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PanicCured
09-11-2012, 04:54 AM
I officially stated a while back that I would not post here anymore, but I have been receiving messages and I thought I'd just come back here here to offer some more hope. Not false hope, but real hope. I used to have horrible anxiety, panic and agoraphobia, and I lead a 100% anxiety free life now. Completely med free. I know the way out and I will never go back in. I tried to write what I did as best as I could in my techniques thread above in the sticky, and I wrote my instant panic cure above there too. You can read actual techniques there that have helped me and that will most likely help most of you. Anxiety is something you can totally overcome and forget about. All those thoughts of you''ll die, go crazy, heart will explode, you will collapse, if you're alone you will die, you will lose your mind, it can just completely be gone, or at least within a normal range. I compare it to a relationship that you were so involved in, and then a painful break up where you were broken hearted. Then at some point you forget about it, and they are just an ex you couldn't give a crap about.

I have a BIG problem with how doctors treat anxiety. Anxiety is not a disease. It shouldn't be treated as one. What sufferers need is practical techniques to get from a state of fear to fearlessness. It is a healing process, not a quick fix. Little by little you heal until at some point, you just forget about it. In some extreme circumstances, like I had, medication can be used. If I didn't take meds, I wouldn't have been able to work. But I spent more time getting off the meds than I was actually taking them at the recommended dose. The point is, meds or no meds, you need to begin the healing process from anxiety to anxiety free, and this can only truly be done naturally. Meds must always be looked at as a temporary way to maintain, not to cure.

You will heal if you are extremely motivated to do the work. You must get in the proper mindset that you are down, and you have the power to pick yourself back up which you absolutely are able to. Do not allow anyone to tell you anxiety is something you will just have to live with, I don't care what initials come after their name. You must learn to separate just fear from reality. Fear from truth. Are your fears really true or just fears you are giving into? You KNOW what is real. You do! You just want someone to reassure you. Eventually you have to stand alone and reassure yourself. You want to ER to tell you that you are ok. You want people here to tell you that you are ok. Learn to KNOW you are ok.

The reason I have stopped posting on this website, is because I felt a lot of people here were not interested in doing the work to get better, but use this site as some type of feel good, reassurance type thing, only want someone to tell them they are ok, then thats it. Then anxiety strikes again, and be told they are ok again. Not real techniques to use, and not a real drive to get better. Just feel good in that moment but nothing to take with them for the long term. Also, there were some people on this site, particularly 2 people, and you know who you are, that were getting in the way of what I was trying to do, and were killing many posts of mine. I will ask you to not post on my thread here and ruin this like you ruined my others, but most likely, if you see opposition to me here, you will know who I am speaking about. I really just wanted to help people with real knowledge, and not argue and fight with people who are still in the anxiety trap trying to give advice and argue over my advice, when they have not even got better themselves.

When you have anxiety, it makes it easier to have more anxiety. Break the cycle. Say enough is enough. Break your bad habits, face your fears, get your butt out there and try to mimic a normal life as best as you can until it becomes second nature. Stop saying "I can't" and start saying, "I will keep trying until I can!" See, when you have become so sensitive, you can get the fight or flight response activated over the slightest triggers. You need to get your nervous system to a point where it is not so sensitive. This is a slow process, but as long as you are moving forward then its fine. I wrote about specific ways to heal your nervous system in my techniques thread in the sticky. It is important to not feed this problem. Don't add more fear to the fear which basically helps add more sensitivity to the sensitivity. That is why when the panic starts, if you just let go and stay still, relax, breathe lightly, it passes. This is breaking bad habits and this is healing. If you keep doing this, eventually it loses it's power.

I suggest using supplements. I love Eastern Essentials Calm and Relaxed Formula to help rebuild your sensitized nervous system and keep you calm. Brilliant stuff. I like Magnesium Glycinate. I think B Vitamins should be put on hold until the anxiety is better because they are too stimulating. I love Passion Flower Extract, strong chamomile tea. Exercise! Do yoga. Get the blood moving. If you are anxious, most likely you are all tensed up. Go to the gym. Go to a yoga class. Just do what you can do, and work your way up. You don't need to go crazy at first, just do something and keep progressing. Even if all you can do is walk, start with that. Actually walking in the daytime is a huge help. Get the right amount of sun to get proper Vitamin D. Not too much sun, just the healthy amount. Just exercise at the level you can, no matter how small, and keep progressing. You will also get used to your heart rate getting elevated, which is very important in being healthy and even strengthening your heart.

But look, I really just wanted to pop in and say, anxiety and panic can be completely overcome, and I never want you to lose hope or think you can't do it. You just have to get on the correct healing path. This stats with getting in the right mindset, then the healing will happen little by little. I wont be responding to this thread. But I will read the responses. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Lighten up a bit, and don't take it all so seriously!

Cheers!

amneasy
09-11-2012, 07:53 AM
Hey PanicCured, it's great to have you back. I think your work here on this site is just amazing and I think you should know that you have helped a lot, more than anyone in the whole internet. I am not completely anxiety free yet, but I've made a lot of progress, I don't have panic attacks anymore at least and I know that I never will again because (thanks to you) I learned how to control them. I can't wait for the day that I can safely say that I'll never have anxiety issues again, I've been trying to keep my stress down and learn how to let my scary thoughts float away instead of holding onto them. It is indeed a very tough and long process but I'm confident that I'll overcome this ridiculous and pointless thing that is anxiety.

Thank you for all your help.

JAug
09-11-2012, 09:25 AM
This is a great, GREAT post!

As someone who is getting better, it's important to understand the concept of being "normal". Being "normal" is a habit, it's something that you have to repeatedly do over and over again until it becomes 2nd nature.

If you get anxious while out shopping, then guess what.....go out shopping every day until you get used to it. It may take a while, but the results will be permanent.

Again, a great post, and I for one always appreciated your comments and opinions. Very insightfull.

dazza
09-11-2012, 06:30 PM
I agree with most of the original post, but like you say... no matter how hard you try, there will always be people who just don't listen and continue the way they are for eternity.
(These are the people who will ultimately lose this anxiety battle - heed this fact yee who don't listen!)

Having said that, there seems to have been a number of success stories on here of late and I believe that this forum contributes somewhat toward them.

Telling people to get motivated, adjust their mindset or think rationally doesn't work. This is like telling a dog to MEOW, but I believe it is near or actually impossible to teach this via a web forum / written words.

They KNOW they have to do it - but can't for whatever reason.

I think the best advice, actually, is to push cognetive therapy down people's throats until they gag on it.

Therapy cured my panic attacks and educated me in this disorder like no other medium could. It is vital that all sufferes seek this treatment.

indiana
09-13-2012, 01:17 AM
Hello PanicCured
I just would like to tell you that your post(s) have helped me a great deal. At the beginning of this year I was feeling down the dumps and like many other sufferers I just did not know what to do anymore. There were at that time a few very good people (amongst you)
who gave very good down to earth practical advice. In my opinion people who have come on the other side are the only ones that can really help. I have now understood what anxiety is all about. This does not mean I am cured or do not have relapses. In fact I have a big one now but hopefully it will pass.
At this forum there are at present a few people who - in my opinion - should not give advice to other desperate people. Or maybe they should just hold back a little. If I had come on this forum looking for help these days and reading the posts of these people I would have left the forum. So I am very grateful I discovered this forum when people like you were around.
Thanks

indiana
09-13-2012, 01:18 AM
Hello PanicCured
I just would like to tell you that your post(s) have helped me a great deal. At the beginning of this year I was feeling down the dumps and like many other sufferers I just did not know what to do anymore. There were at that time a few very good people (amongst you)
who gave very good down to earth practical advice. In my opinion people who have come on the other side are the only ones that can really help. I have now understood what anxiety is all about. This does not mean I am cured or do not have relapses. In fact I have a big one now but hopefully it will pass.
At this forum there are at present a few people who - in my opinion - should not give advice to other desperate people. Or maybe they should just hold back a little. If I had come on this forum looking for help these days and reading the posts of these people I would have left the forum. So I am very grateful I discovered this forum when people like you were around.
Thanks

PanicCured
09-19-2012, 08:08 PM
Thanks for the kind words! I know my techniques and philosophy of curing anxiety works, because it is what I used to cure my anxiety and they are built on sound logic. Plus, I put together various methods of others and did a lot of trial and error on myself where I was my own lab rat. There were times where walking right out of my apartment building would cause anxiety and I would dread leaving my home, and I could barely even finish a shower because I would have panic attacks in them, where ambulances became my second home, full on breakdown in a mall in front of people, to where I couldn't get in an elevator alone, to now, not only is my life normal, I go out everywhere and do everything as if I never had anxiety. If you are intelligent and with the right guidance, you can overcome it. The comment above about CBT, I never did any CBT and cured my anxiety. I probably did do CBT without knowing what it was, but I never did official CBT therapy consciously.

This is my summary of what I think works for most people:
1) Get your head right- Realize what true healing is, and that in most cases, your doctor will not get you there. Healing is a process and a journey that is way deeper than any pill can give you.
2) Don't feed the fire. Simple as that. Let it go. Let it pass. Learn to practice calm breathing exercises like Buteyko. Don't add 2nd fear to the fear that rises. Let is roll over you like a wave.
3) Heal your nervous system. Take the right supplements and herbs. It really helps to add physical substances that can help re-balance you. I listed the right ones in other posts.
4) Exercise- Yoga did it for me. Now I lift hard and do serious cardio. I love pushing my body to the limit and get up to 150s or 160s BPM in serious training! But in anxiety, lots of yoga!
5) The problem is you are in one perspective now, and it is hard to see viewing life from another perspective, such as a non anxious one. You have to find that place somewhere in you of non anxiousness, and have faith that you will get there. Dig deep and access that part of you that gets it and knows there is another way. When you're knee deep in panic, it's very hard to see another way, but you just have to always know that there is another way, even if you can't see it, and you will get there. That is what I did. I just always knew this anxiety was like a layer that I would eventually shed, if I kept focusing on shedding it. You may not believe you can be a non anxious person. But you have to find a way to know you can be and make yourself believe it. It's like you have a dry dirt field that you need to cultivate to make fertile so you can grow flourishing crops.

If you're in the L.A. area, let me know and we can grab a beer.

Enjoy the process!

AND STOP FREAKING OUT!