'feeling' anxiety

WishfulThinker66 · Jun 28, 2019 at 08:45 AM

I saw a presentation on Anxiety last evening which profoundly affected me. I had a few a-ha moments and some holes were filled in. I heard about Anxiety in a different perspective than I have heard it before and I am so ever thankful this woman was invited to talk to my support group.

Consider this. We all feel anxiety. It could be our stomach tied in knots. It could be our breathing being affected. It could be nausea, and so on. Well all my reading and all my therapy thus far has concentrated on ridding the Anxiety as a way to rid ourselves of the physical symptoms of it. Well, this woman suggested that we do the opposite. If we can rid ourselves of the physical symptoms, the Anxiety will lift away. What a novel approach and I intend to try it.

This woman is a therapist and author. I am marching down to the store to pick up her book. I can only dream of her being my own counsellor.

I am wondering if anyone has tried this method and what sort of results they have had.

TunedOut · Jun 28, 2019 at 09:06 AM

Well, isn't this what drugs do for some of us? From my POV, there are two ways to get rid of anxiety--either get rid of what makes you anxious (not always possible) or take drugs to get rid of the symptoms.

Also, you could compare some types of anxiety to physical pain. When a trauma put me in the hospital for a painful injury--having been in pain for so long, I kept babying the injury because I remembered how painful it was too move for way too long. Part of healing a physical injury is to use it when you can again but by we get "trained" that it will still hurt even when it might not. The weakness left from the injury is now what is causing the pain. You have to assume that it won't hurt in order to "train" it--training hurts but not in the same way that the original injury did. But you don't know that until you try!!! When bad things happen, the fear lasts longer than anything else...

Buffy01 · Jun 28, 2019 at 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WishfulThinker66

I saw a presentation on Anxiety last evening which profoundly affected me. I had a few a-ha moments and some holes were filled in. I heard about Anxiety in a different perspective than I have heard it before and I am so ever thankful this woman was invited to talk to my support group.

Consider this. We all feel anxiety. It could be our stomach tied in knots. It could be our breathing being affected. It could be nausea, and so on. Well all my reading and all my therapy thus far has concentrated on ridding the Anxiety as a way to rid ourselves of the physical symptoms of it. Well, this woman suggested that we do the opposite. If we can rid ourselves of the physical symptoms, the Anxiety will lift away. What a novel approach and I intend to try it.

This woman is a therapist and author. I am marching down to the store to pick up her book. I can only dream of her being my own counsellor.

I am wondering if anyone has tried this method and what sort of results they have had.

That great advice! I wish I had thought about that! What the name of the book?

Buffy01 · Jun 28, 2019 at 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TunedOut

Well, isn't this what drugs do for some of us? From my POV, there are two ways to get rid of anxiety--either get rid of what makes you anxious (not always possible) or take drugs to get rid of the symptoms.

Also, you could compare some types of anxiety to physical pain. When a trauma put me in the hospital for a painful injury--having been in pain for so long, I kept babying the injury because I remembered how painful it was too move for way too long. Part of healing a physical injury is to use it when you can again but by we get "trained" that it will still hurt even when it might not. The weakness left from the injury is now what is causing the pain. You have to assume that it won't hurt in order to "train" it--training hurts but not in the same way that the original injury did. But you don't know that until you try!!! When bad things happen, the fear lasts longer than anything else...

That is great advice!

TunedOut · Jun 29, 2019 at 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TunedOut

The weakness left from the injury is now what is causing the pain. You have to assume that it won't hurt in order to "train" it--training hurts but not in the same way that the original injury did. But you don't know that until you try!!! When bad things happen, the fear lasts longer than anything else...

Also, once you have injured yourself, sometimes you can be more prone to reinjure it again. I think anxiety can be this way too. The longer we can be anxiety free (either free of the symptoms or the thing that triggers it), the more likely we are to rid ourselves of it. I think it is hardest to get free if the anxiety started when we were a child.

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