LeaderDman
01-15-2017, 02:52 AM
Hey everyone I know when I was going through anxiety that one of the things that helped me the most was seeing a success story. It was comforting to know that you can indeed beat anxiety. So here is mine.
My Anxiety
It all began when I had a bad reaction to weed though I used to worry, over think and was anxious in social situations before this event. The reaction to weed is a story in itself, but essentially I suffered extreme pain. After this event I suffered from depersonalization for a week, which means everything felt like it was a dream. I also had this pain in my chest that would have been caused by my constant worrying, this caused me to have my first panic attack. Any pain I felt would cause my anxiety to get worse as I would fear getting the pain that I had from the weed. The extra worry would just make the pains worse and give me more symptoms. I saw the doctor many times and even a therapist, but it didn't really help. I tried to work at my job in a grocery store, but nearly had a panic attack at work and my back would get extremely sore very quickly. I also had to take time off uni as I was too anxious to go. My life had been taken away from me and all I wanted to do was get better though I didn’t feel like it was possible.
I suffered from nearly every symptom that can be associated with anxiety. Here is a list of some of these:
Numbness and tingling, dizziness, chest pain, feeling like throwing up, feeling my heartbeat constantly, brain/body zaps, flushed/burning skin sensations, cold flashes, fear of impending doom, heart palpitations, panic attacks, more depersonalization, feeling like i would go crazy or hurt myself/others, scared of talking to people, choking feeling in throat and hypersensitivity.
There were even more symptoms, though I think that gives a good idea on the severity so someone with a similar level of anxiety knows that it’s possible to beat. All I felt for those couple of months were fear and pain.
I got to the point where I decided to try medication to help deal with it so it would be easier to get better. I was on medication for a week and it was the worst week of my life. I had heard it can get worse before it gets better, but it was too severe. I suffered from extreme insomnia where i would only be able to sleep for an hour a day, I also started getting hot flashes and all of the symptoms got worse especially the fear of impending doom. So I made the decision to stop the medication and beat anxiety medication free.
How I cured it
The first strategy I tried was going for runs. At first i struggled because when my heart was beating fast it reminded me of the panic attacks, but I pushed through and kept doing it. Looking back, I think conquering something that anxiety stopped me from doing was as beneficial as the exercising. I started reading books online and I came across the “Attacking Anxiety and Depression” audio series by Lucinda Bassett. I downloaded the series (through a torrent since I am a poor uni student) and began working through it. This audio series was the greatest tool that I used to beat anxiety. It’s not some magic cure, it required me to learn a lot of skills and reteach my brain on how to deal with anxiety.
The first step towards curing my anxiety was getting rid of the panic attacks. The therapist had told me that stopping panic attacks was as simple as closing your mouth so you don’t breath too fast and mix up the oxygen and carbon dioxide. This helped only slightly, but didn’t stop them. The way I figured out on stopping them was realising that I was the one creating the panic attacks. I found that there would be an external trigger such as a pain in my body or fear from being in a public place. It’s at this point where your mind starts thinking of what if’s and preparing for the worse, which triggers the panic attack. I found that you have to train yourself to deal with this external trigger in a healthy way. If I got a panic feeling out of nowhere or from an external stimuli, I would be like “that’s okay, I’m worried that I might have a panic attack in this public place so it makes sense that I am anxious, I just need to give myself a moment to calm down”. Once I figured out that I had control over how I reacted, I stopped having panic attacks.
The second step I took was identifying all of the negative thoughts that I had. I spent a week noticing every negative thought that I had, such as “what if this event goes bad” or “what if this pain gets worse”. I noticed that I had hundreds of these thoughts every day so I began to work on changing them. I replaced negative what ifs with positive ones like “what if the event goes great”. I began changing my patterns of thought so I reacted to the anxiety and symptoms I had in a positive way. I began to notice a difference fairly quickly though I still had the anxiety.
The third step I took was not letting anxiety stop me from doing things. I began to work again even though it was incredibly difficult. I even did an exam at uni. With my new positive outlook I would reason that if I went through something that caused me to get anxious, I would get a little less anxious the next time I did it. This became a reality as the more I did something that caused me to get anxious, the easier it was to do. I began to take my life back and start going to the gym again. I had lost 8kgs from the anxiety and I was determined to get the muscle and strength back.
It was a journey that took me several months before I considered myself free from anxiety. It has been a couple of years since I went through all of this and this is something I’ve wanted to share for a long time. There are times when I feel anxious, but it’s a normal emotion such as being happy or sad. Feeling anxious doesn’t bother me in the slightest and I usually take a couple of seconds to reason why I’m feeling like that such as before a job interview or doing something I haven’t done before. Don’t ever let someone tell you that you will have to deal with anxiety for the rest of your life, that you will learn to put up with it. You can beat anxiety even if it’s quite the battle, you just have to be willing to fight and change yourself. Anxiety comes from two things, genetics and not having the coping skills to deal with anxiety or bad situations. If you fix your coping skills, then it doesn’t matter how susceptible you are to anxiety due to genes, you will be able to beat it. My anxiety was caused by both of those things as my dad faced it aswell before it was passed down to me.
Thank you for reading that massive wall of text, I hope my story inspires and motivates some of you to beat this horrible disease of the mind.
After going through anxiety and learning about ways to beat it, my friend and I have created a YouTube channel in the hopes that we can help others in their struggle. If you’re in the mood, feel free to check it out by searching "rule your reality why your anxiety isnt improving" into youtube.
I’m hoping to eventually talk about the story I’ve shared today at more depth. But for now hopefully the first video helps. Thanks.
My Anxiety
It all began when I had a bad reaction to weed though I used to worry, over think and was anxious in social situations before this event. The reaction to weed is a story in itself, but essentially I suffered extreme pain. After this event I suffered from depersonalization for a week, which means everything felt like it was a dream. I also had this pain in my chest that would have been caused by my constant worrying, this caused me to have my first panic attack. Any pain I felt would cause my anxiety to get worse as I would fear getting the pain that I had from the weed. The extra worry would just make the pains worse and give me more symptoms. I saw the doctor many times and even a therapist, but it didn't really help. I tried to work at my job in a grocery store, but nearly had a panic attack at work and my back would get extremely sore very quickly. I also had to take time off uni as I was too anxious to go. My life had been taken away from me and all I wanted to do was get better though I didn’t feel like it was possible.
I suffered from nearly every symptom that can be associated with anxiety. Here is a list of some of these:
Numbness and tingling, dizziness, chest pain, feeling like throwing up, feeling my heartbeat constantly, brain/body zaps, flushed/burning skin sensations, cold flashes, fear of impending doom, heart palpitations, panic attacks, more depersonalization, feeling like i would go crazy or hurt myself/others, scared of talking to people, choking feeling in throat and hypersensitivity.
There were even more symptoms, though I think that gives a good idea on the severity so someone with a similar level of anxiety knows that it’s possible to beat. All I felt for those couple of months were fear and pain.
I got to the point where I decided to try medication to help deal with it so it would be easier to get better. I was on medication for a week and it was the worst week of my life. I had heard it can get worse before it gets better, but it was too severe. I suffered from extreme insomnia where i would only be able to sleep for an hour a day, I also started getting hot flashes and all of the symptoms got worse especially the fear of impending doom. So I made the decision to stop the medication and beat anxiety medication free.
How I cured it
The first strategy I tried was going for runs. At first i struggled because when my heart was beating fast it reminded me of the panic attacks, but I pushed through and kept doing it. Looking back, I think conquering something that anxiety stopped me from doing was as beneficial as the exercising. I started reading books online and I came across the “Attacking Anxiety and Depression” audio series by Lucinda Bassett. I downloaded the series (through a torrent since I am a poor uni student) and began working through it. This audio series was the greatest tool that I used to beat anxiety. It’s not some magic cure, it required me to learn a lot of skills and reteach my brain on how to deal with anxiety.
The first step towards curing my anxiety was getting rid of the panic attacks. The therapist had told me that stopping panic attacks was as simple as closing your mouth so you don’t breath too fast and mix up the oxygen and carbon dioxide. This helped only slightly, but didn’t stop them. The way I figured out on stopping them was realising that I was the one creating the panic attacks. I found that there would be an external trigger such as a pain in my body or fear from being in a public place. It’s at this point where your mind starts thinking of what if’s and preparing for the worse, which triggers the panic attack. I found that you have to train yourself to deal with this external trigger in a healthy way. If I got a panic feeling out of nowhere or from an external stimuli, I would be like “that’s okay, I’m worried that I might have a panic attack in this public place so it makes sense that I am anxious, I just need to give myself a moment to calm down”. Once I figured out that I had control over how I reacted, I stopped having panic attacks.
The second step I took was identifying all of the negative thoughts that I had. I spent a week noticing every negative thought that I had, such as “what if this event goes bad” or “what if this pain gets worse”. I noticed that I had hundreds of these thoughts every day so I began to work on changing them. I replaced negative what ifs with positive ones like “what if the event goes great”. I began changing my patterns of thought so I reacted to the anxiety and symptoms I had in a positive way. I began to notice a difference fairly quickly though I still had the anxiety.
The third step I took was not letting anxiety stop me from doing things. I began to work again even though it was incredibly difficult. I even did an exam at uni. With my new positive outlook I would reason that if I went through something that caused me to get anxious, I would get a little less anxious the next time I did it. This became a reality as the more I did something that caused me to get anxious, the easier it was to do. I began to take my life back and start going to the gym again. I had lost 8kgs from the anxiety and I was determined to get the muscle and strength back.
It was a journey that took me several months before I considered myself free from anxiety. It has been a couple of years since I went through all of this and this is something I’ve wanted to share for a long time. There are times when I feel anxious, but it’s a normal emotion such as being happy or sad. Feeling anxious doesn’t bother me in the slightest and I usually take a couple of seconds to reason why I’m feeling like that such as before a job interview or doing something I haven’t done before. Don’t ever let someone tell you that you will have to deal with anxiety for the rest of your life, that you will learn to put up with it. You can beat anxiety even if it’s quite the battle, you just have to be willing to fight and change yourself. Anxiety comes from two things, genetics and not having the coping skills to deal with anxiety or bad situations. If you fix your coping skills, then it doesn’t matter how susceptible you are to anxiety due to genes, you will be able to beat it. My anxiety was caused by both of those things as my dad faced it aswell before it was passed down to me.
Thank you for reading that massive wall of text, I hope my story inspires and motivates some of you to beat this horrible disease of the mind.
After going through anxiety and learning about ways to beat it, my friend and I have created a YouTube channel in the hopes that we can help others in their struggle. If you’re in the mood, feel free to check it out by searching "rule your reality why your anxiety isnt improving" into youtube.
I’m hoping to eventually talk about the story I’ve shared today at more depth. But for now hopefully the first video helps. Thanks.