Anxiety - 12 months later and do we really ever get beat it?

[u4ea]

It’s been a while…

Anxiety works in mysterious ways – I’ve had episodes of anxiety, or rather anxious tendencies since childhood; then, starting February 2013, anxiety took on a whole new dynamic for me.

I wrote all about the initial, severe (to me) episode on this forum (which you can refer back to since it’s a long thread).

For a while, I enjoyed posting and expressing thoughts via threads and posts on the forum – it honestly helped me cope with anxiety. Then, I guess the severity of my anxiety simply diminished, and I was able to go on with my daily routine without obsessing over anxiety, its symptoms and others experiences with anxiety.

Over the past ~ 19 months, I rarely, if ever, logged onto the forum.

I randomly thought about the AnxietyForum last weekend and decided to check out the latest and greatest posts.

I came across several posts regarding a topic I often thought about and even wrote about on this forum.

Do you really ever beat anxiety?

I’ve made several threads/posts about the exact same topic in the past, but here is my opinion on anxiety from a prognostic point of view.

First, as stated above, I’ve had anxious tendencies throughout my life (red flag); but generally, any episode would be very brief, and I would recover completely – I can honestly say I had a healthy, happy life.

Fast forward to 33 years old – after months of stressful life events, anxiety took on a whole new sinister form for me. I had what I’d consider my first panic attack and began experiencing the physical manifestations of anxiety.

Went to the doctors, extensive blood work, EKG – the usual battery of tests you see many endure here.

I was prescribed Ativan, Toprol XL and Setraline – I took none other than Ativan to cope with the frequent panic episodes. I took Ativan as needed from February 2013 – early July 2013, then stopped cold turkey; and haven’t touched it since.

I currently take no medication.

For me, over the past 12 plus months of taking NO anti-anxiety medication, I believe you never really beat anxiety, you just become more and more efficient at coping/coping techniques, so the effects of anxiety are a lot less debilitating.

Peaks and valleys, ebb and flows, crests and troughs.

I can positively say that I’m nowhere near as functional as I was prior to the severe episode in Feb 2013.

Prior, I could travel alone (both aircraft and car), I’d SCUBA dive alone, and now I doubt I could do any without panic.

For me, in order to maintain some sense of normalcy, I’m kept in “check” by my anxiety – I can drive locally with nearly zero, or very minimal anxiety; but if someone told me I had to drive 500 miles alone, I’d freak, and a ride like that used to excite me!

Same with air travel.

I’ve noticed my world has become very small.

Anxiety still sets the boundaries on what I’m comfortable with – flirt outside of that comfort zone, and I feel like I’ll be sent back into a tailspin, back into the darkness of panic; so in essence, anxiety still controls my life, just less noticeably, less obvious to friends and family.

Wow – I drew this out way too long, sorry : )

[Xerosnake90]

It sounds very much like you never did beat your anxiety. You're coping with it, a much different thing. Congrats on your feelings of normalcy. I'm at the same point. I am still however noticing more and more that my previous thought patterns are leaving. I'm also just not focusing on negatives as much anymore. I've had a whole outlook change because of my anxiety and in that way it keeps getting better. Anxiety is a blessing if used correctly. It brings out the better in you and drives you in that direction. You have no other choice if you wish to overcome it.

I've had anxiety my entire life. I didn't know what to call it until 2 to 3 months ago. I'm moving on from a life long thing. It only recently started manifesting heavily on symptoms. And even now those are gone or going. I know full well what I haven't done yet to make myself happier and my anxiety non existent. And that's the journey. Regardless life is good.

[u4ea]

Nope, never beat it and I think it's not something one really ever "beats."

I'm not trying to sound negative with the comment, but I just feel anxiety (at least to the extent/severity many I read about, have) is organic in nature - i.e. chemical imbalance or brain abnormality; so one can't just will it away - they can cope and deal with the symptoms, but I'm still not convinced you can completely beat it.

Glad you making progress in the right direction - hope you continue too : )

[Im-Suffering]

It’s been a while…

I’ve noticed my world has become very small.

Anxiety still sets the boundaries on what I’m comfortable with – flirt outside of that comfort zone, and I feel like I’ll be sent back into a tailspin, back into the darkness of panic; so in essence, anxiety still controls my life, just less noticeably, less obvious to friends and family.

Wow – I drew this out way too long, sorry : )

Do not see yourself as less functional, less able, less of the person you used to be. For very personal reasons life has taken on a different meaning. I say personal because although we share common symptoms, there is a rhyme and reason unique to each. Perhaps making your world smaller, allows you intimacy in your surroundings, a blessing often missed by those in a larger context of experience.

Perhaps the nervous system has been so tuned to give immediate feedback whereas others less in touch do not receive this communication. With anxiety one is certainly more aware of feelings, for they jump out at you, and there lies the correlation to health. You all have a clean bill ! Now, feelings expressed through the body may be uncomfortable, but they are expressed nonetheless. Most anxiety sufferers are healthy. If one would repress these emotions, and not develop anxiety as a release, then he may 'come down' with a more serious sometimes life threatening illness.

Because then, you express, in one form or another, it has saved your life ! I am telling you that your peers who never feel a moment of anxiety have a higher risk of disease (chronic) than you do. For that friend is denying or repressing, highly charged emotions. We all have them. And we all need to let them go.

For some of you the sound of your heart or the thumping makes you tense and thus you thump harder and faster. I've got to tell you, you have a heart, and it beats in your chest. What a miraculous sensation to be in tune with your heart, both mentally and physically. Your heart is magical, a wonderful organ that of its own volition keeps you alive. You can feel it, you can hear it, you can slow it or speed it up. But no matter the amount of trips to the ER, you are never sick from it. "Mam, your heart is fine and so is your pressure"

Now the man who never feels his heart, who's heart is icy and cold, will be the one to have an attack. The attack itself a means to get in touch with it, in a different way.

Your life has a different meaning, whereas changes in direction, passions, fulfillment, joy are not sinister any more than anxiety itself. You are challenged to think differently, sensitively, aware of the effects on your bodies. Knowing how alcohol would set off your emotions and trigger anxiety saves you from whatever probable events may happen from its abuse, and ignorance of the feelings generated. One would simply continue to drink and kill themselves, where you know the effects on the emotional systems.

Should you fight with a spouse, you feel sick, teaching you different methods of dealing with disagreements. You may not be able to travel by air to foreign lands, but you can travel to your nearest park and snooze under a tree.

I would rather become intimate with my environment and love where I am, than travel like a headless chick into theirs. And really it's not about them anyway.

I see you as more functional, more able, more capable, more aware, more spiritual, more in tune, more psychic, more intelligent, more loving, more sensitive, more allowing, more feeling, more in touch, more friendly, , more generous, more metaphysical, more kind, more open hearted, more honest, open, more of a human.

Now I'll take all that, and someone else can keep their 500 mile trip, all they have is more mileage.

Don't you know, life is more than meets the eye, and things are not always as they seem?

Now this has been a fun post, a bit of a parable, unedited and improv.

[u4ea]

Wow - wonderfully written and wonderful perspective!

Thank you!

[briggs05]

I think that it is possible to beat anxiety. One story in particular comes to mind. A former anxiety sufferer, Charles Linden, who now sells a successful anxiety program claims to have had severe anxiety for years and to have completely beaten it. I think that anxiety disrupts your previous philosophy and to really beat anxiety, you have to try to recapture that philosophy. However the trick is that now you know what it is like to have anxiety so you have to incorporate that into your new philosophy. I believe that one way to beat anxiety is to think of it as a a guide, in a way. Having anxiety may have helped you. I think anxiety may be a way of telling yourself to calm down and take things slower. It may be telling you to look at certain aspects of your life and readdress them and maybe rethink how you are going to behave. I haven't fully come to any solid conclusion about anxiety but I believe that as long as you are keeping it in check, you should be pretty happy.

I think that thinking ahead too far is a common problem with anxiety. You start to scare yourself about all of the things that you will not do now because of your anxiety. If you just live in the moment the best you can, these problems will have a less chance of surfacing because you are not priming yourself to be scared.

[manz82]

Anxiety is not a disease, therefore it can't be 'beaten'. We all have anxiety in our daily lives, we just need to learn how to better handle it and use it productively rather than negatively thinking about it. Most anxiety sufferers are natural worriers and will find that they have always been more highly strung than most people, that's why when we have our first panic attack, we cling to it and create so much more fear obsessing over when the next one will come.
The trick here is that we all have to learn how to think positively instead of negatively, learn to relax effectively and deal with any problems we face with a rational mind, this way we will retrain our brains to stop automatically jumping to the panic mode and we will gradually improve our nerves and anxiety.

[Ahlstrom]

Anxiety, everyone will have and it's ok to have it, but anxiety DISORDER is a problem that I don't think is ok to have, you will have good months and bad months for the rest of your life, we'll never beat it, but we can learn what makes us tick and ease/shorten the bad periods.

[Enduronman]

We all have anxiety in our daily lives, we just need to learn how to better handle it and use it productively rather than negatively thinking about it. Most anxiety sufferers are natural worriers and will find that they have always been more highly strung than most people. The trick here is that we all have to learn how to think positively instead of negatively, learn to relax effectively and deal with any problems we face with a rational mind, this way we will retrain our brains to stop automatically jumping to the panic mode and we will gradually improve our nerves and anxiety.

Excellent advice!
Yes, I believe that we learn to manage it instead of it managing us..
Enjoy the day!

E-Man