Thank you Red,

I did license plates numbers, addresses, colors, and grouping of trees and a few trash cans today on my drive to hospital to curb anxiety and negative thoughts. It really works. Especially the grouping of phone numbers that I seen randomly on real estate signs and some commercial trucks. It drops the negative thought quickly. Davit is very helpful and insightful. I'm also glad to hear you have restarted your project. Glad to see progresses here. It makes for positive happy thoughts. Congrats to you as well.

The original study said seven plus or minus two but was later changed to four to six. Basically this is concentration and normally it is automatic. Hundreds of things hit our senses at the same time but we only concentrate on what we can handle and the rest are ignored. Some people are thought to be more observant. Not so, we all observe the same things, just some people are more selective in what they are going to concentrate on. A person with a bad anxiety disorder will concentrate on the negative more so if they are trying to do something complicated there is not the capability to concentrate on the more important things and they start to panic. This shows itself by a kind of confusion where the person jumps from thought to thought. From important to anxious trying to decide which thoughts to fill their capability. The face gets hot as blood flows to the brain and the pulse goes up. This makes the person even more anxious. The classic blush you get when something goes out of your control and you are now adding thoughts beyond your capability. The blush goes when the thought goes. The same thing happens when you try to do something constructive and be angry at the same time. The thoughts are so different they can't be clumped like say a phone number (three clumps of number in one thought)  Needle thread and material is a clump of three in a thought of quilting. Colour size and placement is another. These six thoughts are actually only two because they are related.  Add anger, and why and some other unrelated thoughts like it is raining and the gardens flooding, the cat wants out and the kettle is boiling and you are over your limit. So negatives having priority it becomes hard to concentrate on what you really want to. Especially if there is some one else that could shut the kettle off and let the cat out and you are only thinking about the rain because you are mad. But if you don't know this lack of concentration is because you have exceeded your ability to concentrate on more than say four to six things you will stop the project that you really want to do and you can now add sad to your thoughts. So now you know why, but you also know how hard it is to set aside negative thoughts. So you start again. Change the mood. Get a cup of tea, put on some music and go back to the project. Keep it positive and the negative thoughts will fade and the project will become more important. Even if that project is only reading a book or doing the dishes. At the very least you will have direction in your life.

Davit. 

Thank you Ashley.

 

My "deer in headlight" look.

 

Wow, that sounds intense. I am so impressed.

Congrats again

Hi Ashley,

I had been asked over a month in advance to do the photo shoot. I had a lot of "what if" thinking in the beginning. With the help of the CBT, a good online friend, a nearby friend as support and time, I was able to want to do it more than anything. During the photo shoot it was move your hand, hold your head this way, smile, hold, arch, move, turn. It was so fast paced if there was an adrenalin rush, it was quickly used. The photographer said there are a few "deer in the headlight" looks in the photos, and I would love to see those as well, just so I can enjoy seeing the look. He said those are common with someone who has never modeled for a photo shoot before. I have been asked to do it again in May as a stand in on call. Again, I feel anticipatory anxiety, but it will pass as I change it to want to and avoid the what ifs.

Amazing work JayDee!

 

A photoshoot could make anyone anxious. You deserve to feel very proud of yourself. Nice work! How were you able to stay calm during the shoot?

 

Hugs,

The only technique I used was I want to and I can. I had a month to consider this as well. I didn't just jump into it on a whim. I knew in advance and when I was first approached about doing it I had many reservations as to if I could do it considering the panic attacks, my ibs-d and my bile salt. That caused me anxiety a month ago. I had ample time to change my thinking to more positives instead of the negative what ifs. I wanted to do it. I wanted to prove to myself I could do it. 

You can do this too.

Triggers are just triggers, how you treat them is what causes anxiety. All triggers are just facts and you can treat those facts more than one way. JayDee wanted to step out of the comfort zone because that was the only way this thing could be done.  Stepping out of the comfort zone is a trigger. Wanting to is the biggest reason the anxiety was limited. I don't know if any other skills were used but I do know that how you see a trigger is how it will affect you. If you want to do something and you still can not then you are having negative thoughts toward it such as that you can't or you are out of your league. Being out of your league only means you could make a mistake. Trying to do something while a negative thought is in your head still will carry the negativity to what you are doing. This is a fact. Another fact is that you can only hold 4-9 thoughts in your head at one time. A TV playing, a kettle boiling, looking things up on the internet, thinking about New Years, other distractions around you contribute to this number. The more thoughts the harder it is to concentrate. If four is your limit then before you can add a fifth you have to let go of one. If you don't number five will be confusing. 

Davit