Dragon food

[Leslie735]

YES! This explains it perfectly!!

[NotCool]

It's a good, reassuring post with easy to understand analogies.

What I find interesting is that whenever my fears of some sinister illness come into play, whenever my mind gets obsessed about it due to real or imaginary symptoms, I can find direct of indirect associations and clues to the same or connected illness EVERYWHERE, whether I stumble upon it in some kind of article on a news website, or read it on a social platform, or social media, or forum, or even hear it in the news. Everywhere. It always happens.

[emmegee]

Great analogy. Last year my primary care doctor referred to my anxiety as the "dragon on my shoulder".

I have thought a lot about my lifelong anxiety struggle as of late. I came to the realization that I have this anxiety and I need to "place" it somewhere. When there is nothing to be anxious about in my life, I find some vague symptom and place it there.

I also look back and reflect on my anxieties along my 46 year journey of life. There were times where my anxiety (the dragon) was almost non-existent. Why, I wonder. For a good portion of my twenties I lived at the gym. I had very little anxiety for those years. I'm guessing there is a correlation. When my kids were babies, my health anxiety dragon was absent. I think my anxiety was placed with the hustle-bustle of being a new mom with all the frenetic things that go on at that time of life... also working full time. As soon as my kids got a little older, my health anxiety seemed to return and has been around for the last 12 years or so. If I have something else in life to "worry" about, I don't worry about my health. hmmm.

[Fishmanpa]

BUMP

Bill posted a great thread in the GAD section comparing anxiety to a parasite.

Anxiety is like a parasite because it attaches itself within us and then bullies us by creating intrusive thoughts, what if's and worries so it can feed off your fear so it can stay alive.

When you starve it of it's food by not giving it the attention it seeks by not dwelling on the thoughts it creates, it cannot survive

I've compared it to a campfire...

Anxiety is like a campfire. When you're in the midst of a spiral the fire is burning bright and hot. When the flames die down, there's still a bed of red hot coals burning away just waiting for some more fuel. You may not feel anxious but your body is still on high alert and has a bed of hot anxiety coals inside just waiting to flare up. Just like a campfire, the hot coals of anxiety take a long time to finally go out.

Some here, including myself call anxiety a dragon. It breathes the fire of worry and doubt, making your life miserable.


So what food does the dragon eat?

Dragon food:

The dragon's favorite food IMO is Google. The dragon sees Google and salivates as you open the browser and type in symptoms. It's like potato chips in that you just can't stop at one and he knows it. Before you know it you've devoured the entire bag of chips and the dragon is breathing his fire full force! Even when he's full he'll get you to keep browsing.

Then there's reassurance. Ahhh... yes... reassurance. The dragon will get you to spend money you don't have on doctors and medical tests. He'll have you seek it from friends and family to the point they want nothing more to do with you. He'll have you come to the forum and post thread after thread and have you hang around for hours and hours, sometimes all day, neglecting your life just to hear something that will quell the worry and doubt if even for a minute. And that's the problem. That's all it typically does until the fires of doubt come burning back into your brain.

Self examination... The dragon loves that! He'll have you poke and prod, shine lights down your throat, post photos of your body parts, moles, freckles, fingernails, pimples and all sorts of normal things that your skewed anxiety ridden mind sees as sinister. And nodes? He'll whisper the word node in your ear all day long and have you poke and prod until you're black and blue and sore. He'll skew your perception to make you believe their swollen when in fact that's the furthest thing from fact! He'll have you try to measure them, convincing you it's 3+cm in size when in fact it's less than one when measured by an ultrasound that you paid hard earned dollars for. And then?... he'll convince you it has to be wrong!

There are more foods the dragon loves to eat. These are the big three IMO. What do you feed him?

The way to get him under control is to starve him. Like the parasite in Bill's comparison and the campfire in mine. Starving him is the way to get him off your back. Time to start starving the dragon. Don't be shy about asking for help from a professional dragon slayer (therapist) and a fire extinguisher (meds).

Positive thoughts

[BrokenGirl]

This is an excellent post and definitely needs to be bumped regularly or made a sticky.
It sums up my HA perfectly. Damn you Dragon - I'm going to take you on and I WILL win

Thanks for posting...

[KK77]

BUMP

[ghost-]

I agree. The metaphor you create works perfectly - I have one issue with it though: the dragon is not the enemy.

there is one thing we all have to realize: we woke the dragon, we hurt the dragon, we punished the dragon, and the dragon's rage is caused by us and only us. the dragon is our partner, the dragon is there to protect us from harm and death. the dragon wakes when we think to be in danger. we need to accept the dragon as our partner, for all it ever wanted, is to keep us save and alive.

I think it is essential to not hate ourselves for having anxiety - this is a part of us, it's for many in their genetics, their literal physical structure. it won't ever go away for good - that would entail ending an essential part of ourselves - something that also gave us incredible powers and sensitivity that other people cannot reach. We are like Targaryens who have not tamed their dragons yet - but at the end of the day, they are our fate.

sorry for that melodramatic GoT references, but I like to think of it that way

[NervUs]

It's a good, reassuring post with easy to understand analogies.

What I find interesting is that whenever my fears of some sinister illness come into play, whenever my mind gets obsessed about it due to real or imaginary symptoms, I can find direct of indirect associations and clues to the same or connected illness EVERYWHERE, whether I stumble upon it in some kind of article on a news website, or read it on a social platform, or social media, or forum, or even hear it in the news. Everywhere. It always happens.

Totally! It is uncanny how that happens!

---------- Post added at 22:42 ---------- Previous post was at 22:36 ----------

I agree. The metaphor you create works perfectly - I have one issue with it though: the dragon is not the enemy.

there is one thing we all have to realize: we woke the dragon, we hurt the dragon, we punished the dragon, and the dragon's rage is caused by us and only us. the dragon is our partner, the dragon is there to protect us from harm and death. the dragon wakes when we think to be in danger. we need to accept the dragon as our partner, for all it ever wanted, is to keep us save and alive.

I think it is essential to not hate ourselves for having anxiety -

You lost me with GoT, lol....but....this is VERY interesting.
Anxiety IS something that we all have and all need as it is part of the survival of our species and probably all species..

The thing is, it's haywire in those of us in this group, probably for lots of different reasons.

You make a great point of having to accept that we will always have anxiety, but I guess the issue is a matter of degree and in what proportion to the actual threat.

That's what I hate about anxiety- it makes you, well me, lose the ability to assess what the threat actually is. So, yeah, the anxiety is useful, but the inability to parse out real from imagined is not. Blech.

[ghost-]

You make a great point of having to accept that we will always have anxiety, but I guess the issue is a matter of degree and in what proportion to the actual threat.

That's what I hate about anxiety- it makes you, well me, lose the ability to assess what the threat actually is. So, yeah, the anxiety is useful, but the inability to parse out real from imagined is not. Blech.

Exactly! Our dragons are exceptionally powerful which is why we have no control over them - we haven't learned to cooperate with them yet. But they are tameable - they exist through us, therefore we need to learn how to measure their power and regulate the intensity. It's like a baby dragon that breaths fire the instant something moves - but we have to teach our dragon that it needs to reserve the fire for actual threat. That's where our rational mind comes into play, and we have to play parent.

[Tiatyrah]

Very good post. Makes you stop and think for a while..