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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 6 of 6. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by dsmark on March 7, 2001, at 1:35:17
I have had a long problem with anxiety, but I have finally overcome it! This is the way I solved my Anxiety problem. I had a very severe case of anxiety, I was nervous all the time and I could not sleep for like nine months. It was living hell! I had this problem in the past and it would die away and resurface out of nowhere. And during this terrible time, I sought help using the Internet and books on anxiety. And the longer it persisted, the more earnestly sought help using these sources, and I found that it only got worse. I really wanted to see a shrink but I was too embarrassed by the stigma that would entail. I was really torn between the decision. I made some appointments and canceled it at the last moment. I prayed and hoped God would somehow take this away from me. I prayed for so long, I wondered if God actually heard me. I tried every avenue of hope, short of going to the shrink.
< br >
Finally in my ninth month of this problem I stopped fighting the anxiety and started to just enjoy life anyway. As I focused on having a good time, I noticed that my anxiety was slowly decreasing. My sleep got better and now I can sleep like a log anywhere and the anxiety is no more. Anxiety is a real tricky predicament to overcome, the more you try to get rid of it the worse it becomes. So instead of fighting it, I acknowledged it, and went about enjoying life. This resulted in my anxiety lifting. So if you are suffering from anxiety, don't fight the anxiety, instead focus on enjoying life. Listen to music you like, watch your favorite movie, watch some TV. Treat yourself to a good restaurant, and just enjoy life!! You will find out that the anxiety lifting. But if you are always monitoring your anxiety level, and realizing your anxious and trying to figure out how to get out the grip of anxieties strong hold, you'll find yourself deep in the pit of anxiety. When you find yourself trying to escape the anxiety, just acknowledge that the anxiety is there and still do something you enjoy. Don't try to fight the anxiety by doing the enjoyable event, you will find that will only increase the anxiety.
< br >
The key is to STOP fighting anxiety, STOP trying to run away, no matter how heavy the anxiety seems. Just acknowledge it, and say that the anxiety is OK!!
Then you need to something that you enjoy, fill your mind with things you like to do, enjoyable events.
< br >
If you wait for the anxiety to subside in order to get back to your life, it will never go away. Immediately get back into life and start doing things you enjoy and are safe,
you will find that anxiety will automatically subside. The mistake I made that resulted in the nine months of anxiety hell was in trying to get rid of anxiety. When I focused on enjoying life, the anxiety was no more!!
< br >
-MARK DS.
< br >
manager@zerg.com
Posted by JohnX on March 7, 2001, at 4:47:22
In reply to OVERCOMING ANXIETY, hope my story can help!, posted by dsmark on March 7, 2001, at 1:35:17
> I have had a long problem with anxiety, but I have finally overcome it! This is the way I solved my Anxiety problem. I had a very severe case of anxiety, I was nervous all the time and I could not sleep for like nine months. It was living hell! I had this problem in the past and it would die away and resurface out of nowhere. And during this terrible time, I sought help using the Internet and books on anxiety. And the longer it persisted, the more earnestly sought help using these sources, and I found that it only got worse. I really wanted to see a shrink but I was too embarrassed by the stigma that would entail. I was really torn between the decision. I made some appointments and canceled it at the last moment. I prayed and hoped God would somehow take this away from me. I prayed for so long, I wondered if God actually heard me. I tried every avenue of hope, short of going to the shrink.
> < br >
> Finally in my ninth month of this problem I stopped fighting the anxiety and started to just enjoy life anyway. As I focused on having a good time, I noticed that my anxiety was slowly decreasing. My sleep got better and now I can sleep like a log anywhere and the anxiety is no more. Anxiety is a real tricky predicament to overcome, the more you try to get rid of it the worse it becomes. So instead of fighting it, I acknowledged it, and went about enjoying life. This resulted in my anxiety lifting. So if you are suffering from anxiety, don't fight the anxiety, instead focus on enjoying life. Listen to music you like, watch your favorite movie, watch some TV. Treat yourself to a good restaurant, and just enjoy life!! You will find out that the anxiety lifting. But if you are always monitoring your anxiety level, and realizing your anxious and trying to figure out how to get out the grip of anxieties strong hold, you'll find yourself deep in the pit of anxiety. When you find yourself trying to escape the anxiety, just acknowledge that the anxiety is there and still do something you enjoy. Don't try to fight the anxiety by doing the enjoyable event, you will find that will only increase the anxiety.
> < br >
> The key is to STOP fighting anxiety, STOP trying to run away, no matter how heavy the anxiety seems. Just acknowledge it, and say that the anxiety is OK!!
> Then you need to something that you enjoy, fill your mind with things you like to do, enjoyable events.
> < br >
> If you wait for the anxiety to subside in order to get back to your life, it will never go away. Immediately get back into life and start doing things you enjoy and are safe,
> you will find that anxiety will automatically subside. The mistake I made that resulted in the nine months of anxiety hell was in trying to get rid of anxiety. When I focused on enjoying life, the anxiety was no more!!
> < br >
> -MARK DS.
> < br >
> manager@zerg.com
Hi,Great to hear such a success story! Sounds like you were suffering primarily from situational anxiety (non-genetically related). You are dead on about how obsessing about anxiety just makes the anxiety worse. Had you seen a good therapist for counseling, they probably would have used an approach called Cognitive Therapy whereby you would have been asked questions like "So what if this or that goes the wrong way, will it end your life?" and you would change your thought patterns as you have described to end the circle of anxiety.
Heres a question for you: why didn't you look for counseling? So what if you have issues with anxiety? Heck about 1/4 people have an anxiety disorder. There's no stigma. What if you had a blood pressure problem instead? Would you not seek professional attention for that due to the stigma of having a poor diet or genetic issue? What's the difference?
Some psychiatrists would try to tackle the problem from the other direction. Give medication to relieve the anxiety, and then the patient will quickly end the circlular chain of worrying and after a short while can discontinue the med and move on with their life.
Your story is encouraging. Best to you.
-John
Posted by Shirley1 on March 7, 2001, at 5:20:16
In reply to OVERCOMING ANXIETY, hope my story can help you., posted by dsmark on March 7, 2001, at 1:42:35
Mark,
Anxiety is not my major problem but your post is an excellent reminder on how self acceptance is really the number one way to combat a problem. Kudos to you for that realization.
Shirley
Posted by Miss Amy on March 7, 2001, at 15:48:57
In reply to Re: OVERCOMING ANXIETY, hope my story can help! » dsmark, posted by JohnX on March 7, 2001, at 4:47:22
I can totally relate to being afraid to get into therapy. My fear was that it would not work and I would be S.O.L. and living in constant fear the rest of my life. BUT that was the ONLY thing that ended up working! I am so hypersensitive to drugs that any and all side effects only made my panic worse--it was the congitive therapy that helped more than anything. The whole "So what if I am going to feel like crap...that does not mean I can't get out of bed this morning" or "Nothing lasts forver, including nasty feelings of going crazy!" My grandmother and Mother have both suffered from panic at different points of their life, way before therapy and meds were an option (besides "mother's little helper"). i was told to "white-knuckle it" and grin and bear it, but of course that was nearly impossible. But learning to re-route my thoughts and accept the things I could not change, seemed to free me of the whole ordeal. It's the serenity prayer. I still have days where I feel a little funky sometimes, but they are far and few between. I just posted an email similar to this advising that anyone with panic should definitely be in therapy if they are going to to take meds, and learn that cognitive therapy--holy cow after awhile it really works. The joy is knowing you have strength within yourself to heal. You learn that you don't have to depend on anything else but yourself. Don't get me wrong, i am taking serzone for my depression (panic is generally a side effect of that) but learning coping skills is what really did it for me. I have lots of friends suffering from panic, and it is those that have gone through the cognitive therapy that are no longer on medication. I have been on serzone for about three months, but i have not had a full blown panic attack in two or three years. Since we are sharing stories, I thought I'd throw one in! Good luck to everyone overcoming panic! My prayers are with you!
P.S. make sure you are educating yourself on panic---like dsmark is saying--he read and researched to find out what was going on. learning about WHY your body is having all those funky symptoms (mine were numbness in my arms and hands and back of head, tunnel vision, feelings of going crazy, nausea, diarrhea, dry mouth, heart palpatations, tight chest, loss of breath.......the list goes on.) As soon as I started reading about WHY my body was reacting this way.....the symptoms started to disappear. ALL THEY ARE IS YOUR BODIES WAY OF DEALING WITH STRESS. I thought for sure I was going nuts. Looking back, I can read my list of symptoms and think "Going nuts feels nothing like that."
Posted by JohnX on March 8, 2001, at 8:52:43
In reply to Re: OVERCOMING ANXIETY, hope my story can help!, posted by Miss Amy on March 7, 2001, at 15:48:57
> I can totally relate to being afraid to get into therapy. My fear was that it would not work and I would be S.O.L. and living in constant fear the rest of my life. BUT that was the ONLY thing that ended up working! I am so hypersensitive to drugs that any and all side effects only made my panic worse--it was the congitive therapy that helped more than anything. The whole "So what if I am going to feel like crap...that does not mean I can't get out of bed this morning" or "Nothing lasts forver, including nasty feelings of going crazy!" My grandmother and Mother have both suffered from panic at different points of their life, way before therapy and meds were an option (besides "mother's little helper"). i was told to "white-knuckle it" and grin and bear it, but of course that was nearly impossible. But learning to re-route my thoughts and accept the things I could not change, seemed to free me of the whole ordeal. It's the serenity prayer. I still have days where I feel a little funky sometimes, but they are far and few between. I just posted an email similar to this advising that anyone with panic should definitely be in therapy if they are going to to take meds, and learn that cognitive therapy--holy cow after awhile it really works. The joy is knowing you have strength within yourself to heal. You learn that you don't have to depend on anything else but yourself. Don't get me wrong, i am taking serzone for my depression (panic is generally a side effect of that) but learning coping skills is what really did it for me. I have lots of friends suffering from panic, and it is those that have gone through the cognitive therapy that are no longer on medication. I have been on serzone for about three months, but i have not had a full blown panic attack in two or three years. Since we are sharing stories, I thought I'd throw one in! Good luck to everyone overcoming panic! My prayers are with you!
> P.S. make sure you are educating yourself on panic---like dsmark is saying--he read and researched to find out what was going on. learning about WHY your body is having all those funky symptoms (mine were numbness in my arms and hands and back of head, tunnel vision, feelings of going crazy, nausea, diarrhea, dry mouth, heart palpatations, tight chest, loss of breath.......the list goes on.) As soon as I started reading about WHY my body was reacting this way.....the symptoms started to disappear. ALL THEY ARE IS YOUR BODIES WAY OF DEALING WITH STRESS. I thought for sure I was going nuts. Looking back, I can read my list of symptoms and think "Going nuts feels nothing like that."
Same experience. My #1 concern about going to therapy was that it wouldn't work and then I would feed more hopeless than before I went to therapy. Unfortuantely I went through therapy many years ago and it did not help and it did make me feel more helpless. Many years later when I had a major depressive replace, I was given an anti-depressant for the 1st time and I could not believe how much better I felt (much better than therapy). After learning about anxiety and depression and looking at my family tree, it was clear that I could be genetically prone to both. The conditions under which I trigger into a slump are usually psychological situations. So I do believe that therapy can help me, because if I can learn mental "tools" to avoid the psychological stress, then I may not trigger those genetic genes that lead to the slumps.Best to all.
John
Posted by Vanessa Wells on July 13, 2001, at 16:44:45
In reply to Re: OVERCOMING ANXIETY, hope my story can help! » dsmark, posted by JohnX on March 7, 2001, at 4:47:22
Just read your encouraging story. I have been dealing with anxiety for about a year now and have finally resorted to medication in the last two months. I think meds. are making it worse. Did you ever try any? Did you ever figure out why your anxiety came out of nowhere? Mine was always there in a very mild, but bearable form and then I got unexpectedly pregnant and married a year later. Stressful or what? I'm going to try your advice, just have fun. I used to be good at that. Any more advice?
Thanks
Vanessa
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