My story and thoughts

Hi everyone :)

I am currently trying to beat my anxiety too. I have never taken medication because i just think it is something i have to try to beat on my own.

My therapist keeps telling me that being anxious is a way i have learnt to be in situations, mainly social ones. And so because it is something i have learnt, i have to try to un-learn it in order to get over it. Unlearn my ways of thinking when i am anxious, unlearn the dis-beliefs i have in my abilities to cope with situations. He says that once i start doing these things, dealing with my anxiety will become a lot easier. He also assures me that anxiety is part of a normal and healthy life, without it, life would be so much harder; for example, anxiety is there when you cross a road - saving you if a car comes as it kicks in and you get out of the way. However, it is when you get anxious over irrational things that it becomes a problem. For example, instead of getting anxious over the content of exams, i worry about the situation: people looking at me if i need to cough, feeling sick and not being able to get out in time, the oppressive feeling of the silence. I know this is not normal anxiety. But i also know that for situations like this, most people suffer from some form of anxiety, just not to the level to which anxiety suffers may feel. In order to get through this my therapist suggests I look at the worst case scenario, and think of a way/ways in which i would deal with that, reassuring myself that i will be able to cope. That i CAN cope.

I am like you also in the early stages of getting over it. But i can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can see the person who i really am, who is really inside me but afraid to come out. I know she is within reaching distance. The hurdles i will have to face to get there will be hard i know that, but i also know that in time it will get easier. I just have to TRY, BELIEVE in myself, try to deal with my anxiety when it starts to appear rather than letting it take over me and then trying.

I have a boyfriend who worries about me, and i also worry about my own health. This also stirs me on to make a change. I want so badly to change. I don't want to live like this for the rest of my life. Crippling anxiety is a horrible horrible thing and I feel I have suffered from it for too long (5 years).

It isn't going to be easy. But I just want to say that for anyone who suffers from anxiety, I believe you can change and get over it. I hate my anxiety and I know you will hate yours too.

Sometimes looking into the person I know I really am scares me, but this also stirs me on to change also. I know it isn't going to be easy and will take a long time to get over it, but I really want to be a person who doesn't suffer from this level of anxiety any more.

Good luck to everyone!

Amy

Amy be proud that you have been able to deal with your anxiety without any medication. That is like unheard of for anyone dealing with it for that long. you are much closer then alot of us are. The only thing we can do is just keep trying to find a way to our happy place. where we are comfortable in who we are and confident in our ability to live life the way we use to or better yet more then we use to. Dont think so much as you want to be how you were but how you can be better then that person. Goodluck