Welcome to the Anxiety Forum - A Home for Those with Anxiety, Fear, or Panic Attacks.
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  1. #1
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Posts
    3

    Wink I've had extreme anxiety for over 10 years, when it finally stopped it was AMAZING...

    ...until I relapsed.

    I'll try and be a bit brief for your sake and my own (I'm in the midst of that relapse right now...in this mind-state it takes me forever to type something) -

    I've always been kind of a nervous person, even as a kid. It wasn't until 7th grade though that it became extreme enough to interfere majorly with my life, and it brought with it intense and seemingly unending depressions.

    I'm 22 now. It's been about 10 years of misdiagnoses (bipolar for instance), hospital stays, ineffective therapy, and dangerous side effects from unnecessary and equally ineffective medications. 10 years of almost total social isolation, total dysfunctionality, suicidal depressions, and agoraphobic tendencies.

    Finally, I began seeing this great cognitive behavioral therapist. More progress was made in a few months than in all the years before COMBINED. After about 5 months, I finally felt like myself for what seemed like the first time. Anxiety - gone. Depression - non-existent. I felt amazing and capable.

    I could finally think clearly and fast, make decisions, have confidence and self-esteem, go and do anything I felt like, talk to people, have fun, not worry! I dropped out of high-school because of my issues, and now I felt like I was on the track to some kind of exciting and interesting future, or at least a future that didn't involve wasting away in a small apartment room for the rest of my life!

    That lasted for maybe a month or so until I just started to sink into old habits. I had a panic attack about two weeks ago. Got down on myself a bit. Felt intense dissociation from the anxiety again. Been isolating myself again...when I try to reach out I can't communicate well, so I usually don't at all. My brain is now tired and slow, and I often am in general. Haven't really left the house much or felt motivated much to do so, and when I do I get very nervous around people and extremely self-conscious - just like before.

    I don't feel like "myself", and that's very disconcerting to live with everyday, now that I know what life can really be.

    I guess I made this thread because I just wanted to get some feedback from people who've gone through and tried what I have.

    I want to know if any of you think that this CBT can bring about lasting change for me and my anxiety? How have you done in your own experience with CBT?
    Last edited by GroupHug; 03-19-2013 at 10:54 PM.

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    East Coast, USA
    Posts
    3,690
    Well that ceratinly sucks, huh?

    It is real easy to beat yourself up after a setback when you have been healthy for several months.

    I went through the exact same thing. Unfortunately, many times

    My unrealistic goal of getting back to who I was, pre anxiety, was my downfall.

    I have lived with anxiety for over 20 years. I don't know all of the facts but rest assured with this one, your normal will never be the way you were pre anxiety.

    It is in you. Youre like the rest of us. Blessed with this glorious condition

    That isn't to discourage or scare you. The fact is you can live pretty free and clear of this disorder once you understand what you are dealing with.

    Fighting and thought changing may work for someone, but I am yet to meet the person that had long term success with it

    Just understand what anxiety does and can do to people. All the things are listed somewhere in this forum

    I made a habit to go places and do things that made me panic when I finally was fed up with living like hell

    I would wait it out. Feel the rush. When it was over, and it would and will always end, I would leave

    Once my mind changed to not letting these symptoms scare me, I quickly felt better. Took me 20 years to figure out something that took 2 weeks to knock right out of me

    I still get the occassional symptom but I do not react. That is the difference. Anxiety doesnt scare me anymore

    You will be there in no time and this forum will help you in many ways

    Youre almost done with this....for good
    "Y'all didn't have to shoot me" ~ Harambe

 

 

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