What the hell is this???

[Obelysk]

Well you guys might have seen me here before. Anyways I have or had been doing pretty good with my anxiety and keeping myself under cool but recently I have been having some real weird thoughts go through my mind. I am not sure what the hell is going on, I feel confused, sometimes I feel like I am going insane, I have fear of the unknown and I can't control my thought sometimes. I have been feeling really depressed too and I am not sure why either, also I recently had an ear infection and what not. I am not sure what is happening to me, bad thoughts and fears constantly cross my mind and quite frankly I feel like I am going crazy. I talk to a counselor but right now I feel like shit and I am not sure what the hell is happening to me....

[square]

What's changed since you were feeling well?

Do you have more stress now?

You had a good stretch going - I'm sure you can get it started again.

[louisrapisarda]

Think positive man. if a bad thought enters mind replace it straight away. thoughts control behavior, behaviour controls emtions :D. I believe you can do it.

[Robbed]

One of the first things people often do after feeling pretty good for a time and then going downhill again is try to figure out why it happened. This can be a VERY bad thing to do. If it is not all too apparent why you are having a setback, this can cause you to blame any little thing you can think of that happened. And this just causes more stress. Just realize that setbacks HAPPEN, and accept it. So unless some significant stressor has just occurred that you can easily identify (and if you can't think of it right off the top of your head, it's probably not significant), don't get caught up in the question of what has made you feel bad again. Anxiety recovery is, after all, more about ups and downs than a stready improvement.

As for bad or strange thoughts, these are VERY common with anxiety disorders. And they can be VERY disturbing for most people who endure them. The key thing to remember, though, is that they are just thoughts and NOTHING MORE. As disturbing as they may be, these obsessive thoughts are just an anxiety symptom and not a sign of 'going crazy'. Simply let them happen, and DON'T try to force them from your mind or replace them with more positive thoughts. Doing these things only adds significance to these thoughts and makes them stick around. Remember that, when it comes to obsessive thoughts, what you resist persists. Also, try your best not to react to bsessive thoughts with fear. By accepting these thoughts, they will eventually go away with time (but remember the ups and downs I mentioned above - they might temporarily get worse at times).

In both cases here, remember that ACCEPTANCE is key to recovery. The reason why SO many people have the problems they do recovering from anxiety is that the natural tendency is to feel like acceptance is the wrong thing to do. The natural tendency is to try to FIGHT anxiety. But this ony makes it worse, and keeps it going.