While in therapy with a very stringent CBT practitioner, I came up with the quote "don't substitute coffee for nutrition". I find that if I bring small healthy snacks and devour them at strategic times in the day, I maintain a steady state. Perhaps related to blood sugar, as the diabetics would put it "glycemic index" of food choices. Compare this to reaching for a coffee every time the eyelids begin to droop. By the end of the day I'm a combination of tired and wired.
In a noisy office, I'll wear earplugs to damp the racket. Not always acceptable. I can often find music distracting if too loud or what I'm working on requires heightened concentration.
Quick steps outside the building are brilliant and I often finding myself sneezing out the dust once I get out into the fresh air. And they say exposure to a bit of warm sun is good, and looking up at blue sky is recommended by my doctor to combat depression.
Taking lunch hour to do stretching or treadmilling always makes the afternoon go smoother
Scanning one's body for areas of tension and consiously releasing it. (how about those clenched teeth?)
My experience with exposure has been two-fold. I am able to challenge myself to some extent but would expect greater result if sharing my goals with another or being accountable for following through with the next step up in exposure. I can make great strides through the easier components of the hierarchy but fear that I may never achieve the pinnacle without direct support.
On the other hand, I've often thrown myself too deeply into the feared activity, like the time I went in front of a live audience, sang and played guitar with really very little build up. For a few days after I could feel the shock/trauma/after-effects such that it was almost a deterrent rather than an experience that encourages me to try something even greater.
Sorry to hear of your difficulties with this new therapist. I guess you can be grateful that they were willing to come to your locale, though less sensitive to the fact that you needed concrete techniques to assist you. I hear that the experience left you disheartened but am very glad you had the wherewithall to post your experience to the forum. Pain shared is pain halved.
I actually submitted a formal letter of complaint about one psychiatrist that I had seen though I hope nothing much comes of it, that would be anxiety inducing, but I felt it was necessary to help me diminish the animosity that I was beholding against this practitioner to have their actions formally questioned.
We will all be cheering for you to find another suitable therapist and that they will move you towards an office visit in a more compassionate way.
Perhaps I have been lucky to be exposed to a broad range of consumers thus have heard the expression 'high functioning" and "low functioning" applied. I know some extremely intelligent people whose handicap is mental illness not depression of cognitive function.
And I can attest after trying to continue to be a productive member of society for a number of years with no success and finally applying for a disability pension, they claimed I wasn't eligible because I hadn't worked enough in the 5 years preceding my application. I know, that's how long it took me to finally accept that the disease was greater than my ability to manage it.
I guess it can be considered a blessing that I am aware of just how many people do struggle with one form of health issue or another so it is less unusual to be dealing with something, though the mental illness still does not have the broad acceptance that a physical ailment will recieve.
I'm also aware of how tired some people can get when they are constantly working to manage their illness, unable to relax for fear that a relapse is just over the horizon if they let up on their diligence. I continue to desire improvement so realize that it does take effort on my part to practice the CBT techniques.
I have benefitted from gradual exposure to the working environment. Support around coping with the more "stressful aspects" and ongoing strengthening of tolerance and endurance, both physical and mental.
If modelled against the graduated exposure model of the program, one can adapt to the work environment. I imagine it depends on coworkers though ultimately one does need to learn how to tolerate and endure trying personalities too.
I would suggest to cornish-dee to explore various forms of yoga. I went to one recently called Yin-Yoga, perhaps after the famous Yin-Yang symbol and it required no strenuous movements or difficult posture. It was a series of comfortable sitting or lying, where one relaxed into a gentel stretch. Sometimes you will see a class called restorative yoga, I would presume these two would not be like the more vigorous Ashtanga that athletic people are attracted to. We also have hot yoga here, where the class is in a room with elevated temperature. Phew.
Ultimately any activity that gets the body and the energy moving is good. I got on the bike this weekend, didn't do any great distance but am sure it was better than lying onthe floor watching video
I have experienced Social Anxiety all my life but have progressed through various aspects of it. I used to be embarrassed to write in front of others and was especially self concious about eating in front of others but through gradual exposure and support, I have made great strides there. I attended Toastmasters which is a supportive environment to learn public speaking though I could probably stand to go back there, it certainly got me over the bulk of it. Then I decided I wanted to be able to perform guitar and sing in front of others. I would start with situations where expectations were low. Even today, Iperform to seniors in a hospital so they are grateful for whatever entertainment they get.
The Social anxiety I have now is more related to authority figures, dealing with teamwork, having to take criticism, having to express anger or be on the recieving end of other people's emotions. And I don't like to be in a physical space where I don't have a sense that I could exit easily.
I'm back at work again, though they have down-sized my duties in the sense that I don't deal with clients as much as my coworkers. Essentially my social anxiety was just bubbling having to cope with critical, high expectations and managing communication with clients. So now I am performing software testing. I still need to have fairly challenging communication with the programmers especially since I have to tell them where I found errors. And an internet research project, where the real challenge will come in writing a report, as I discovered last time, everyone has a different idea of what level of detail is important and making suggestions or recommendations that don't jive with other decision makers can ruffle feathers.
So through this all, I have to be conscious of any negativity around my abilities, my judgement, daily basic attitude. It is real easy to fall into the trap that I am just being a pest to the programmers calling their attention to trivial matters in the new software. I am always fearful that I am missing huge peices of information from my research project and that will colour the whole report with an air of immaturity. And I am dealing with one group of clients and I am not content with the level of assertiveness that I am applying and our teleconference meetings remind me of the wild wild west.
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