Posted 9/10/2015 6:32 PM (GMT 0)
I made this mainly to vent, and also provide a little insight for non-sufferers.
What happens when an anxious person withdraws from everyday life to the point they don't have everyday stimuli to occupy their brain, and so essentially have few, if any, external worries?
It turns inwards. Your brain will essentially invent things to worry about in an attempt to stay active. This can manifest in numerous ways. Some people might develop hypochondriac-tendencies and believe they have some undiagnosed illness that is the cause of their situation. Others may get OCD tendencies and believe things will go catastrophically wrong if things aren't done in a certain way. Some might feel detached from their environment and those around them as a result of all the deep thinking, their brain shutting out external stimuli to "focus" on what's troubling them.
These are very simplified examples. The point is, and this will sound condescending, it is in their head. But it's their brain imprinting on their environment and state of being to try and make sense of it. And it can be scary. To an anxiety sufferer, they fear that they are going insane or are dying. And when those thoughts are racing in your mind at 100mph, it's hard to snap out of it with the logic that it's only in your head. After all, the only experience you have is in your head.
With patience and support, these issues can be overcome. The trick is to try and live life as close to normal as you can and not hide away with all your experience of the world being reduced to what you see on a screen or on some paper (I'm aware of the irony of this being posted and read on a screen). Start small and build up from there. Go see a friend. Go shopping. Go out for a meal. Go for a drive in the country. Do something that makes you interact with the world. Because, as far as we can tell, we only have one life. Enjoy it.