Options [Archive] - Anxiety Forum - A Home for Those with Anxiety, Fear, or Panic Attacks

jessed03

05-13-2013, 06:44 PM

The answer really is to then begin to look deeper than the wash, rinse, repeat cycle that the medical establishment sends patients with anxiety on. Virtually always they treat patients with similar therapies, depending on state and country, and unless you're blessed with a patient doctor/great insurance, it's unlikely you'll be given a tailored plan to treat or correct the problems/shortcomings that are affecting you.

Start asking some 'Why's'. Firstly, why didn't the first line of therapies work. Do you believe you followed the therapy course effectively? Did you participate to the point where you became an expert in the teachings? Is your mind clear right now?

Also ask why didnt the drugs work. Was there a subconscious fear/belief affecting your state of calm whenever taking a substance? How many did you try? Each one affects a slightly different mechanism in the brain. Did you experiment enough to find one that worked? Some people need to try 6 or 7. I tried 4 until I found a good one. Then it became another chore, experimenting with the dose.

If you believe you gave both courses of initial treatment the best possible shot, and they didn't respond, you need to then begin to think of a reason for them not doing so. The obvious ones, are you deficient in something, do you have an underlying health condition? Probably not I'm guessing?

So then whats causing the anxiety. If you've gone through 6 months worth of CBT (By yourself or with a therapist), and you've tried drugs, and neither has worked, you must have some idea of what your problem is, even if you don't necessarily know whats causing it.

You can't still be flying off into panic attacks at this stage, I believe that would be rare. Anxiety, is a complex condition, but at the same time it's very simple. There is an over re activeness, happening somewhere. Whether it's your amygdala over reacting, or your thought process, or your nervous system, something is doing so. The simple fact is, if none of those things are over reacting, and you have no health condition, then anxiety is going to be at a complete minimal, if not completely gone.

So let me ask you, because you know best. Where do you think this anxiety has stemmed from? Are you haunted by something in your mind? Not necassarily a big trauma, perhaps just little ones. Are things repressed, do you bear strong grudges, feel intense frustrations, have crushed ambitions? If so, you may need a different type of psychotherapy, different to CBT. One that will allow you to express your frustration at things, and allow you to open up, and cause whatever issue troubles you, to be weakened and understood. If you still have the fears, and you know you have them, yet CBT didnt fix them, I would encourage perserving with the CBT for a long time on your own, as it really can take a lot of time, and also looking at getting exposure to things, and trying hypnosis.

This section is often the trouble one (as it was for me too) for most seasoned anxiety sufferers.

Do you feel ramped up for no reason?
Do you feel tense, have symptoms, yet also have a clear mind, and are completely indifferent to them? This often indicates mental calm, but not a nervous calm. Sometimes the nervous system needs help to relax again. Breathing, heart rate, muscle tension etc, become so off key and ineffective by habit, that the problem stays alive long after it needs to. If this is the case, intense meditation is best. Transcendental-- 100%. It has a great name, but it's the simplest thing in the world to do. If you can remember a word, you can do it. This is the technique of focusing so intensely on something, that all conscious effort is taken away from the body, and it can go back to what it does best naturally, instead of by force. Breathing and heart rate become slower, and more rhythmic, posture slowly corrects itself, blood pressure lowers, muscle tension disolves. Whilst you aren't trying to (without realizing) affect the actions performed by your body, all of that up tightness, and tensing that the body does as your mind tries to control it, dissolves, and it goes back to it's natural state. Also do progressive muscle relaxation twice a day, to ensure your muscles carry no tension at all. Exercising and taking supplements designed for nervous system repair like magnesium and vitamin C also help here.

When you begin to look at things and see whats there, you'll be able to also see why it didn't work, and what part of your condition needs fixing. Above I've tackled a few ways, you may be somewhere in a grey spot in between the lines. A lot of people are.The nervous system and the mind can be healed at the same time though, so inbetween the two isn't a problem, and can be fixed in the same way as just tackling the one aspect.

Take care buddy!