I found a cure....you can get it too...

[lesleya]

Well done franklin
I want to thank you for posting your story because everything you say is so so true.
You've given me the kickstart i needed. I've been sliding back to my old panics/anxiety/agoraphobia...feeling sorry for myself...worrying...but...Im not going to let this beat me again.....I beat it once before...so i can do it again. Lifes too short.
Cheers

[BasilCat]

Hi Franklin, Yes, I am beginning to realise that I control the feelings. And I agree completely when you say that any cure starts months in advance. I have had this "challenge" 3 or 4 times in 30 years so I know how true that is, also your words about acceptance. Have you ever been to www.anxietynomore.co.uk Paul David who wrote the site speaks a lot about acceptance and I know he and you are totally right with that too. Nutrition and rest are part of it as well.

So good to read that you say you are 80% cured and are feeling more empowered when the anxiety strikes. Yes true acceptance is the ability to live with the panic - or anxiety in my case - and not be scared of it. Also, by accepting it, we are not fighting how we are feeling and of course fighting only keeps us anxious longer. Accepting and relaxing is the way forward isnt it. Have you ever read, "Self help for your nerves" by Claire Weekes? Or, "Essential help for your nerves". They are great too.

Keep up the good work.
Love Shirley
x x x


So yes, I feel I am beginning to accept this completely too as I have been doing much more lately.

[franklin2003]

Claire Weekes has been the basis for finding myself again....it was the base from where i turned my thoughts outward instead of inward.

Just an update..i subscribed the website anxietycentre.com and purchased there techniques. If you are a fan of Claire Weekes you'll be a fan of this website. It teaches you CBT techniques, teaches you why you have panic attacks, and gives you the courage that you can cure yourself!! I believe its $20 for 6 months, I want to help someone so PM me with your story, efforts of recovery, and I'd like to give a gift to access this site. If you can afford it but still want to chat, PM me, but I want to help someone get up and realize some of the things I have who may not be able to afford the help.

I've had a few rough days, Monday was really rough and I had a pretty close PA and bad anxiety. This is the rollercoaster ride of anxiety, the physical symptoms play us SO WELL, today I was anxious when driving but I road it out. I continually reframed my mind to tell myself it's just a feeling and that it can't hurt me. I've lived through it a million times before, I will again. I still feel a little anxious, but i'm not letting it bother me too much.

I hope I've provided some good info for those looking to actually get past this. Sometimes I think we learn to live in this condition and a cure seems so far away. It really isn't. I look forward to hearing from you and helping someone.

Acceptance
Calm
Nutrition
Calm
Calm
You are safe
You're symptoms are a bodily over reaction
You have the cure
It takes time
Avoid the negative
Avoid "what if"
Avoid the search for a cure
Avoid searching symptoms
Reframe your thoughts
You are safe
You are okay
Calm
Calm
Even when you can't be calm, think calm
You're body is ready to go back to normal whenever you choose
Calm

[franklin2003]

Today was another good day, it was the first time I was able to go for a walk...a long walk...a lot of my dizziness has disappeared since i've accepted my symptoms as anxiety. I have a ton neck and shoulder tension on my right side and i've accepted this the cause.

On Friday I did have some greater panic on my way home in a car..I just couldn't shake it in the car and once we got home as soon as I stepped out I felt better. It will be hard to ride in a car again, but I have to..to keep beating this. It's bee.en almost a month since I said "stop" that one day...and my life is getting better day by day. As Claire Weekes has said Accept, Float, Let time pass. It probably has taken me 2 months to get there..but I feel I finally am. It takes so much time, but at the peak of the panic you have to willingly surrender and relax to it. It's an amazing cure, to open your eyes and stand brave to feelings that can't hurt you. I hope many of you are inspired by my postings to start today.

[franklin2003]

Just wanted to drop another line, this is more theaputic for me to track my progress, so i'm sorry if you feel that i'm bumping this thread..i hope you can use it in your own recovery

I was nervous this morning..didn't feel right..but i went to work anyways, i'm lucky and cursed in that i can work from home or at work, i went right through it accepted every feeling..it took about an hour...but it went away and this is the first time in months i've been able to sit at peace at my computer..

Are all my symptoms gone? No...they are still there..but i'm relaxing as much as possible allowing them to come, not giving them much thought and letting them go..

This is a progress...up and down..but once you utter surrender and accept that anxiety can do you no harm but give you FALSE physical symptoms..you will be healed....with patience..A LOT of patience

[BasilCat]

Hi Franklin, Your posts are great. I am still up and down with the anxiety and dont feel right myself this morning, like you on Thursday. But I am trying to accept how I am feeling and let the feelings come and believe that they cant harm me. Yes it takes patience, tons of it. But I am just so thankful that I can get out and about a bit. And that I have a voluntary job too. I think its great that you were at work the other day and accepted how you were feeling and that it went away after an hour.

So like you, I am going to have to relax as much as possible and not give how I am feeling, much thought. Also, I think I will print out your list starting with Acceptance above.

I see you mention driving. This has been a big thing for me too. Largely because of the unreality - I dont know if this is an issue for you. But I am slowly building myself up to driving to Yorkshire (70 miles) and back on my own again. I drove back with my husband the other week but am not ready to go all the way there and back on my own yet. On Tuesday I drove 20 miles to Preston Dock on my own and I admit I felt better once I got out of the car and had a cuppa in the cafe.

Yes I am improving and getting there, slowly but surely. And I will be following your posts and progress from here onwards. I need that push! I am close to tears now but I must not let this beat me. If you can accept how you are feeling Franklin, then so can I.

Thanks Franklin
Shirley

[franklin2003]

Yesterday I was reminded of how much my body over reacts when i'm in a car. I had not felt that level of anxiety in well over a week and i need to put it on my to dos to start to tackle. This time I was riding in the car and not driving it...my heart was pounding, it was hard to breath, it was so hard to focus.

What are some of the positives of this experience, I was able to continue doing what I needed to do once I got out of that car...that was a first..before I would have been in a blind panic and not able to perform.

I needed to ride back home though and that increased the anxiety I was feeling. It was very hard to get my body to relax and process those anxiety hormones, the ones that take a while to work out of system when we are struck by severe anxiety. I contemplated taking a Xanax, i held it in my hand when it was time to get back in the car. We drove home, I was able to talk more on the way home, able to focus more, but the anxiety was still there. It also may have been because I was going home, but who cares I was able to bring it down to some degree. Once I got home I threw the Xanax to the ground and crushed it with my shoe. I then went home and relaxed allowed the anxiety to pass and went out for a long time. I was hesitant though to go out further for fear of that attack, today I'm going to do some errands around down, instead of me driving i'm going to ride. Hopefully with a few practice runs it will begin to disappear, and like walking around the city, the anxiety will no longer have that type of hold on me.

Don't dispair, truly we are effected by a harmless annoyance, i've come a long ways, I know longer have that creeping underlying anxiety in most things I do and when it does come I ignore it and it goes away. I visualize every day having my life back and that gives me focus, I don't dispair about it, I visualize knowing I'll have it. It will come it just takes time I guess.

[BasilCat]

Hi Franklin, I understand how you felt about being in the car the other day. My anxiety started 2 years ago with a panic attack when I was driving and one when I was a passenger and I have been working on getting back into driving ever since. Only a year ago I could barely get into a car. Then only 2 weeks ago I drove back from Yorkshire, 70 miles. Hubby was with me. I am not ready to do it on my own, or with the kids, just yet though.

So glad to hear you were able to bring your anxiety levels down a bit on the way home in the car and also get rid of the Xanax when you got home. How did you get on with your errands around town? I agree, if you go as a passenger for a few times, as you say, on practice runs, the anxiety will get less. It did for me. I am not perfect yet but the anxiety when I am in the car is getting less.
I will try not to despair Franklin and see that we are only affected by an harmless annoyance. Great to know that most of the time you dont have that underlying anxiety and that if you do, you ignore it, and it goes away.

Thats a good idea too, to visualise having your life back and even knowing you will have it back. I know that I will have my life back one of these days - as you say, it will come. It just takes time.

Keep up the good work.

Back soon
Love Shirley

[journeyman]

Hi Franklin

I would climb in a Vehicle with hugh anticipation, Heart thumping and when the Driver took off up the road i would I would go into a panic, My Stomouch would Not up with such intenensity that i would grab the door yelling i want to get out , And all that happend in seconds, and I would then spend the rest of the journey in a state of shakeyness. Only for the driver to give me strange looks. That was with me for 20 Years. This is how i started to beat it.-- Id get in the vehicle with an attitude of bring it on, I dont care anymore, (Im talking to my sub conscious by the way, almost like its another person.) and when i would get the beginning of a panic i would NOT TENSE UP, I would think of myself as floating, But at the same time thinking to my self, Panic if you want to But im not helping you, Come on give me the best youve got, you cant hurt me , So do your worst. What i did not do is try to stop it, Because that is the fuel to feeding it. Im not saying that every body actually panics, However my anxiety was always based on the fact that i could lose it and panic, Not fighting it as been my My best Tool for Recovery.

[franklin2003]

Thanks for the post JourneyMan...I always enjoy reading your posts just keeps the confidence going..

Just an update to anyone who is interested, it has been over a month since I had my "STOP" day and changed my attitude to what's been happening..

It has been up and down, but there have a been a lot of ups happening now..i know have the cognitive power to sit through the anxiety (which has decreased in severity tremendously) and ride it out, the amount of time it takes is getting lower and lower.

I wrote down a number every day to track my progres starting out at 7 on teh day I said "STOP" and this is the first day i really feel at the end i'll be able to put down an 8.5..moving up from a lot fo 7.5 a few 8's but today is an 8.5 so far.

I no longer fear/fear, i've ridden out so many of these attacks I now need to jump out and face everything and ride those out..i'm ready to have my life back finally

man my muscles are so around my face/neck/shoulders...i'm hoping this is because they are relaxing....it causes my tension headaches and dizziness..but those are next to gone..and sleep takes care of anything left..

I'm sleeping better
I'm eating better
I'm enjoying going out again, even though it can be hard at times

I'm just writing this because I hope everyone reads the steps I took and builds up the courage...it has been the hardest bravest thing i've ever had to do in my life. I won't joke it is pure hell, and the pain gets so much worse before it goes better, because you have to face everything that has been avoided. But, i'm getting there..it may take a few more months before i'm back but i'm happy just to be here now typing this without wishing I could run home....