irrational & worrying

[brittypixi]

lately my worrying and irrational fears have come back. how have you guys fought your irrational fears and worrying about things that aren't true?

[ohokay]

lately my worrying and irrational fears have come back. how have you guys fought your irrational fears and worrying about things that aren't true?

I know that most people discourage this, but I look up every symptom (my irrational fears usually involve heart attacks or stroke or something) and check if I have them for a couple of weeks. When I realize I don't have them, I try to resume daily life. If it's about a bridge falling on your or something, look up statistics and show yourself how much more likely this is than that.

[northstar]

i would tend to disagree with ohokay, looking up symtoms often only feeds the fear and can send your mind into circles of worry.

the absolute best solution to the irrational fears i found was therapy. if you haven't looked into it then you should seriously consider it if you are having such trouble, it can be hard to get out of the circling thoughts by ourselves. cognitive behaviour therapy is the most recommended one for this type of problem, there is a member here called evilbob who can tell you all about it :)

i believe that therapy combined with the correct diet and lifestyle changes are the answer to most anxiety problems, it worked wonders for me :)

[Evelyn]

I got labyrinthitis (dizziness from ear infection) about 4 months ago which lasted about 3 months, then my grandmother died. It was just too much to take all at once. I started to get got muscle twitches, fatigue and pins and needles. I was convinticed I has Multiple sclerosis (MS) I saw a couple of doctors both said I was fine, yet even now I still think I may have it. I know I don't but at the same time I think, maybe they missed it cause it's hard to diagnose. It's so messed up! I'm hoping I'll be better in the new year, hope you feel better too :D

[northstar]

I got labyrinthitis (dizziness from ear infection) about 4 months ago which lasted about 3 months, then my grandmother died. It was just too much to take all at once. I started to get got muscle twitches, fatigue and pins and needles. I was convinticed I has Multiple sclerosis (MS) I saw a couple of doctors both said I was fine, yet even now I still think I may have it. I know I don't but at the same time I think, maybe they missed it cause it's hard to diagnose. It's so messed up! I'm hoping I'll be better in the new year, hope you feel better too :D

evelyn i had the exact same problem with my ears for about 6 weeks last year so i know exacly how you feel! and man was it a nightmare, my anxiety and panic shot through the roof, it was honestly one of the worst times in my life. i can't believe you had it for 3 months, that must have been so hard! my doctor told me that i'd be fine in a couple of days when i first came to her with the problem, but i think she was just trying to comfort me cause really she had no idea how long it'd last! i lost my balance and had extreme vertigo for so long, i was dizzy 24 - 7, even when lying down, i couldn't eat or sleep and work was out of the question (even though i did try to lol)

i had already been having problems with anxiety previous to the virus, but when it came along the stress of it, plus not eating for those 6 weeks (chewing made me feel even more dizzy and sick! i lived on smoothies lol) along with the stress of several other things combined into a major meltdown. my sympathy to you that you had to experience the same thing, it was really awful.

good news though, even though it sent me into major meltdown and i thought my life was pretty much over now a whole year later i am 1000 times better! so it is possible to get better :)

i'm really sorry that you lost your gran, what with the labyrinthitis on top of such loss it's no surprise at all that you found it a bit too much. you're probably just mentally and physically exhausted from such extreme stress :( the good news is that there is a lot that you can do to help yourself out :) i wrote a big long post on all the things that helped me get better, you may like to have a look through and try some things out for yourself: http://www.anxietyforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4087

you also may want to look into getting therapist to help you out with the irrational thoughts. it's not unusal with anxiety to think that you're seriously ill, and it can be hard to get such irrational thinking cycles to stop by ourselves so reaching out for help is a good idea :) i went to see a psychotherapist and also went to neuro linguisitc therapy and found them both extrememly helpful with the irrational thinking! cognitive behaviour therapy is also highly recommended for this kind of problem. so there's lots that you can look into :)

i hope you find some of this a bit comforting - have a look at that link i posted and you'll find lots of other helpful information :) good luck, i hope you're feeling better soon!

[Robbed]

you also may want to look into getting therapist to help you out with the irrational thoughts. it's not unusal with anxiety to think that you're seriously ill, and it can be hard to get such irrational thinking cycles to stop by ourselves so reaching out for help is a good idea :) i went to see a psychotherapist and also went to neuro linguisitc therapy and found them both extrememly helpful with the irrational thinking! cognitive behaviour therapy is also highly recommended for this kind of problem. so there's lots that you can look into :)

Watch out with therapists, though. Simply put, there is a reason why therapists are the butt of SO many jokes: MOST of them ARE a joke! When my anxiety problem started a little over two years ago, I was desperate for a solution. I KNEW I didn't want antidepressants. So I figured therapy would be the answer. But all in all, it just didn't work out. Over the next several months, I tried seeing four different therapists, and was not really satisfied with ANY of them! First of all, NONE of them really seemed to know how to deal with anxiety symptoms. For instance, the VERY important (in my opinion) concept of acceptance was NEVER mentioned to me by ANY of them. This is something I basically had to find out on my own. None of them told me that my anxiety symptoms are just symptoms that are NOT harmful and NOT to be feared, or that anxiety does not have to be permanent. On the contrary. None really gave me much hope as far as getting better. They all seemed quite stuck on the prevailing idea that anxiety disorder will go with you to your grave - you will be forever managed, but never really well. Along with this belief came pressure to go on medication. All but one pushed for me to go on meds. Even though therapists cannot prescribe here in California, they pushed for me to see a psychiatrist, since they all believed that medication and therapy HAD to be done together. And as for insight into my anxiety problems, we never went over anything I hadn't already known for a LONG time. The whole idea that maybe certain problems I have as far as career and relations with other people (for instance) MIGHT cause me to be anxious was just a no-brainer. And to top it off, NONE offered me any kind of REAL advice as to how to deal with these problems. So in the end, I was on my own DESPITE the fact that I was in therapy. If I MUST deal with these problems on my own, I would rather not have to pay $100+ per session to do so.

Of course, maybe you could luck out and find a GREAT therapist. But if therapists in your area are ANYTHING like they are here, it could take a while. Of course, the health care establishment here in the US is notoriously bad when it comes to pushing ideas about anxiety like 'anxiety is forever' and 'pop pills first and talk later, if ever'. Maybe things are better in some of other countries that people live in here.