Anxiety hitting the roof

Morif, I'm sorry you're having a rough time! I went through that a few weeks ago. I was feeling good then all of a sudden I felt horrible for days. Is it cold where you live? I noticed the cold weather makes me feel worse. Does reading or watching something help take your mind off of it? Sometimes doing something physical can help get rid of that nervous energy! I hope you start feeling better soon!

Hi Morif10
I am so sorry for what you have been going through... I believe I can honestly say that today was my worst day... I had to cancel my grandsons' piano lessons (for the 3rd time) and that really upset and disappointed by daughter and the boys... I could empathize with my daughter's reaction because it is sometimes the way she handles FEAR of what is going on with me... and that was making things twice as hard... Plus, she has gone through so much lately, too.
I do think that with the horrible tension that comes with the Christmas holidays, even though we may not THINK we are affected, that there is just plain so much unsettling vibrations and energy around that we ALL are affected. I will be SO GLAD when January 2nd gets here! :)
We are coming down now off a very intense full moon which affects us all (if we believe it or not) They don't put extra staff in Emergency during the day before, during, and after a full moon for nothing!
I am scared about my dr appt. tomorrow, and I know that is silly... Trust, trust, trust.

Horrible incidents have been happening in Denver during these past 3 days(and all over) ...so let's just hope and pray things simmer down... and yes, I know, I know its up to 'us' to calm ourselves with meditation, prayer, focusing, etc...whatever works for us...I think we will ALL be ok...and better soon. Peace to you, Morif and BambiBear... and all of you reading this.

Hi Morif

I can relate to what you're going through, I've been there. Hopefully my story can help you and the same things I did can help for you.

I've been through times when anxiety just consumed me, there was nothing else I could think about. It was the most difficult period of my life by far, I could not sleep, even on strong sleeping pills, I would lie in bed all night and get maybe 1 hour sleep, unable to get out of bed either because I couldn't walk on the sleeping pills. I was tired but I kept pushing myself to 'get better' by doing loads of exercise or activities. It just didn't work at all and I quickly reached the point where I wanted to die. Even thinking about it now makes my stomach turn. Somehow I hung on though. It took me quite a while to get out of it, using a combination of anti-depressants, relaxation and doing things when I felt able to. I basically thought about things that I would normally like to do, and then just went through the motions of doing them, maybe a little walk down the street, or watching a TV show.

I also took up doing relaxation exercises for 30 minutes a time. At the worst of times I would do these 6 times a day. At first it was difficult, lying down with no distraction is terrifying when all your thoughts are so bad, so I used tapes at first that went through progressive muscle relaxation. After a bit of practise I was able to see that when I did the tapes and just thought to myself 'just try it and see what happens', by the end of the tape I always felt better. That was really helpful in reducing my initial anxiety about surrendering myself to my thoughts.

As I continued doing the relaxation tapes I gradually noticed that my sleep was improving, I was waking up after maybe 4-5 hours instead of my usual 2, and sometimes could even get back to sleep by doing some of the physical relaxation exercises when I did woke up. Eventually I weened myself completely off the sleeping pills just by using relaxation and long term I was able to get a normal solid 7-8 hours sleep every night.

When I first started I also gradually started to notice at times my mind would actually focus on something other than anxiety, which at first made me feel even more anxious, because it was like my brain thought it needed to keep me aware and in fight or flight mode. But slowly and steadily my mind would let go more frequently and just get engrossed in something.

So I highly recommend doing the relaxation exercises, the ones I found best focused on relaxing your body physically stage by stage, which even when anxious is something you can do consciously with practise. And once the body is relaxed it really has an impact on how relaxed your mind becomes.

Thanks everyone for your posts it helps making me feel better

I've been suffering from anxiety since more than 7 years now and i barely felt it could be a barrier in my life. The whole thing changed following my first panic attached as i cant get the fear of going crazy out of my head, even if i forget this feat for few days it all of sudden hits me and am back into the worrying cycle.

I wish i can get rid of this specific fear as things were way better before. Maybe i should start taking my SNRI again as during the period i was on it i felt much better and managed to eliminate this fear to a great extent

Hi,

Actually I stopped the medication because I couldn't afford buying it at that time. Now am planning to use them again but afraid I reached a point where there is no return as am finding it hard to kick these instructive thoughts of going/ being crazy out of my head.

I wish I can hear some stories of people who experienced this tricky stupors fear of going crazy