spades9
05-30-2008, 03:49 AM
Hi, I started to suffer with anxiety at university about 7 years ago and although with something like this you'd be asking for trouble to say I'm fully recovered I'm at a point where it doesn't affect my life at all and I feel more confident than before the anxiety attacks started. Although there seems to be a lot more information around now about anxiety I thought I'd share my experience in the hope that it may help one person get through what was the hardest time in my life.
At its worst my anxiety was so bad I couldn't leave the house most of the time because I felt like everyone was looking at me and judging me and for fear of having an anxiety attack I got really depressed and considered suicide a couple of times.
I did lots of things that probably all contributed to my recovery so I'll list them all:
-Talked to people close (it makes such a difference to have support and at least feel comfortable with your family and friends)
- Stop smoking weed & cut down on alcohol (I strongly believe that it was weed that triggered the anxiety and stopping definately made it better & although alcohol can relieve the symptoms when you drink it its definately worse the next day, the only time anxiety really affects me now is if I have a few too many to drink the night before)
- Read as much about anxiety as possible because the fear of whats happening to you makes it a lot worse if you know whats going on its less scary.
- Meditation - Theres nothing religious or hippy about it, it can just be a way to train the mind not to think too much so it can be really helpful for anxiety as its all the negative thoughts that cause the problem. Its very difficult to control though when you're having an attack so best to meditate 20-30 mins a day whn you;re calm if you keep it up that will train your mind and reduce your anxiety levels so it doesnt get to the attck stage.
- Do things you're scared of doing, once I had the anxiety under control a bit I started doig the things I was scared of like going to the supermarket as I continued the anxiety reduced because the percieved threat never materialised now I only don't like going to the supermarket cos i'm lazy!
- Hypnotherapy - not sure if this helped or not probably did a bit
- Counceling - I think this helped in the early stages as did the hypnotherapy but as I got better it started to seem less useful I think thats where the mediatation and self help came in once I had the strength to take control of my own recovery.
- Went travelling, I definately still had anxiety when I went travelling because I discussed it with my councillor but it was a lot better and I think travelling probably finished it off because It gave me a sense of acheivement and control over my own life and I was constantly meeting new people and finding it wasn't that scary.
I'm now a teacher standing in front of a load of hostile 11-18 year olds for a living everyday which would have been my worst nightmare 7 years ago (I was given valium to do a 5 minute presentation at uni!)
Obviously everyones route out of this thing will be different but I hope some of my tips are useful let me know if they are or if you have any questions
At its worst my anxiety was so bad I couldn't leave the house most of the time because I felt like everyone was looking at me and judging me and for fear of having an anxiety attack I got really depressed and considered suicide a couple of times.
I did lots of things that probably all contributed to my recovery so I'll list them all:
-Talked to people close (it makes such a difference to have support and at least feel comfortable with your family and friends)
- Stop smoking weed & cut down on alcohol (I strongly believe that it was weed that triggered the anxiety and stopping definately made it better & although alcohol can relieve the symptoms when you drink it its definately worse the next day, the only time anxiety really affects me now is if I have a few too many to drink the night before)
- Read as much about anxiety as possible because the fear of whats happening to you makes it a lot worse if you know whats going on its less scary.
- Meditation - Theres nothing religious or hippy about it, it can just be a way to train the mind not to think too much so it can be really helpful for anxiety as its all the negative thoughts that cause the problem. Its very difficult to control though when you're having an attack so best to meditate 20-30 mins a day whn you;re calm if you keep it up that will train your mind and reduce your anxiety levels so it doesnt get to the attck stage.
- Do things you're scared of doing, once I had the anxiety under control a bit I started doig the things I was scared of like going to the supermarket as I continued the anxiety reduced because the percieved threat never materialised now I only don't like going to the supermarket cos i'm lazy!
- Hypnotherapy - not sure if this helped or not probably did a bit
- Counceling - I think this helped in the early stages as did the hypnotherapy but as I got better it started to seem less useful I think thats where the mediatation and self help came in once I had the strength to take control of my own recovery.
- Went travelling, I definately still had anxiety when I went travelling because I discussed it with my councillor but it was a lot better and I think travelling probably finished it off because It gave me a sense of acheivement and control over my own life and I was constantly meeting new people and finding it wasn't that scary.
I'm now a teacher standing in front of a load of hostile 11-18 year olds for a living everyday which would have been my worst nightmare 7 years ago (I was given valium to do a 5 minute presentation at uni!)
Obviously everyones route out of this thing will be different but I hope some of my tips are useful let me know if they are or if you have any questions