Anxiety is just thoughts

[mlondon]

What I am trying to get into my head is that anxiety is produced by thoughts and these thoughts can be very scary but it does not mean they are going to happen and these thoughts produce more negative thinking and phsyical side effects but they are just thoughts not fact.

For example I might think to myself I could marry Brad pitt, lets me honest here, the chances of me marrying brad pitt are slim and so I laugh it off and think, 'what a silly thought' and don't pay much attention to it.

Now I might also think 'Am I going to make it home ok tonight? What if it all gets too much and I can't get on the train, I will be stranded'. This is also a very unlikely thing to happen, if the worst comes to the worst I could get a cab or call a friend or walk for 2 hours or I could call an ambulence or go to the nearest hospital, this is only a thought but I consider it as fact, why don't I laugh it off like my Brad Pitt thought, because I see it as a real threat and danger to myself but does it really hold anymore weight than the idea of me and Brad getting hitched?

I am in an extreme state of anxiety at the moment, my thoughts today alone have included: can i get trapped inside my own head? are things around me real? what if I can't walk? what if I suddenly go blind? what if I can't talk? and what if I can't get home? All what ifs of course! But they are all just thoughts. If we can distance ourselves from our thoughts and realise them for what they are: just thoughts I believe we can get over our anxieties.

This is a process of retraining our thought process. Retraining our minds can be difficult but I do believe it can be done.

[Cathy V]

I think anxious people tend to think ahead too much. We are always placing ourselves in worst case scenarios, based on what we know can and does sometimes happen in life. We follow it through in our heads and see ourselves in the most awful situations that will lead to us losing control and for some, death.

People who are not anxious dont do this, they dont act out things that could happen, they just get on and do what they need to do...travel, work etc. Its awful to think that the thought process can make us so ill. The exception to this of course is if something has actually happened and anxiety then comes from the thought that it might happen again.

But for most of us with anx it starts with a physical symptom that worries or scares us, then a panic attack that overwhelms us, and away we go with it!

[janeybaby25]

my bloke says I make stuff up, I call it being realistic!