Why do I get anxiety AFTERWARDS

[darkangel]

Hi everyone

Not sure if anyone else gets this. After years of GAD, panic attacks and agoraphobia, I am now able to live a relatively OK lifestyle. Yesterday I had a really good day, no anxiety at all, felt really calm and in control and enjoyed myself. Relaxed in the evening and had quite a good nights sleep. Got up this morning and took my daughter to school, went to Tesco for shopping all with no anxiety. Sitting reading a mag this afternoon and WHAM - panic attack (not full blown) but the sensations. Why does this happen as I was relaxed. I know I always rattle on about changing thoughts on this forum, do you think that subconsciously I am still thinking negatively when I am out and about. Sometimes when I am out and about I stop myself and think OH MY GOD I AM ACTUALLY DOING THIS - it still seems unreal to me. Does this ever go away? Do you ever get to the stage where you just do it without thinking about "what if I panic"?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Darkangel


........life is for living not just for surviving

[nomorepanic]

Hi Darkangel

Yes this used to happen to me as well. I would be doing fine then sitting watching TV and wham it hit me again - no idea why.

Try these posts for some reassurance about recovery...

100% recovered?? (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3368)
total cure? (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3832)
home truths (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2398)
why me. this ruins my life. (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4957)
How do you know when you're cured? (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5673)


Nicola

[Ma Larkin]

Hi Darkangel, I don't think about it any more; if it happens it happens. I have found myself in the same situation as you though. When you least expect it to, i.e. you were reading a mag, I was reading a children's book to my little boy & I went on one! Panic attack! Maybe we are thinking negatively sub-consciously, I just can't accept that we have them for no reason or when we least expect to have them. It would be interesting to know just how many of us this happens to.

Hope you get some good advice on this.

Les

[tnt808]

Hi DarkAngel,

It's the weirdest thing isn't it? It's almost as if our bodies are rejecting any form of relaxation. It has been used to being so tense and uptight it has to be such a foreign feeling for us. I had a panic attack right before hypnosis. So, maybe we need to retrain our body as well as our minds to allow for this new found feeling "calmness".

Take Care,

Tina

[india]

Hi there, yes this happens to me to. I think our bodies are so used to being tense, when we are a bit relaxed they are trying to go back to how we were. Remember it is the panicking about these feelings that makes them worse, try and 'float' past them.

Love India xx

[henri]

hi there,
i get this too - used to get it a lot when i first started feeling a bit better. i personally think about everything too much so i think when i started feeling better i would think to myself 'oh my god, i actually don't feel dizzy, how unbelievable, i wonder how long that will last? i bet it won't last long, i bet i start feeling sick again soon....' and so on and so on.
i try to do what india suggested, and 'float' past everything, just let the bad feeling wash over me without freaking out about it. easier said than done, but....
i am at a stage where i can feel good for a day or two and not think about it. so you will definitely get there xx

[darkangel]

Thank you all for your replies

Tina wrote "So, maybe we need to retrain our body as well as our minds to allow for this new found feeling "calmness".

This is so true, I have spent 9 years with constant anxiety and my body feels so strange now because im calm! I also dont get the constant negative chatterbox in my head anymore and it just seems so quiet. Like all the symptoms I will learn to accept this and float past any returning symptoms that may crop up when I least expect them.

Darkangel

........life is for living not just for surviving

[Meg]

**Sitting reading a mag this afternoon and WHAM - panic attack (not full blown) but the sensations. Why does this happen as I was relaxed. I know I always rattle on about changing thoughts on this forum, do you think that subconsciously I am still thinking negatively when I am out and about.**

It's not when you are out and about that you need to worry about, its when you stop and do not have a direct focus for those thoughts that they wander off on an often negative slant

Tv, reading, queues, traffic jams, shopping.. all situations where you have thoughts to spare


Meg
www.anxietymanagementltd.com

Your anxiety is the human representation of the pictures that you paint using your many vivid colours of revolving and reoccurring thoughts.
How big is your gallery ?