Paranoid thoughts and anxiety of dying

[Thomas Wall]

Hi, so this is my first post and I just want answers really. I'm a 17 year old lad and recently quit smoking weed. I'm not sure on wether the paranoia and such has come from that or family issues. I've had a really stressful year from my parents splitting to my dad getting cancer to loosing my long term girlfriend. I started getting these annoying little chest pains about 1-2 weeks ago. I've been to the doctors. I've been checked out and had an ECG. They've told me my heart is fine and I'm pretty healthy, but I can't stop thinking that I'm going to die. Doing research about my pains didn't help as well as it made me even worse. I don't get allot of sleep because of it. I wake up during the night and struggle to fall back asleep as i start to over think and such. I'm on edge at night thinking "I'm going to die within the next day" or something along the lines of that. Thoughts rattle in my head and I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm in fear it's my heart even though I've been checked out. It got so bad last week I had to sleep in my dads room because I was so scared. Any advice? Thanks.

[The Intolerable Kid]

For what it's worth, I advise you to start smoking weed again. Sounds like acute panic attacks to me. If weed helped you before it could help you again. Sorry about your Dad, my Father ended up with cancer as well.

[Nowuccas]

Hey Thomas,

Did the paranoid thoughts predate smoking weed, or start sometime later?

"Write down those paranoid thoughts and rank, on a scale of 1-100, how certain you are of them. Write down alternate thoughts or explanations and rate those 1-100. Go back to your paranoid thoughts and re-evaluate your convictions, 1-100. This is a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy technique".

Employ the Technique For Reprogramming Negative Thoughts: Negative thoughts often occur before negative emotions. It's important to regularly monitor, and deal with a negative internal monologue (self talk), or mental process, such as disturbing thoughts, images, impulses, etc., by the process of (a): recognising it, and (b): challenging it immediately. Use the "Technique For Re-Programming Negative Thoughts" - When you notice something negative, such as: "I can't do this/ am never going to get over this!" or: "Why am I always so useless/such a loser?" or even an image, emotion, or a memory; recognise that it is being generated from the negative part of your mind. After identifying and labelling it, visualise a large, red, flashing, "STOP!" sign, and/or possibly a stern faced person wagging an index finger at you in a negative manner, then say to yourself as forcefully as you can, even aloud in a big voice, if alone: "I know this tactic: GO AWAY FOR A WHILE !!!" You may want to use either: "ruse", "ploy", "game", or "trick". In the case of an image, visualise a large "STOP" sign, or your preferred version.

Some people go so far as to keep a wide rubber band in their pocket, then put it around their wrist, when they catch themselves backsliding, stretch and release it, as a method of reprogramming their mind sooner, but I don't regard it as being strictly necessary. Remember to remove it, afterwards, if you use this method. Try replacing a negative thought with a positive affirmation of your choice, like: "I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside" - Dr. Wayne Dyer.

Check out: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=paranoia&x=15&y=19 such as: The Paranoia Switch: How Terror Rewires Our Brains and Reshapes Our Behavior--and How We Can Reclaim Our Courage by Martha Stout, & The Paranoia of Everyday Life: Escaping the Enemy Within by Gerald Alper, &
Overcoming Paranoid and Suspicious Thoughts: A Self-Help Guide Using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques by Daniel Freeman.

"Even if we have some vague idea that we are not our feelings or our thoughts, when we are experiencing painful feelings or painful thoughts, we believe we have to feel them or think them just because of the fact that they are occurring to us. But painful feelings can be indirectly controlled by physical action, and changing our present thoughts for different thoughts (since feeling occurs as a result of thinking.) Painful thoughts can be directly controlled by choosing replacement thoughts for the ones that are troubling us. Sure, it takes some practice to change a lifetime habit of suffering. But it can be done. Of course it can't be done if we choose to believe that it can't be done. But, since the choice is ours, why not choose to believe it can be done, and do it?"

Use an affirmation such as: "The feeling of paranoia has no basis in reality. I will stop feeling things that aren't real now". Repeat it a few times.

Check out http://www.wikihow.com/Special:GoogSearch?cx=008953293426798287586%3Amr-gwotjmbs&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=overcoming+paranoid+thoughts&siteurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikihow.com%2FMain-Page and
http://www.ehow.com/search.html?s=paranoia&skin=corporate&t=all such as:
How to Control Paranoia,
How to Treat Paranoia,
How to Deal With Paranoia,
How to Manage Paranoia, &
How to Overcome Paranoia.

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, hypnosisdownloads.com has ones about stopping paranoid thoughts, & overcoming fear of death, and instant-hypnosis.com has: Put an End to Paranoia. Professional advice is to use preferably only 1, or a maximum of 2 at any one time.

I can't determine whether your pains are from anxiety, or panic attacks, but I suggest that you view
http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showthread.php?33197-Do-I-have-anxiety-disorder-or-something-worse&p=220006#post220006
about them and see what your symptoms indicate, as it's likely to be one or the other, in the absence of a medical explanation. There is also a post on insomnia. The following would cause the allowable character limit here to be exceeded, so I'll include it in a later post:

[cloudy black]

hello Thomas Wall you are going through a lot of stress and is it any wonder that you are on edge. for me cannabis didnt help me it triggered very unpleasant and scary things and i needed to go and get help.

stop the research about your pains you will only freak yourself out and as you have been to the doc then i would move on from it and focus on more positive things. im really so sorry about your dad this has made you face the fact that we are not immortal and that we all die at some point. you are having to face that now as a teenager and thats tough.

stay away from the cannabis i know that contradicts The Intolerable Kid but you wanted advice.i dont like drugs full stop. legit or illegal. what about having some counseling ?go to the doc and ask them about some. also are there support groups for people your age? can you talk to someone in your life?

[Nowuccas]

Realise that although your conscious mind knows that death lies in the far distant future, the part of your brain which is conscious is like an iceberg, with the vast bulk of the subconscious mind supporting it. Unfortunately, to the subconscious mind, everything is in the present tense - "NOW", so whenever you think about your ultimate demise, it considers it as an immediate threat to your continued existence, and may well deal with it in its usual manner, by activating the very ancient "fight or flight" response. It also is unable to deal with negatives well, if at all, so it's far better to learn to use positives when dealing with it. There are basically 2 approaches. One is to not think about death. But it's unhelpful to say to yourself: "don't think about death", because it doesn't understand the "don't" concept, so say: "let's think about something else, like what to do next", etc. You can employ the following: It's important to regularly monitor, and deal with a negative internal monologue (self talk), or mental process, such as disturbing thoughts, images, impulses, or emotions, by the process of (a): recognising it, and (b): challenging it immediately. Technique For Re-Programming Negative Thoughts: When you notice something negative, such as: or: "What's going to become of me?" or: "When will it all end?" or even an image, emotion, or a memory; recognise that it is being generated from the negative part of your mind. After identifying and labelling it, visualise a large, red, flashing, "STOP!" sign, and/or possibly a stern faced person wagging an index finger at you in a negative manner, then say to yourself as forcefully as you can, even aloud in a big voice, if alone: "I know this tactic: GO AWAY FOR A WHILE !!!" You may want to use either: "ruse", "ploy", "game", or "trick".

In the case of an image, visualise a large "STOP" sign, or your preferred version. Some people go so far as to keep a wide rubber band in their pocket, then put it around their wrist, when they catch themselves backsliding, stretch and release it, as a method of reprogramming their mind sooner, but I don't regard it as being strictly necessary. Remember to remove it, afterwards, if you use this method. Try replacing a negative thought with a positive affirmation of your choice, like: "I'm here now, so I may as well enjoy myself or do something interesting, enjoyable, or exciting when not making a contribution to the society which supports me". Hypnosis is merely a heightened state of suggestibility, in which you are better able to communicate with your subconscious mind. 85% of people are suggestible, to some degree, so you could either preferably seek professional hypnotherapy. If it is not an option, hypnosisdownloads.com has ones about stopping negative thoughts, and fear of death. Another way is to focus on death so long and often that your subconscious mind becomes desensitised to the subject, and no longer activates the fear response. There was a time, billions of years ago when there was no death, just (imperfectly; thereby enabling selection of superior mutations) self replicating molecules, all derived from a common ancestor, according to the genetic evidence. It was more than 2 billion years later that sex, and death began. Then primitive nervous systems, later evolving into simple brains, with a sensorium, to detect dangers, and fear came into being. Overlaid on that basic fish brain is the amphibian brain, then the reptilian brain, then the mammal brain, then the primate brain, and finally the massive cortex which enables full self consciousness in the human brain.

Then consider that the very molecules which make up your body, even the bones, are being replaced every several years, so extremely little of what was originally "you" remains. And the fact that all atoms of an element (which aren't isotopes) are identical, so it didn't matter which atoms were originally combined to form those first self replicating molecules, which all forms of life are descended from. Ultimately, there is no real death, as long as life continues on this planet, which it is likely to for at least 500,000,000 years, when the sun starts to become a red giant. We are all but different forms of the one basic creature; death is illusory, at least to some extent; that of the end of this vehicle for transmitting DNA. View: http://a-dogs-breakfast.8m.com/blank_5.html for a totally different scientific point of view you may find helpful.

Because you could also be suffering from some stress to some degree, you may benefit from viewing the info at http://your-mental-health.weebly.com/m.html

So, if panic attacks are indicated, employ the anti-panic attack breathing technique until the symptoms subside (within around 25 mns) and use either Progressive Muscle Relaxation, or EFT to cope with anxiety; whichever works best for you. I hope something in the above helps.