Help! I have horrible Anxiety.

Sounds like, if it's mental, and an anxiety disorder - you may have OCD.

I'd suggest speaking to a doctor about your symptoms, there's a pretty decent test that scored your mental state in your doctors office.

If you do have OCD I can help you cope with it, I've had it for 22 years. I know the ruminations and obsessions, as well as the rituals (mental anyway) and can maybe help you break the cycle. Private message me if this is what you have.

a reply to: Joneselius

anxiety and panic attacks.....should probably see a dr..but..in the meantime.....the more anxious we get the shallower we breathe......slow deep breathing is essential.... breathe in slowly expanding the abdomen as far out as possible... pause to hold the breathe...breathe out pulling the abs in as much as possible.. start every day with this breathing...may take some time but will help to reset and adjust the stress hormones....

another thing you can do...anxiety happens because we are reminded of something that happened in the past or we are afraid something will happen in the future.....here is something to do when you are in the moment..look at something in the room..maybe something you can hold in your hand...is it warm, hot or cold...is it smooth or rough...is it light or heavy is it one color or many colors, shiny or dull...soft or hard

that keeps you in the now,,, so your mind doesn't go off in the past or future causing anxiety for you...hope this helps in the meantime.

do slow breathing when watching tv and any other time you can...it will become second nature

a reply to: research100

...anxiety happens because we are reminded of something that happened in the past or we are afraid something will happen in the future...

That's me! They are legitimate concerns, but they can give me a knot in my stomach from worrying so much. I don't get panic attacks, but I can get really stressed. I take the equivalent to Xanax which helps.

a reply to: intrptr

Doctors can make it worse. Here take this psychotropic drug, thats better, now you are numb to life, a suppressed worry wart, and a drug addict.

Not true! If you find the right med at the right dose, it can help someone. It sucks that all meds have side affects, but sometimes they can improve one's quality of life.

a reply to: Richsac89

Look into meditation.

Studies have shown that meditation can lower anxiety

Best of luck

originally posted by: research100
a reply to: Joneselius

anxiety and panic attacks.....should probably see a dr..but..in the meantime.....the more anxious we get the shallower we breathe......slow deep breathing is essential.... breathe in slowly expanding the abdomen as far out as possible... pause to hold the breathe...breathe out pulling the abs in as much as possible.. start every day with this breathing...may take some time but will help to reset and adjust the stress hormones....

another thing you can do...anxiety happens because we are reminded of something that happened in the past or we are afraid something will happen in the future.....here is something to do when you are in the moment..look at something in the room..maybe something you can hold in your hand...is it warm, hot or cold...is it smooth or rough...is it light or heavy is it one color or many colors, shiny or dull...soft or hard

that keeps you in the now,,, so your mind doesn't go off in the past or future causing anxiety for you...hope this helps in the meantime.

do slow breathing when watching tv and any other time you can...it will become second nature

Awesome advice. My mind is always wandering in outer space distracting my mind from the present. I've tried your techniques and they do work for that moment but the anxiety can come and go whenever it chooses to. It helps a lot though thanks

originally posted by: Joneselius
Sounds like, if it's mental, and an anxiety disorder - you may have OCD.

I'd suggest speaking to a doctor about your symptoms, there's a pretty decent test that scored your mental state in your doctors office.

If you do have OCD I can help you cope with it, I've had it for 22 years. I know the ruminations and obsessions, as well as the rituals (mental anyway) and can maybe help you break the cycle. Private message me if this is what you have.

What is OCD? Is it that thing where you need things done your way in a certain order or it bothers you?

originally posted by: Richsac89
My dad has it, my aunt has it. Cancer and stomach ulcer also runs in the family so any prolonged body pain makes me drive myself to the ER. Been there three within the past three years and all tests are always negative. I am physically fit but my anxiety kills me mentally which in turn affects me physically.

I haven't tried taking any classes nor went to see the physician for my anxiety because I feel that I am still to young at 27. I exercise very often both weights and cardio but I feel that anxiety is inherited and imprinted in me. I wake up every morning worrying about nonsense and even slap myself sometimes to force the rest of myself up mentally. No matter how much testosterone and confidence I try to increase from lifting weights and staying fit, the anxiety will always eventually fade back in talking me down.

Now I noticed that there seems to be two types of anxiety. One is where a person can't stop running their mouth. All is expressed, annoyingly, with run on sentences without the person even knowing and they budge into everyone's subject and conversations. I suffer from the latter which is more mental. I over think so much that I'm afraid to even talk because of disapproval or don't want to be bothersome. I've tried Ambien before so I know that the voices can be turned off its just I don't want to rely on meds at my age.

I've been a member here for a few years now, mostly lurking, and I would love for anyone here to help me with any advice on keeping my anxiety in check. Thanks

Hi
I sometimes have terrible anxiety (Social Phobia).

Things that help are a good nights sleep but the anxiety eventually returns.
There's a pressure or multiple pressures on you and these are making you uncomfortable.
You have to work out what these are and eliminate them.

I used to think that genetically I was an "experiment" by nature and as a result that would mean
my genetics would not travel into the next generation. (I.e. no children or partner.)
Some people are getting cured of it so I'm steering away from that.

Why would being susceptible to anxiety be a genetic advantage?

If you think about addictions, I'll give you a hint typically pornography.
You seek them out and then you are anxious and as a result you do not get into contact with other
people, typically the other sex. It is as if the pornography is pressuring you into staying way from the opposite sex.
I seem to be comfortable with my closest allies and friends.

This would mean eventually your genome is weeded out and people who are less anxious would be selected.
If you had already had offspring would this mean they have better advantage? I really don't know.
Something to think about..

It could have other advantages. You are generally more thoughtful and empathic?
This could lead to increased intelligence for the people around you, something which
would be an advantage to the herd.

The list is endless..

For me to make life bearable I always seek a good nights sleep.
That helps a little. Alcohol sometimes helps but I pay for it later on, so i think the trade off
is worth having some serious thought about.

Also something to give you a sense of power or fulfillment helps a great deal.
It's often hard to focus on hobbies work etc because of the pressures on you.
(Depression inability to sleep tiredness etc.)

Limbo

a reply to: Richsac89

I once suffered from anxiety/depression...they are very closely linked. It is miserable.

Just know it gets better and there are many out there like you.

I would talk to a doctor about anti-depressants. My first one was Paxil and I loved it so much I wanted to name my first born paxil.

As you get older and learn compassion and to live in the moment...it goes away.

Look at it as a good thing, it forcing you to turn your life around for the best. You can PM me if you want some more advice from someone who's been there. I wouldn't talk much to someone who hasn't, they have no idea

I have had it all my life as well 51 here . My mother had it her mother had it my father had it My sister has it .
The voices every one talks about wish it had been that low .
It was like a hurricane in my mind Garbage flying every ware I spent ten years studying the effects and ways to deal with them .
Voices no what i got was white noise so many voices at once like walking into a concert hall heck it only been in the last few years I can start making out individual voices maybe 8 or 10 Most of teh time i cant understand what they are saying the rest I wish I did not .
As for doctors well maybe they will help you but First forget sex ( first thing the drug takes women or man .
second the dislocated feeling Of being here but not being here ( got taht from time to time anyway sure dont want more added .#rd after a time the drugs just stop working and they up doses and up doses and it gtes worse and worse .
Do the drugs if you wish I never met a person on them that is one bite better off .
Finly I made enclosed boxes ( rooms in my mind and through all the stuff i did not want into them ( finly the wallls were 3 feet thick concrete and 3 inches of steel before I it was contained but dont try it I spent a year tearing the wall down ( some of the stuff that is a part of it and cant be seprated you need without it you are the rabbit in head lights .
Me well I except i have 2 to 5 years of life left now ( if i could get health care ( not mental mind you just body it could be streched to 65 But you know who gives a dam 51 38 so what right this mint baby's who never get to draw there first breath . Them i feel bad for .You me naaa .The only parts that still bug me are who will rember my name 5 years later ( no one i am sure ) and Hoping there is no heaven because for me that would be hell .
Death is the only true peace there every can be saying peace in heaven is a lie .Life of any kind heaven or earth is a fight .
Btw i eventually learned to use teh hurricane anytime i had a problem I could not solve just chucked it into it sooner or later the solution flew out lol .

originally posted by: Night Star
a reply to: intrptr

Doctors can make it worse. Here take this psychotropic drug, thats better, now you are numb to life, a suppressed worry wart, and a drug addict.

Not true! If you find the right med at the right dose, it can help someone. It sucks that all meds have side affects, but sometimes they can improve one's quality of life.

Until you stop. Then you're right back where you left off, plus those "side effects".

originally posted by: Night Star
a reply to: intrptr

Doctors can make it worse. Here take this psychotropic drug, thats better, now you are numb to life, a suppressed worry wart, and a drug addict.

Not true! If you find the right med at the right dose, it can help someone. It sucks that all meds have side affects, but sometimes they can improve one's quality of life.

100% totally agree. My tension caused more tension that tended to feed on itself until it manifested into weird scenario's (hyperventilating, didn't sleep for three days causing hullcinations, wouldn't sleep in bed because it was shaking, hearbeat racing for days/nights etc, ). Drugs from benzodiazepine class (I used Oxazepam) was very effective in immediately alleviating the symptons by relaxing the bodies nervous system. I used Oxazepam for six months until I discovered that meditation was much more affective in disolving the underlying mental problems.

Let me be straightforward - there are some real a$$holes in this thread.

I haven't been able to conquer my anxiety. I might be able to if my mind wasn't so damn clever.

But because it knows how to find me, 75% of the time, playing chess forces me to solve external problems instead of internal ones.

As olaru12 said, music can do a number. (get it? )

But the only thing that has ever reduced my irrational anxiety is adavan or xanax or alcohol.

That's just the fact of my life.

I have broken bones and dislocated joints and reset them. I have been physically and emotionally destroyed. Pain means nothing to me.... Until the anxiety sets in. I wake up between 3am and 6am every single morning absolutely crippled with it for no apparent reason.

You can hit me in the head with a hammer and I would prefer it.

I went to the hospital for the first time in 20 years because I lost vision in my left eye, my entire left side went numb, my heart started pounding, and I couldn't walk straight. I had my wife take me because I thought maybe it's a stroke. I begged God to let me live that day.

I don't remember much after that. I remember a fool who I thought was my friend came and brought a chess set to play, and I remember that I beat him, but wouldn't you know... I don't know how. Because those are Polaroid images basically.

I remember leaving and the Doc told me that I was not an alcoholic, he told my wife that my mother F'ed me up, and they said they regretted putting me on prozak because they thought I might be bipolar.

Problem with that is that I've never had any manic episodes until they put me on prozak. Ever. I've never randomly gambled, found some random hot chick, etc. So I'm diagnosed with something I do not have.

I am smart though. I am ADHD, OCD, PTSD, and schizo-affective. But according to one therapist, I score high for all of that, and yet keep my cool very well. It was attributed to my "high IQ" that I was able to contain myself.

So I suppose, in short, until you get some anti-anxiety meds like xanax or adavan, drink a couple of beers, never anything with high alcohol percentage, play some chess, and remember - this is irrational... But if I die, then that's everyone's fate, anyway.

It doesn't cure it, but acceptance for death certainly decreases its stranglehold.

a reply to: Richsac89
I'd ignore this this "there's pill for everything" mindset. The brain gets used to any chemical at any level after a while. There are people able to drink 20 beers and not get really drunk.
If you are searching for useful herbs it won't be downers. I've found that some of the testosterone boosters can highten anxiety to the level of panic attack. I like stabilizers of neurotransmitters like Ashwagandha and herbs balancing hormones like Nettle root tincture and Sex Hormone Binding Globulin blockers.. Ginger can help you with T and stomach at the same time. Skullcap is a good downer. It's kind of aphrodisiac which is on the opposite side of anxiety. L-Theanine, B-vitamins.

Certainly not benzodiazepines!

However it probably won't help either. Your anxiety's root is deeper. No chemical can resolve a spiritual problem. Brain chemistry is not the cause but a result. It's something in your family history, maybe in your DNA, or something you mirrored as a child so it became a part of your personality. You can feel it but you don't know the cause. What you need is a religion and to share it with your family. Psychotherapy-like talks about Buddhism, Christianity... you can fight it together or you can win the dispute and separate yourself this way. Relieve your father and you'll probably relieve yourself. Find the root instead of running from it. Chase the root like dog hunting the fox.

a reply to: Richsac89
Stop trying to be something in particular - stop doing things that you think will help. Just stop.
Realise that you are the space that allows existence to exist.
How do you think you will feel if you are just space? Are you ready to be nothing at all?
There can never be anything wrong with you - watch this video.

Don't get some pills to fix anxiety otherwise you will never stop being deluded by thought. Anxiety and depression are natural because there is something wrong - there is a belief in thought. Thought needs to be investigated - for instance - who is thinking??
If there is a belief that you are doing thoughts and if there is a belief that thoughts are speaking about you then thoughts will cause a reaction in the body - it is the believed thoughts which cause the anxiety.
All that is required is to see thought for what it is.

originally posted by: Night Star
If you find the right med at the right dose, it can help someone.

That 'someone' that needs help will always need help - that is - until the illusion of 'someone' is seen through.
That illusory 'someone' will always have problems - but when that illusory 'someone' lifts away - there will be no problems.

originally posted by: Itisnowagain
Don't get some pills to fix anxiety otherwise you will never stop being deluded by thought. Anxiety and depression are natural because there is something wrong - there is a belief in thought. Thought needs to be investigated - for instance - who is thinking??
If there is a belief that you are doing thoughts and if there is a belief that thoughts are speaking about you then thoughts will cause a reaction in the body - it is the believed thoughts which cause the anxiety.
All that is required is to see thought for what it is.

No one thinks pills cure anxiety. It needs to be relieved.

And sudden onset without a thought or care in the world is absolutely how irrational anxiety works.

Don't preach what you haven't experienced.

originally posted by: PapagiorgioCZ
a reply to: Richsac89
I'd ignore this this "there's pill for everything" mindset. The brain gets used to any chemical at any level after a while. There are people able to drink 20 beers and not get really drunk.
If you are searching for useful herbs it won't be downers. I've found that some of the testosterone boosters can highten anxiety to the level of panic attack. I like stabilizers of neurotransmitters like Ashwagandha and herbs balancing hormones like Nettle root tincture and Sex Hormone Binding Globulin blockers.. Ginger can help you with T and stomach at the same time. Skullcap is a good downer. It's kind of aphrodisiac which is on the opposite side of anxiety. L-Theanine, B-vitamins.

Certainly not benzodiazepines!

However it probably won't help either. Your anxiety's root is deeper. No chemical can resolve a spiritual problem. Brain chemistry is not the cause but a result. It's something in your family history, maybe in your DNA, or something you mirrored as a child so it became a part of your personality. You can feel it but you don't know the cause. What you need is a religion and to share it with your family. Psychotherapy-like talks about Buddhism, Christianity... you can fight it together or you can win the dispute and separate yourself this way. Relieve your father and you'll probably relieve yourself. Find the root instead of running from it. Chase the root like dog hunting the fox.

I'm a Christian with irrational anxiety. Call it my "thorn in the flesh". If it is rational anxiety you're talking about, then you would be right.

Also, getting people involved in ingesting random herbs is going to send them on a wild goose chase.

Another one who preaches what they haven't experienced.

I've done the herbs route. It doesn't work.

If it's in the DNA, then there is no other way other than to find a way to calm down the body and mind. So far as I've seen, nothing makes it go away, except for maybe time. But you have to find a way to make it through that time. Anxiety can produce stroke-like symptoms. Telling someone to not do something about that is absolutely irresponsible.

originally posted by: TarzanBeta
Don't preach what you haven't experienced.

Why do you say that? Do you assume that I have not experienced years and years of anxiety?
I have experienced anxiety - not now though.
Did you listen to the links? Are you willing to look afresh from another angle?

You have not found the way out - but I have so maybe it is worth watching the videos.