a can of soup or beans or not make a recipe I'd like to make because it requires one of those things, I'm feeding my anxiety just a little bit.

I feel like I'm getting off on my own tangent now. But, I think what I'm getting at is that the key to getting over the anxiety plateau is to identify those small bits that keep throwing it a bit of fuel. Even when I feel "normal" it's never close to how I was before anxiety.

[pablo0977]

Thanks for sharing! Definitely needed to hear this!