Feeling very anxious today

Hi display! You know, we all experience anxiety at some point, especially when it comes to job interviews. Now when it comes to having negatives thoughts going around all the time in your head, that’s just a string of negative thoughts just feed on each other and become a cycle of negative thoughts, and we feel trapped in the endless loop of negativity. But stop for a moment and ask yourself how realistic these thought are. If you’re really honest with yourself, you’ll see that those negative thoughts are ALWAYS distorted or exaggerated. That’s what anxiety is, an unending cycle of unrealistic and distorted thoughts. Once you recognize this, try to replace these negative thoughts with POSITIVE ones. So every time you have a negative thought, stop and face it and recognize the distortion, and then replace it with a positive thought, something like “Everything will be all right because it’s usually how things go.” or “I’m doing my best and I should be rewarded for it” or “It’s okay to feel crappy because I know it won’t last. Whatever you feel is okay,” or “I’ll take one challenge at a time. I know I’m strong enough to face them” or “I know I can overcome this” or “I trust myself to make the right decision.” It takes time to reprogram your brain to have realistic and positive thoughts, but that’s how I got myself out of depression.

Kimmy

Hey Display. Congrats on the interview! I know from reading another one of your posts how long you've been waiting to get a response. Getting back on the horse after losing a job or something else can be difficult, but I know you can do it. S.A. Kimmy provided a lot of good advice.. have to give her props. :)

I have a lot of similar anxiety problems (and some different) that stem from an abusive upbringing. The work I'm attempting now is to do exactly what S.A. was talking about - reprogramming. I've done some of this in the past and I've been successful to varying degrees, but I know I have to get to the root of more of this and have more work to do. Having a lot of time on my hands is usually destructive because it lends itself to stretches of time that my mind can dedicate to negative thinking (obviously not good :) ) and playing the tapes of what I was taught in the past (from sicko people).

It's good that you're saying in your post "I know some of these "bathroom" worries are really no more than anxiety - I usually do fine in most situations." The fact that you know this gives you a lot of power, you need to continue to tell yourself this about this fear as well as others. During the process of reprogramming it's important to think of where these beliefs originated and to question their merit. You'll find that a lot of these beliefs causing you grief have holes in them.

Also, not sure what kind of work you do (sometimes you just can't choose), but knowing that you're really good at something and that you're contributing can be a big motivator.

More easily said than done, but try to be good to yourself. You have probably been playing these tapes for a long time, so they're not going to be reprogrammed overnight. Knowing they're bad tapes and that you are going to invest the time in reprogramming them can reduce your anxiety as this is a very positive step.

TroubleFree