Intrusive thoughts are another symptom i suffered from. These are just as bad as what if thoughts, if not worse. Intrusive thoughts are invasive and are mostly about the people that mean the most to you. Intrusive thoughts are where you begin to question yourself.. you get really nasty thoughts about other people/sometimes yourself, that you know you won't carry out but then question why you'd get such a thought.. and believe you're insane and heading into madness. They are TOTALLY normal with anxiety. Here a few examples:
*If you see a window open* What if i just pushed myself out?
*If you see a kitchen knife* What if i lost control and hurt myself/family etc?
*Family member hugs you* What if they're perverted?
And so on...
It's important to remember that thoughts are just thoughts.. nothing more. Just because you think something it doesn't mean you have to carry out. To be scared of the thought and to question why you'd think such a thing just proves you wouldn't carry it out. You are in control of you, your thoughts aren't. The same thing goes for intrusive thoughts, you need to be able to find a way of challenging your thoughts.
I hope this post helps many people :-)
Sunday 14 August 2011
Sunday 31 July 2011
What-if thoughts
An anxiety sufferer will question everything because in itself, we begin to fear everything. Our minds are so tired and worn out, that things most people wouldn't even think twice about we now question every little thing. We're constantly watching ourselves, with what to question next. All our fears are out of proportion, and to us, everything means we're going to die. A lot of these thoughts go by the name of What if thoughts.. Here's some examples:
What if i have a heart attack?
What if i go mad?
What if this is me forever?
What if noone can cure me?
What if i die?
What if i faint?
These are just a few of the fears that go through an anxiety sufferers mind over and over again. Then symptoms bother us also and the thoughts start again:
What if this headache is something serious, a brain tumour?
What if this stomach pain is my appendix? What if they burst and i die?
What if this pain in my back is my kidneys?
What if this pain in my chest is my heart and will lead to a heart attack?
What if this pain in my leg is a blood clot?
As you can see we begin to question everything, everything is out of proportion. And any little thing we feel all of a sudden becomes life threatening to us. We seriously believe anything we feel means we're going to die.
Your thoughts/your inner voice is what makes things extremely hard. It's so hard when you know deep down your symptom is anxiety but you have the little voice at the back of your head convincing you its something much more.. and somehow that little voice always wins. Challenging your thoughts is the only way to be on top of them. To be able to say to yourself 'no this isn't a heart attack, it's just chest pains because my muscles in my chest are tightening and spasming' - just saying that makes all the difference. Everytime you say a comment against your thought, the thought is slowly loosing it's power over you.
What if i have a heart attack?
What if i go mad?
What if this is me forever?
What if noone can cure me?
What if i die?
What if i faint?
These are just a few of the fears that go through an anxiety sufferers mind over and over again. Then symptoms bother us also and the thoughts start again:
What if this headache is something serious, a brain tumour?
What if this stomach pain is my appendix? What if they burst and i die?
What if this pain in my back is my kidneys?
What if this pain in my chest is my heart and will lead to a heart attack?
What if this pain in my leg is a blood clot?
As you can see we begin to question everything, everything is out of proportion. And any little thing we feel all of a sudden becomes life threatening to us. We seriously believe anything we feel means we're going to die.
Your thoughts/your inner voice is what makes things extremely hard. It's so hard when you know deep down your symptom is anxiety but you have the little voice at the back of your head convincing you its something much more.. and somehow that little voice always wins. Challenging your thoughts is the only way to be on top of them. To be able to say to yourself 'no this isn't a heart attack, it's just chest pains because my muscles in my chest are tightening and spasming' - just saying that makes all the difference. Everytime you say a comment against your thought, the thought is slowly loosing it's power over you.
Fight or flight system
Here's a scenario that helps explain anxiety:
Imagine yourself walking down your street where you live and suddenly coming your way was this raging lion, just charging right towards you. What would you do? Your fight or flight system (another already inbuilt bodily system) would kick in, throwing adrenaline all around your body. Your heart would race, you'd start breathing faster, your hands/whole body would shake, your mouth would become dry, your pupils would dilate, etc. Now what are you going to do? Hang around, wait for the fierce thing and fight it? Or are you going to flight (run) from the situation to save your life? Hopefully you would run from the situation , and you need all this adrenaline to help you.
So as you can see, the fight or flight system actually is very necessary, without it we'd probably not survive very long as we'd be putting ourselves in very dangerous situations. So when you're having an anxiety/panic attack.. all the feelings you feel are entirely normal. Just when your fleeing from a situation you don't notice many of these symptoms and if you do, you know it's completely normal because you're scared.
This is why all the feelings you feel are 100% normal, just coming at the wrong times therefore you fear them.
Imagine yourself walking down your street where you live and suddenly coming your way was this raging lion, just charging right towards you. What would you do? Your fight or flight system (another already inbuilt bodily system) would kick in, throwing adrenaline all around your body. Your heart would race, you'd start breathing faster, your hands/whole body would shake, your mouth would become dry, your pupils would dilate, etc. Now what are you going to do? Hang around, wait for the fierce thing and fight it? Or are you going to flight (run) from the situation to save your life? Hopefully you would run from the situation , and you need all this adrenaline to help you.
So as you can see, the fight or flight system actually is very necessary, without it we'd probably not survive very long as we'd be putting ourselves in very dangerous situations. So when you're having an anxiety/panic attack.. all the feelings you feel are entirely normal. Just when your fleeing from a situation you don't notice many of these symptoms and if you do, you know it's completely normal because you're scared.
This is why all the feelings you feel are 100% normal, just coming at the wrong times therefore you fear them.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is part of every human's inbuilt system. Everyone has experienced anxiety at some point in their life, for example: Before a test, before a performance etc. A little anxiety is normal and healthy, it gives you motivation and makes you try your ultimate hardest. An anxiety disorder however, is too much anxiety. Instead of getting nervous about things that you should get nervous about: tests/starting new schools or jobs etc.. you begin to get nervous about things in everyday life that have no reason to be nervous about. Anxiety doesn't just come on suddenly overnight, it's something that's progressing over months or sometimes years. It's debilitating and once you're caught in the anxiety cycle you quickly become your own worst enemy.
This is why i believe an anxiety disorder is a serious, debilitating illness. It restricts you from living a life you're entitled to. Where you was once able to do anything and taking the things you done daily for granted, you're now struck by fear, fearing just a walk to the local shops. That's all anxiety actually is, FEAR.
I believe there's many reasons why someone can be prone to developing anxiety.. In my case it was caused by an overload of stress. I believe stress is the main factor causing anxiety in so many people because noone, including myself, realises their bodies warning signals. When your body is so tired and drained from so much stress, you think a good nights sleep will make it all better. But it doesn't.. And everytime i ignored these warning signs my body was giving me, the closer i got to developing my anxiety disorder. Of course there's other reasons too such as: Greif and anxiety can also be a symptom of an underlying illness. That's why it's so important not to just self-diagnose and get diagnosed by a professional.
Anxiety can manifest itself in many ways, everyone gets different symptoms because everyone is different. Through all the research i've done, there seems to be more than 100 symptoms that anxiety can cause! And believe me they can be the weirdest.
Anxiety comes with both physical and psychological symptoms. Here below are just a few i suffered from the most:
Physical symptoms
Racing heart
Shaking hands
Feeling dizzy
Dry mouth
Panic attacks
Clenching muscles
Feeling lightheaded/faint
Chest pains
Tight chest
Hyperventilating
Feeling like you can't breathe
Feeling like your throat is closing up
Psychological symptoms
Feeling distant (Depersonalization/Derealisation) - feeling unreal
Feeling like you're going mad
Low mood
Feelings of dread
From the top of my head these are the main ones i can think of.
This is why i believe an anxiety disorder is a serious, debilitating illness. It restricts you from living a life you're entitled to. Where you was once able to do anything and taking the things you done daily for granted, you're now struck by fear, fearing just a walk to the local shops. That's all anxiety actually is, FEAR.
I believe there's many reasons why someone can be prone to developing anxiety.. In my case it was caused by an overload of stress. I believe stress is the main factor causing anxiety in so many people because noone, including myself, realises their bodies warning signals. When your body is so tired and drained from so much stress, you think a good nights sleep will make it all better. But it doesn't.. And everytime i ignored these warning signs my body was giving me, the closer i got to developing my anxiety disorder. Of course there's other reasons too such as: Greif and anxiety can also be a symptom of an underlying illness. That's why it's so important not to just self-diagnose and get diagnosed by a professional.
Anxiety can manifest itself in many ways, everyone gets different symptoms because everyone is different. Through all the research i've done, there seems to be more than 100 symptoms that anxiety can cause! And believe me they can be the weirdest.
Anxiety comes with both physical and psychological symptoms. Here below are just a few i suffered from the most:
Physical symptoms
Racing heart
Shaking hands
Feeling dizzy
Dry mouth
Panic attacks
Clenching muscles
Feeling lightheaded/faint
Chest pains
Tight chest
Hyperventilating
Feeling like you can't breathe
Feeling like your throat is closing up
Psychological symptoms
Feeling distant (Depersonalization/Derealisation) - feeling unreal
Feeling like you're going mad
Low mood
Feelings of dread
From the top of my head these are the main ones i can think of.
Introducing myself
Hi guys :-) My names Becky and i've been diagnosed with anxiety for 2 years. I've decided to do a blog to share with everyone I can my experiences with anxiety & panic. Suffering from an anxiety disorder can be a lonely experience and I hope this well help people in two ways - 1) Give any anxiety sufferer reassurance that hope is ahead and that they aren't alone & 2) People may read this and recognise themselves and hopefully get help. I can happily say i'm just on the road to recovery, I've definately got a long way to go and i'm prepared for any challenges i need to face. I want my life back and i'm willing to fight for it. So i'm going to use this blog to share my experiences and also as a diary of recording my sucesses when I beat this evil demon.
In my next posts I will start to fully explain what an anxiety disorder is, my own experiences, etc.
In my next posts I will start to fully explain what an anxiety disorder is, my own experiences, etc.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)