New here and question...

[mjhult]

Hi, I'm new here. I have suffered with general anxiety and social anxiety for more years than I can count.

Just out of curiosity, what is the absolute most frustrating thing about your anxiety for you?

How do you deal with it?

For me it's knowing that it's some irrational thing that I feel I can't control, but it's not really me. Make sense?

I'm curious to hear what others have to say.

[happyattempt]

For me it is the craziness of my fears. They are things that I know I shouldn't worry about. Things that are not "me". The fact that I get depressed because of these fears is also frustrating. Happiness will prevail. It must.

[lawandorder]

Yeah I'm on the same page.. I get most frustrated with it's persistence. It like my brain just fires a thought, and the thought triggers a feeling (phsyiological fear response)... then about a split second later im calm because I know nothing has actually changed. I just think I could have done without the 4 second wig out, because after it im exactly the same as before it happened (15 seconds prior)... So these annoying spikes just piss me off. How i'm supposed to stop them i have no idea :/
woe is me

[Brandon M]

Same here, it's the spikes of anxiety that annoy me most. I've just been ignoring them or thinking to myself that its funny to get the feeling.

[mjhult]

One thing that has helped me is to just accept the anxiety and invite it in, like I am talking to the anxiety as strange as that sounds.

If I feel it coming on, I will literally say in my head "Oh hey, here's the anxiety coming on. Come on in, I know you are a part of me and it's OK."

It's helped me more than trying to fight and ignore it.

[palow]

All of you need to get on a structured programme to reset your anxiety levels back to normal. It takes time and it requires a plan of action. Getting coping tips here and there will not help a serious case of anxiety disorder that has been going on for years.

Doing a bit of exercise here and there, drinking chamomile tea, taking up yoga, using lavender aromatherapy--all these things won't help without an overall plan that orchestrates everything with the one goal of eliminating inappropriate anxiety.

So TAKE ACTION and stop sharing coping tips. If you have money and insurance, get into CBT. If you have a bit of money, get an anxiety treatment programme off the internet. Those internet anxiety coaches have all gone through anxiety disorder themselves and they are on a mission. If you have no money at all, go to your local library and check out books by Claire Weekes or this one I like called The Worry Trap by Chad Lejeune.

Patrick