New To This Forum

[AnxietyR]

As a constant internet user because of my anxiety I never thought I should join a forum for anxiety until today, I have been suffering with anxiety for about 3 years now and I am currently 24 years old. It all started when i was in a car accident which was pretty bad, my tendons ended up ripping and is non-operable but what truly impacted me was the anxiety I have from being in cars in general. I saw a psychologist and said I had a form of PTSD, I was never really anxious before only for presentations in class and what not (But who isnt :P). I have a lot of questions pertaining to anxiety, at first I was scared to talk about it and my friends/family didnt really understand why I stopped going places after the car accident (like the beach,camping,etc.) But now I realize that its beneifical to me and others if I talk about my anxiety instead of holding it all in. I hope the forum can help me cope/conquer my anxiety and I hope to help people in the future dealing with issues like this.

Thanks For Reading,
AR

[Kirk]

Welcome to the forum. Car accidents can be pretty scary. I have been in a few myself. I have been involved in 2 head on collisions and
rear ended at 40 plus miles an hour. I was never injured badly, thank goodness. As time passes you will get better.

[Nowuccas]

Hey AnxietyR,

I suffered from PTSD myself after some hopped up maniac hit a roundabout in his car and veered over my side of the road on 2 wheels, and I could see that there was no way that I could avoid being hit, so I was forced to sharply pull the handlebar of my 250 cc motorbike so it crashed into his car, enabling me to leap off to the safety of the nature strip. I can still remember seeing the driver through the sunroof of his white General Motors sedan as it sped past in a hit and run.

"The signature cluster of symptoms for PTS is the "re-experiencing" that takes the form of spontaneous repetitive flashbacks, nightmares and/or intrusive thoughts. These are not coming from the part of the brain where normal memories are stored, but are stuck in a more primitive, survival-based section of the brain, where they neither fade nor shift, but stay contemporaneous and current and terrifying. And you can't talk your way out of them with the best counselor or therapist in the world. Wrong chunk o' brain. You need imagery, hypnosis, acupoint release, energy work, etc etc. The other 2 symptom clusters of PTS - avoidance/numbness and alarm/ hypervigilance - can be symptoms of other conditions as well. But this is not so with re-experiencing."

In those days I was unaware that I hadn't recovered, psychologically, until I again encountered a white General Motors sedan coming towards me at a roundabout, then I experienced a flashback to the hit and run, and the next thing I knew I was picking myself up from the road where I had fallen off. Then I knew I had a problem.

A previous post follows:

Doctors and psychiatrists rely a great deal on medications, and may be unaware of, or not possess the skills and time for the appropriate therapy, and a highly effective form of treatment for PTSD is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy.

View the http://1-800-therapist.com/ & http://www.metanoia.org/choose/ websites, and Google:"therapists; EMDR; (your location)" or use the phone book, and/or various associations for psychiatrists and psychologists, to find the nearest one using EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy). In EMDR, a therapist will ask you to revisit a traumatic event and remember the feelings, negative thoughts, or memories associated with it. While you are doing this, the therapist may hold up two fingers about eighteen inches from your face and move them from side to side. You may be asked to track the movement of the therapist’s fingers with your eyes. As you concentrate on the traumatic event during therapy, you are trying to bring its memory to life. The mental imagery you are able to conjure up during the therapy session is then processed, aided by your eye movements, facilitating the processing of painful memories, enabling some of the powerful emotional states involved to be discharged to some degree, and helping to achieve resolution and a state involving less painful emotions. EMDR has 8 stages. Professional EMDR is always much preferable. It can be completely cured.

Sometimes, a beta blocker, such as propranolol, or atenolol is administered prior to being asked to recount the traumatic event, reducing the emotional charge associated with it, as it is re-recorded in your memory (which has been shown to be plastic, at least to some extent, with many people). Check out medications first at: www.drugs.com and www.rxlist.com/ Give acupressure tapping EFT a good tryout, to see if it helps you. Use the searchbar at www.mercola.com "EFT" & "EFT therapists" and/or see the 13 free videos at www.tapping.com & http://www.emofree.com/freevideos.aspx for PTSD. Read: The Tapping Cure: A Revolutionary System for Rapid Relief from Phobias, Anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and More, by Roberta Temes Ph.D., from your bookstore, Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com

There is a version at http://eft.mercola.com for use in public places, (if anyone asks, you can claim to have a headache, as employ the acupressure massage/tapping on your temples, but you would then be restricted to subvocalising: saying it to yourself in your mind: "Even though I suffer from PTSD, I deeply and completely accept myself." Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is also recommended, and has been used successfully, with PTSD. Some people, however, may benefit more from psychotherapy, or counselling, at least until they are some way along the path to wellness, and feeling psychologically robust enough for the harsher CBT. A free E course in it, which can help reduce the time spent in therapy sessions, is at: http://moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome Use a relaxation method daily, like http://www.drcoxconsulting.com/managing-stress.html or http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/mind...Meditation.htm or http://www.wikihow.com/Meditate or Tai Chi, Qi Gong, or yoga.

Hypnosis is merely a heightened state of suggestibility, in which you are better able to communicate with your subconscious mind; view http://myfavoriteinterests.com/hypnosis/ about what it is, and isn't. 85% of people are suggestible to some degree; 15% - 20% highly so, and 15% - 20% aren't much at all, so you could either preferably seek professional hypnotherapy, or, if not an option, http://www.asktheinternettherapist.com has: Defeat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) CD - MP3 or http://www.hypnotictapes.com has: POST TRAUMATIC STRESS SYNDROME (DISORDER) PTSD, OVERCOME. Professional advice is to use preferably only 1, or a maximum of 2 at any one time.

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Learn and develop proficiency in an anti-panic attack breathing method to use in the event of one occurring. Also learn, and employ either Progressive Muscle Relaxation ( http://www.drcoxconsulting.com/managing-stress.html ) or acupressure tapping / EFT, whichever you find most effective.

My comprehensive previous posts about panic and anxiety attacks may be viewed at:

http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showth...304#post226304

GENERALISED ANXIETY DISORDER: http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showth...989#post223989

HERBAL ANXIOLYTICS: http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showth...415#post225415

NON HERBAL ANXIOLTYICS: (5-htp, etc.) http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showth...lease!!!/page2

Hoping something in the above helps.

[KittenTrans]

Hi and welcome

[av1988]

As a constant internet user because of my anxiety I never thought I should join a forum for anxiety until today, I have been suffering with anxiety for about 3 years now and I am currently 24 years old. It all started when i was in a car accident which was pretty bad, my tendons ended up ripping and is non-operable but what truly impacted me was the anxiety I have from being in cars in general. I saw a psychologist and said I had a form of PTSD, I was never really anxious before only for presentations in class and what not (But who isnt :P). I have a lot of questions pertaining to anxiety, at first I was scared to talk about it and my friends/family didnt really understand why I stopped going places after the car accident (like the beach,camping,etc.) But now I realize that its beneifical to me and others if I talk about my anxiety instead of holding it all in. I hope the forum can help me cope/conquer my anxiety and I hope to help people in the future dealing with issues like this.

Thanks For Reading,
AR

The anxiety you have is COMPLETELY normal. Good for you for wanting to talk to people about it. Sometimes all it takes is a few small friendly conversations and anxious feelings can go away. Sometimes it's more complicated. Welcome to the forums and I hope you have a wonderful day!

-Former 11Bravo, US Army.