Do you think too much knowledge make things worst

[tep2007]

Now i realize that iv been having anxiety almost 11 yrs.. On and off... But since i got diagnosed and i started searching abt anxiety i got way worst than before. Do you guys think we pay too much attention to this fucking illness and we are not recovering faster that we are supposed to??!!

[AceParadox]

Well it's quite hard to ignore. Reading up on anxiety usually isn't the best thing I've found. Unless it's on forums. If you search normally on google you'll find sites saying "Anxiety can be fatal. Anxiety can NOT normally be cured....... Unless you pay $59.99 for my 2 week program which is a miracle that will have you anxiety free for the rest of your life!" stuff like that. It's all bullshit. I just stick to the forums where I learn from others who've had it longer than I and learn from them.

I don't think it's a good idea to ignore it either though. Because ignoring it will cause it to build up inside, and when the mind can't deal with things in the waking life, it deals with them when your asleep which will cause the emotion to be expressed in the form of nightmares. Which is what happened to me before. I ignored anxiety and it just got bottled up and I got nightmares. :/ best way is to just let it take it's course, I think. Just accept it, and let it run it's course and heal at its own pace. Even if it pegs you down hard at times, just remain positive and ride out the storm. I could be wrong, but it's working for me so far.

[tep2007]

My point is.. If we spend most of the time reading abt it dosnt help.. Cuz its gonna be stuck in our heads all the time.. Like i said before when i had no idea what it was, i thought it was normal and everyone under a certain amount of stress had the same problem.. But when i found out exactly what it was it made things worst for me.. Just the idea that i had A mental illness made me depressed and more stressed.. And made me feel different and dumber that everyone alse.. I know what i just said might sound a bit stupid.. But thats how i made me feel.. I lost my self esteem and my hopes.. Do u think we should stop talking abt this and would make a difference to all of us.. I read a lot of people with anxiety and panic attacks develop ocd.. Is that true??

[blondie33]

Absolutely agree with you. I was actually thinking this the other day.

[AceParadox]

Eh, I don't think of this is a mental illness. I just think of it as overreacting. A bug that just needs to be patched. I felt the same way though, I felt dumber and different than everybody else but then I just said "Haha, who cares? Being different is fun." Nobody I know who has just anxiety has developed OCD because of it. Never heard of that on the forums here either.

I also realize I've felt anxiety many times as a kid, but it'd be for just a quick little second. I'd feel VERY different and odd suddenly and derealization would occur for about a minute. I'd just call it "The weird feeling" and think everyone got it from time to time. When I had my first panic attack and developed constant anxiety after that, and I read about it and learned that it was ya know a disorder, it sort of made it harder. But it only made me more determined to heal it... Hearing success stories and stuff builds my hope up even more. and I keep optimisic no matter what, and I've found it actually works great for many things. If I start getting depressed or anxious, I'll go out and just do something fun, even if it's something I've never even done before. I'll go try rockclimbing. I'll play ping pong and completely suck but still just laugh at myself and have a good time anyway. Anything to keep my spirits up, and it works! :D

Must be different for others, but reading about it doesn't really make it worse for me. :/

[Buttercup]

It depends on what you read and what info you are getting. For me, education was a key part in the recovery process. Knowing all about the fight/flight response and the reasons behind all my physical symptoms really helped me get over the whole "I've got some horrific disease or I'm having a heart attack" side of anxiety. I also found that a better knowledge of it gave me a better insight into myself.

[bailey.m]

It depends on what you read and what info you are getting. For me, education was a key part in the recovery process. Knowing all about the fight/flight response and the reasons behind all my physical symptoms really helped me get over the whole "I've got some horrific disease or I'm having a heart attack" side of anxiety. I also found that a better knowledge of it gave me a better insight into myself.

I couldn't have said it better. Knowledge is power, as long as its not sketchy knowledge from some blog. I read medical journals and articles, usually on medscape. I ONLY go to reputable sources to learn.

That said, I have to disagree with the above post that said it is 100% physical. If you become properly educated you will learn that this is not true. Because the physical symptoms are directly related to the cognitive processes about the symptoms (the more severe the thoughts the more severe the symptoms) it is a psychiatric disorder, a very treatable one at that. The whole premise of cognitive behavioral therapy, which is a main therapy for anxiety, is that our thoughts and feelings drive our behavior. So, changing these thoguhts, often with the help of medication, makes the whole thing very manageable.

Dont get stuck on the stigma of calling it a mental illness, because it different from the severe ones that we think of, ie bipolar and schizophrenia. I think of it more as a psychiatric disorder...