Anxiety everyone has it you know...do you?

I thought it might be useful to give a little space to talk about a big issue: Anxiety

Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe. Everyone has feelings of anxiety at some point in their life – for example, you may feel worried and anxious about sitting an exam, or having a medical test or job interview. (NHS Uk)

Many people can suffer from Panic attacks:

A panic attack is a sudden onset of fear or distress that peaks in minutes and involves experiencing at least four of the following symptoms:
palpitations.
sweating.
shaking or trembling.
feeling shortness of breath or smothering.
sensation of choking.
chest pains or tightness.
nausea or gastrointestinal problems.

Here are 11 strategies you can use to try to stop a panic attack when you're having one or when you feel one coming on:
Use deep breathing. ...
Recognize that you're having a panic attack. ...
Close your eyes. ...
Practice mindfulness. ...
Find a focus object. ...
Use muscle relaxation techniques. ...
Picture your happy place. ...
Take benzodiazepines.
(Health line. com)

......................

I do have anxiety and in the past I have been consumed by it. I'm a worrier, my mum and brother are too. I often use the strategies above, especially a 'focus object' and 'happy place'

What is your experience of anxiety and what do you find helpful?

The cord was firmly secured to the harness hugging my lower legs. Knuckles white from lack of blood, squeezing the railing tightly. I looked down and felt the tightness in my throat start to loosen. "3," the man said. The realization of what the next few moments would bring dawned on me and I let go. "2," I blanked my mind, and listened to the wind as it whispered around me, felt the sun as it beat down on my shoulders... and I jumped as "1" left the man's lips. The whisper became a howl, and the warmth warped into a steel cold chill as that howl licked where the sun had kissed. I did not scream, for in those few seconds of freedom, falling towards the earth I had accepted... everything.

I feel anxiety comes from denial. Denial of ones situation, denial that you can handle it. Whether it is pain, discomfort, fear, even death. I accepted a long time ago that nothing that happens to me is under my control. Literally 0%. What IS under my control is my response to it. My method of controlling my emotions? Just do it. Jump off the bridge, the cord is strong. Jump out of the plane, your chute will open. Kick open the door and shoot the bad guys, your team needs you. Tell the truth, she'll understand.

In almost every situation, the reality met my expectations. Why allow myself to get worked up when I can handle the results? We all can. Trust me, everyone here is a lot stronger than they know they are. You never know what you're capable of until you pass what you though your limits were.

Thank you for sharing this with us Mr Darcy...I'm one of those who have panic
attacks and I literally collapse...the palpitations are the worst...still deep breathing
I start to do and somewhat okay but it takes a lot of time for me to calm down...

This thread is wonderful.

Just do it.
So easy to say and truly the best advice, but for some the hardest thing to act upon.
Each of us is the hero on a quest.
The quest is a common mythos wherein something must be sought after which can only be won by great effort and near defeat. In each myth of this type one person undertakes the quest while everyone else refuses or shrinks away from it.
However, the lesson is that each person lives his or her own quest and must spend their life in the pursuit.
Anxiety is the self doubt that keeps us from the jump, the leap of faith.
Anxiety is the primordial experience of self-preservation that conflicts with the higher brain functions that have reasoned through the situation and understands both the risk and the odds.
Faith in this case is not placed in the heavens but in the ability of our own rational assessment.

Anxiety is the beast cowering before the fall; faith is the human acceptance that the chute will open.

Threads like this are so helpful and encouraging. Thank you for sharing tips as well as opening up about what can be quite scary.

I don't deal with anxiety as much as I did a few years ago, but then again, I'm not sure how I can measure that since some days I feel like so much has changed from the bubbly, carefree person I used to be. I left my retail job of 3 and a half years because I started having anxiety attacks at work, before my shifts or even the night before. I used to be able to practically run the store and help my manager out in many situations, then I took a break after a mental health crisis, and when I came back I was barely able to hold a conversation or work the register. My hands would shake and I had trouble even forming sentences.

I connect it to being in recovery after being diagnosed with MDD... going back to a high-pace job that demanded a lot of me was not the wisest decision. Deciding to leave retail was the best decision for me and I still get anxious thoughts at my current part-time job, but it is not as debilitating. I've found I can work best a few hours at a time. I still work with people but mostly on the phone. I do feel like anxiety has made me a different person than when I was outgoing back in the beginning of my high school years. I think my anxiety mostly stemmed from when I was going through depression in college but not reaching out, and keeping it all bottled up inside.

What works best for me is the grounding technique, being able to identify things around me. And also having a designed safe or quiet space. I've gotten better at voicing to family or friends when I need some time alone. Understanding that it's not selfish of me to talk about the little things that get to me. That it doesn't make me weak. Sometimes the best medicine is to be heard and validated, then establish a trust so you can separate what your mind is trying to convince you and reality.

Love and support to you all <3
And Larry? What you posted gave me hope, and I don't think I've thought of faith in that way before. Faith in ourselves is vital. Acceptance of what we can't change and reality itself is key. I especially liked your distinction of "human acceptance".

I, in turn, take great meaning from your grounding technique. I had a therapist years ago who taught me to constantly seek feedback from others and from the world. For a young adult still on the spectrum of autism that was the single most important advice I ever was able to put into practice.

I'm not sure if this will help anyone but...I find this guy and his words so inspirational ... and...it's slam poetry at its very best IMO..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u8dz50GbVk

An interesting and very important subject Mr D, which resonates only too well with myself, which I feel I would like to add to this post.
Giving and sharing experiences of the reality of stress/anxiety.

The past months have brought some unwelcome habits back into my life. Where I felt I was at a stage where I had cracked addiction. This has not been the case.

Bringing back ‘old demons’ so to speak, has created a deeper adverse effect on my life. As I knew not- some of how anxiety and stress can affect one’s brain

For quite a few months I was experiencing very odd sensations-
Loss of balance
Blurry vision
Numbness

I was passing this off with tiredness, fatigue and general lifestyle activities. Last Wednesday, these sensations were far more extreme, which freaked me out. I called the NHS help-line and was referred to the A&E.
From there the GP then referred me to the ‘TIA team’ (Transient ischaemic Attack) more commonly known as ‘mini-stroke’, as this was their diagnosis.

After numerous tests and then speaking thoroughly to a ‘Stroke specialist consultant – his prognosis was thankfully not a stroke, but stress and anxiety caused by many things, however addiction being the primary!

I feel you have covered this well in the information, and such an important issue concerning everyone.

The reality is only we as individuals can manage our ‘levels’ and seek the alternative measures to attempt to keep a balance. What I have recently experienced is truly a ‘wake-up call’ literally what it say on the tin, so to speak.

Our brains are so powerful and complex, but also a fragile organ. The brain can ‘mimic’ and fool us into believing that we are experiencing something awful that is about to happen, albeit we just really don’t know.

We store so much over the years, whether it be trauma, grief, addiction, lies... the list is endless. I have learned just over the past few days that while I know addiction has caused so much turmoil in my life and that I had (and again now) therapy to work through my addiction. Stopping my addiction was all I wanted, my goal for a better life which is true in itself. However it is also so important to deal with such a loss, and the withdrawal. This was something that didn’t really occur to me, just to stop and all will be better – true of course, but my addiction on and off (more on) for 30 years, just doesn’t leave when I stop, it has to be managed as a ‘loss’ which sounds ironic, but true.

Anyway I could write and write, but I just wanted to be open and share recent events that come back to stress and anxiety, and that my brain under such pressure began to mimic what was seen as a mini-stroke. This can also happen in my withdrawal, to which there is no time limits and I may have to live with such consequences for an unknown period.

What I would say is that every each and one of us are different with reactions or responses to any trauma that occurs. Seek support, therapy and think about lifestyle changes. We all know it, but we also can pas it off too easily.

I again am starting another journey, another layer has been taken off. I want to live for longer, watch my children grow with their lives and support others, with any experience I can.

Only we are our saviours and advocates to deal with life as best we can, and whatever comes our way. This might all be a bit all over the place, but I am just writing as it comes

Be well. Much love Michael x

Michael,

I realize that you are suffering tremendously, but putting it out there for us to see took guts. I admire your sense of acceptance and determination to continue your most humbling ordeal with all the strength you can muster.

We are all here for you.

Thank you Larry,

For your support and sentiments. I do feel that being open, helps with one's courage. I am obviously speaking from my perspective, but through poetry, therapy and anxiety/stress management it opens channels with mothers and myself to bring feelings into the open and can shed light on ones situation. I am learning more that all that I have bottled up over the years, as well as childhood history just continues to manifest, and then it can hit with a powerful punch, when you don't expect it!

So I do say to anyone, seek as much support as possible and as Mr D mentioned some great ways to relieve stress. Lifestyle changes are paramount to help ourselves become healthier, never easy however the results will show :)

Michael, I find it very brave as well that you shared that. Sending you the best throughout every up and down. Good luck through this journey and may it make you stronger. I agree that continuously learning how to deal with things and opening that part of ourselves can truly help us and others who may be struggling. Acknowledging what we face, admitting it to ourselves and not just others, is a big step... sometimes it feel like it's a constant step we have to take.

I look at life differently than, well pretty much anyone. I don't see myself as a hero, don't really believe in the term, to me it's like religion... an impossible paradigm people try to live up to but never quite achieve, and the ones who say they do are usually con-men or villains. And the quest is fairly simple... make it to the end and finish naturally.

I don't have hope, life taught me to lower my expectations. I don't have faith, because to do so would imply a belief in a higher power or abilities that I have not tested. And to be perfectlyhonest the chute doesn't always open, my airborne buddies at Ft Bragg can attest to that. The trick is to realize that it's not controllable. I simply know what I am capable of, and what I am not. I have acceptance. The religious types would call it "serenity." When a problem arises that causes anxiety for me, one of a few things happens; I examine the problem and figure out if its avoidable, solvable, or worth solving. Depending on what the answers to those questions are... the anxiety typically doesn't last long. Either I'm capable or I'm not. Either a trial is solvable or it's not. Avoidable or not. And if it's the worst of all three then there's not much I can do about it anyway. That doesn't mean I give up... it just means I don't worry about it. Deal with the aftermath as best I can when it comes.