Anxiety or Excitement

[CrazyC]

Is there a thin line between the two?

Its just sometimes i dont know if im excited to do something or scared!! :wacko:

When i get ready to go out i go threw the motions..im sort of happy as i know deep down going out is what i wanna do but then i feel funny..butterflies etc..

but more recently these feelings have reminded me of a child on xmas eve.

So mayve it is part excitement. Its late so sorry if im not making sense.

[shaggyowen]

yeh iv always thought that.. never know though do you lol

[paulst]

You are making perfect sense. I feel like that whenever Im doing anything important, sort of excited but very anxious as well!!

[munkeyinblack]

i think it depends on the illness you have.... for agorophobics its prob total anx as they cant handle going out but if you have mild general anx maybey excitment tht ur goin out and manageing and maybey gettin better. Does that make sense ?

i think personally it is more anx cause it affects my breathing and stuff but im guna look out for the excitement and maybey it will be a step forward :)
tc
munkeyx

[Nigel]

Hi CrazyC,

I think that makes a lot of sense. When you really think about it, most of the physical sensations of panic are the same as those of excitement. The main difference is the thoughts a person associates with those feelings.

So next time you feel panicky, don’t take your mind’s word for it. Check for yourself what it is you’re actually experiencing.

Take care :)
Nigel

[supersezza]

Yep I always think they are close...sometimes it's just better to think it's excitement and go with it...it's all adrenaline i think!

[CrazyC]

I have always hate christmas and new year so have always told myself the excited feeling is worry (makes sense to me) i suffer with general anxiety but over the christmas period just gone i went out every day i felt great i felt the OLD ME...i went shopping saw family ate out (this is all a big deal to me i usually talk myself out of everything and stay at home wishing i had done it) it was all impulse an i got off on the excitement of it all.

However January came..reality set back in. A day at home turnt to a week at home if you know what i mean. I cannot get my head around the fact for a little while it all seems so normal and natural but now i have been hidden away for a little while it all seems so far away again.

If im ever doing something though i do still go threw the motions of excited..nervous..i just need to know when to stop the nervous and not let it take over. Im going to the doctors next week and going to try and crack this feeling once and for all. I have been trying to "self help" for years but its the going back to this that i cant over come.

Thanks for all your replies though. Makes so much sense seeing other peoples opinions on it.

[mr badger]

I think anxiety and excitement are very close.

I've got my anxiety under control at the moment and find it hard to get excited about anything much.

I'm also fairly certain that a controlled level of anxiety helps me work at my best.

[European]

Yes, I think it's a very common reaction to mistake one emotion for another. There might be physical reasons for it, as the emotion triggers a similar physical reaction. But there might also be more to it on a psychological level.

In Transactional Analysis these emotions are called 'Racket Feelings':

"A racket is the dual strategy of getting "permitted feelings," while covering up feelings which we truly feel, but which we regard as being "not allowed". More technically, a racket feeling is "a familiar set of emotions, learned and enhanced during childhood, experienced in many different stress situations, and maladaptive as an adult means of problem solving"." (from Wikipedia)
As an example, I used to get terrible panic attacks feeling trapped whilst standing in a queue, which made my life a complete misery, as it is virtually impossible to avoid queues through the course of one's everyday life.
I always used to believe the predominant emotion I was feeling whilst in a queue was anxiety, until I realised that it wasn't actually anxiety first and foremost, but that I was in fact angry. Angry at the people in front of me dawdling and taking all the time in the world, whilst angry at the same time at those behind me who brushed against my cloths and thus invaded my personal space and made me feel as though I was pushed against a wall.

The thing is, I didn't allow myself to feel this anger, as I had been brought up to always be 'nice' and amenable, always care about everybody else's needs and wants - apart from my own. And because of this, I couldn't allow myself to feel angry and my unconscious turned the basic emotion of anger into fear, which was just sooooooo much more acceptable.

I have learned to distinguish between the two emotions these days, and have no trouble whatsoever standing in a queue, as I manage to allow myself to feel my anger, rather than having to turn it into fear (or rather: into panic). And just by allowing oneself to feel something more often than not means the actual emotion is processed, and vanishes up into the air like a gas.

[Hazel B]

They are most definitely similar, probably both the resut of adrenaline. I had awful anxiety for months last year, it started to calm down and then I got excited about Christams and got scared as the feeling was so like anxiety; racing heart etc.

Nigel is right, it's the thought associated with the feelings for me, so now I tell myself that excitement is good and anxiety cannot hurt me, it helps my mind see neither as a threat, if that makes sense.