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Posts created by Teebs

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 286

New here - quick hello

Hi Gemma,

I'm glad you decided to join and post. I'm also 25 and have been in and out of therapy for years for panic and social anxiety. I, too, really want to kick this to the curb once and for all and move on with my life! It is amazingly helpful to have others going through the same thing to talk to and bounce ideas off of, so I hope you will continue to post here. We're all here to support each other as we try to navigate through all this!

Best of luck,

Teebs

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 286

Favorite relaxing activities

Walking out in nature definitely helps me. Also photography. If I'm at home, something fun and engaging like a board game or video game helps relax me.

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 286

Exposure Success Story

Great job Shari - your success is a real encouragement to me!

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 286

Coping with Work

I felt the relief for a couple of days from having made a decision about work, but today was one of the few shifts I had to work. I went into it with a lot of positive thinking the night before and this morning, but as the start of my shift approached I started getting more and more anxious and felt myself "derailing" pretty quickly.

I haven't really said what I do, but I work on a tour boat - tough in two ways because I'm always in the public eye and because I feel trapped on the boat. I've been taking Xanax to get through my shifts, which I hate, because though I use it sparingly and under the guidance of my doctor and counselor, I just hate using drugs to deal with anxiety. At the last minute I had to have my "safe person" - my boyfriend - accompany me on the trip. Even though I started feeling better after I got into the shift it still felt like a failure to me because I had to use so many crutches.

Ugh, when will there be real progress??

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 286

Coping with Work

The problem is my good days where when I didn't have to work, and my bad days are always when I do work. So, guess what my mind tells me when it's time to get ready for work?

I haven't had a great shift at work for more than 3 weeks, and I don't know what to tell myself when I'm ready to go in, because the negative thoughts of "Here we go again" always seem to get the best of me.

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 286

Coping with Work

Davit -

Yes it is a tough one! There are a lot of things I enjoy, or use to enjoy, about the job, but they have all been far overshadowed by the tough few weeks I've had. The hard parts about it are two fold - one is being "trapped" on the boat, and the other is being constantly in the public eye and feeling like I have to look like I'm fine even when I'm not. It's gotten so overwhelming and so bad that I'm basically not working at all right now, and I'm not eating or sleeping normally and even having panic attacks at home. It's definitely time to regroup.

I've really realized that I push myself too hard, too fast. I had a tough anxiety/panic attack flare up last spring, and when I was starting to do better I rushed right back into working this job full-time. I was holding it together for a while, but I think it finally boiled over into panic attacks again. I feel like I really need to tackle the anxiety issue head-on, and accept that it won't be cured overnight. I need to keep working on it even when things are going better for a while, and even if that means I need to not work this job anymore to focus on getting better once and for all.

I've been thinking that after I get back to at least feeling "stable" I should go out on the boat and not work, and just enjoy the ride and try to really focus on the things I like(d) about it.

It is so, so hard for me to give myself permission to stop pushing through things and stop to take care of myself. It's also hard to feel like I'm being judged by all my co-workers, some of whom have never dealt with anxiety and don't really get what I'm dealing with.

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 286

The "gag feeling"

In terms of the "lump in the throat" feeling that is not caused by post-nasal drip but rather just 100% a symptom of anxiety, I for the first time ever found something that gives some temporary relief. It's similar to exercises you do to relax other sets of muscles, where you tense them up for 10 seconds and then relax them fully to let the stored up tension go.

In this case, you sit up straight with good posture, then lift your head so you're stretching out the muscles of your throat. You can increase the stretch by lifting your chin and lower lip towards the ceiling, or even pretending that you're kissing the sky. Then you return your head to facing forward to relax the muscles, and repeat this cycle for about 10 times.

It doesn't cure the feeling, but it definitely provides some relief - like I said, the first time I've found anything that helps alleviate it at all!

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 286

Developing Healthier Core Beliefs

One of my negative core beliefs is that I'm weak. I would define weakness as it relates to my panic anxiety as:

*avoiding things that make me anxious

*having relapses that make me feel like I'm taking one step forward, two steps back

*not sticking to things that help, like working through the panic program or practicing relaxation

*letting anxiety dictate decisions I make in my life

The positive core belief to challenge this would be that I'm strong. Funny how this is a harder one for me to define! I would define strength as it relates to my panic anxiety as:

*continuing to work at it despite setbacks

*making decisions based on my hopes and not my fears

*making tangible progress

*I would say pushing myself through anxious moments, but I almost do this to too much of an extreme as I've talked about in other posts, where I make things worse by pushing myself too hard too fast

I feel like some of the statements that define both strength and weakness are definitely true for me. What should I do next to keep challenging this negative core belief?

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 286

The Linden Method?

Has anybody used it? What do you think?

I'm totally skeptical of any anxiety-cure scams, but I keep coming across this Linden Method and it was on his website that I found the exercise that provides some relief for my gagging/lump in the throat feeling - the first time in all my years of searching for help that I've found something that provides any relief at all!

I searched the forums and while people have made comments about it here and there, it doesn't look like anyone has really discussed it all that much, so I was wondering what you all thought.

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 286

Developing Healthier Core Beliefs

Step 1: Negative belief = I'm weak,

Positive belief = I'm strong

Step 2: I would rank my positive belief, that I'm strong, as a 30/100.

Step 3: I defined my weak and strong in the last post, but to recap 0 would be avoiding everything, making no progress, not practicing my tools, and making decisions based on anxiety. 100 would be persistently working on my issues, making decisions not based on fear, making tangible progress, and pushing myself through a reasonable amount of anxiety without pushing myself over the edge

Step 4: I'm assuming I need to rank myself on the attributes of "I'm strong" since that's what I'm working towards, so on a scale of 0-100....

Persistently working on my issues: 50 - I work on them using a wide variety of tools, but much more so when things are tough, and I stop when things are going better

Making decisions not based on fear: 10 - Things have been so bad lately I'm avoiding things just in hopes of getting some relief

Making tangible progress: 10 - I know I have more tools now than I used to, but I feel like I've really slipped over the last month.

Pushing myself through a reasonable amount of anxiety but not too much: 10 - It's been kind of an all-or-nothing - pushing myself to do too much or avoiding everything

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