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Hello

Linda Q

2024-04-11 5:06 AM

Anxiety Community

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8 years ago 0 6252 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
It is not her first melanoma so we are optimistic that if she gets clear borders she will be okay. 

I have no anxiety that is not normal, and little of that. I'm probably better than normal. It took a while though. 

My wife had a horse that kicked me and ruptured my spleen. Life support kept me alive while they patched me. I got an infection that damaged almost all my joints from the operation. I had a perforated ulcer that got infected. Nearly died that time. There have been other traumas, like being physically incapable of doing much. I have more reason than most to feel negative so it was a chore to turn that around. I did because I had to. Anxiety and constant panic attacks were ruining my life. My body is shot but my mind is good. I know first hand what it is to have anxiety and panic attacks. I can offer the information I have but you have to use it or not. If you can think positive it is possibly enough. 

Davit
8 years ago 0 5 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Very sorry to hear about your friend. She sounds like a strong person who's overcome a lot, let that continue. 

I take it you no longer suffer from anxiety? It's great that you've decided to help people like this that's very selfless. 
Arabella is quite demanding at the moment, she's not naughty she's very polite and sweet, but requires a lot of attention as she gets about the house too quickly. I can't take my eyes off of her for too long.

I will probably have to re-read what you have said to me, a few times to make it stick. 
Thanks
Catalina 
8 years ago 0 6252 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Catalina

I have friend who has had major trauma more than once and has melanoma right now. She is a member here and swears by the program. She is getting divorced and is not posting till all the operations are over so I will not ask her to come on here. She is very positive considering the world has not been very nice to her. By her words, she is 95% recovered. I believe she is, we email every day and I have to say I think she is. She may read this and come on, she is a very nice person and would support you. 
I think like your daughter, I always put a positive rider on my negative thoughts so they are only facts then.
I'm hoping for rain today, but it doesn't look like it. I can get more dry day stuff done even if I'd rather have rain.

Positive thoughts build positive attitude and soon you do it automatic.

Davit
8 years ago 0 5 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Again thank you so much for taking the time to explain this to me,

I;m glad to hear it can be changed. There's a lot of information here but i can make sense of it. Basically positive thinking is the key to everything. My daughter is so positive nothing is negative to her, she wanted to play in the garden today, we had planned for a picnic. It rained so we couldn't, i said "Sorry baby we will do it next time ok?" She says "It's okay, now it's raining the flowers will grow" with a big smile. 
I do practice Yoga sometimes but it's a bit difficult at the moment i have to get Arabella to join in with me. 
When i had to get in a car to visit my sister, i tried to list positive things and concentrate on them as well as repeating to myself that what i'm doing is a good thing, but the negative won and i panicked. 

Bella she see's the good in everything, just how we all should be. Sadly we don't all have the same influences in our life. Do you know anyone who has suffered with trauma's and managed to come out the other side? Be happy and content? If so how long is the process, i know it depends on the person. 

Again thank you for the information it's really appreciated 
Catalina 

8 years ago 0 6252 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Third part.

Now for coping skills. These are extensions of relaxation technics mostly. Yoga and meditation, but they can't be used in certain environments. Mindfulness teaches you to see your surroundings and how you fit in it in a positive way. Mild exposure does the same. Stacking is a coping skill, I see I have it on here twice. Flipping riders is a coping skill. Positive "what ifs".Above all building a positive attitude is the best. And of course there is medication, it can calm you enough that you can do the rest. But you must do the rest.

Davit

I must go back outside and mow some more lawn. 35C today.
8 years ago 0 6252 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Second part.

This is where attitude and core beliefs come in. 

Remember that positive thought bypasses amygdala, the centre for fear.  Thinking positive then should be all you need except people put riders on their positive thoughts. Most riders are negative and instantly send the thought to amygdala.
Attitude causes most riders and core beliefs get in there to. So if you tend to be negative. "but" will put a rider on your positives. I want ice cream, but it is fattening. I want to go to the store but it will be crowded. Turn your riders around. It is going to be hot and crowded but I want to go to the store, I want to be able to do this. Now positive is the rider. it goes directly to hypothalamus and hypothalamus stored hot and crowded as a fact only, not a fear so it doesn't feed it back to Amygdala. Amygdala doesn't call for a reaction to the hot crowded store. Do this a few times and you notice the store is hot and crowded, but don't care. If you have a core belief about stores it will start to fade and you will build a new one. So not only do you have to think positive but you have to watch for the riders and flip them. 
Now you know why positive works and why it doesn't. Now you know why a good day can change almost instantly. It is all due to what is in memory and what hypothalamus does with it. All survival skills are negative, negative thought opens them fast because they are separate from regular memory. Anxiety is Amygdala contemplating. Panic is Amygdala's reaction to a trigger based on it's memory, it can be changed. 

Next

Davit
8 years ago 0 6252 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Catalina

I'm going to tell you a little about how the mind works so you know why coping skills work. There are four main parts and some sub parts. Every thought goes to hippocampus to be sorted. positive thought goes directly to hypothalamus for a reaction. Negative thought goes to Amygdala, the centre for fear. It decides if it calls for looking into or if it should call for panic first.  It makes this decision based on it's own memory separate from the rest of memory. It can make thousands of decisions every second. Once it makes a decision it goes to hypothalamus for a reaction but this time hypothalamus uses different memories for the decision. Memories of what you did last time you were scared mostly but it can guess if it doesn't know.  So if you think something positive. (ice cream) it goes to hypothalamus and hypothalamus looks at memory and decides you like ,,,,,,kind of ice cream and maybe you should have some. Good so far, but in that search it finds a negative. You had a bad experience buying ice cream. it sends it to Amygdala and amygdala says yes, she was anxious standing in line we better stand on guard. Back it goes to hypothalamus and hypothalamus puts together standing on guard. Anxiety basically. So we want to change how hypothalamus sees things so it doesn't feed back to Amygdala. This we do by trying to think positive as much as possible. Amygdala's memory upgrades constantly so it can go either more to panic or away from it. It is sort of use it or lose it. 
So if you think positive thoughts they bypass amygdala, if hypothalamus finds a negative, you challenge it with the ten questions or something similar so it doesn't feed back to amygdala. 

Posting before I can lose this.

Davit
8 years ago 0 5 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Davit, thank you for taking the time to respond to me.

Since the day in the car i have felt that there is something with me. I can't explain what this is, but something around me and it is a constant. I like to sing and i play the piano.

Into the distance, my mind wanders. Off the shore far beyond the sea's.
Filling my vision, so pure it seems, the flicker of white, slowly, softly consuming me. 
I rise, above all things and over all of time, the feeling penetrates, peaceful, divine. 

I would wash myself all the time, as a child and it became a ritual. I thought i was dirty and wanted to be fairer like the others. I grew up and with that i gained knowledge but inside me this feeling of not being pure stuck. My self esteem has always been low, my appearance has always attracted attention and it was a confusing time. Why did these people say i was beautiful why would they compliment my skin, my hair my looks? I struggled inside it was a battle.
I know what he did was wrong, i was innocent and he had problems. Still his words carved in to me like a knife and i longed for my father so badly i believed he had gone because of me. I believed what he said to me. 
As time has passed i've been lucky enough to have some great people enter my life, who have helped build me up instead of knock me down. My daughter is my biggest blessing and to her i am perfect.

I clearly have a lot of long standing negative core beliefs. I never 'want' to do much, except sing and play. Everything else feels forced. 
I want to change that. I need coping skills that work, what is the first step?

Catalina 
8 years ago 0 6252 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Read last one first.

Agoraphobia and cognitive restructuring. This is just thinking different is all. Agoraphobia is the fear of being in a situation you have no control over. Cognitive restructuring is taking back control.
Two words that sound like they mean the same, have/need and want.
If you think about it the things you do the easiest are things you want to do. If you have to then they are more difficult. We can take advantage of this to be in control. Right now you can only get in a car if you have to. Very negative. What if you wanted to and really believed you wanted to. Not that you want to be able to, but that you actually wanted to get in the car. Then you are in control, not the situation. There are mantras that go with this.

Davit
8 years ago 0 6252 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Catalina. 

I'm going to tell you about a CBT technique that will get you into public transport with no anxiety. But first you have to deal with the core beliefs. Abandonment is a primary or root core belief. It spins off others. Now the problem here is that you don't know if your Dad was coming back. So that core can only be a fact one. So not negative. Next core belief, Your step dad left you out and called you dirty. Did you believe him. Even just a little bit. Use the ten questions here. You know he was wrong but at the time he was saying it you built a core belief. Most likely a few of them. Life's little problems use these core beliefs to make things worse which feeds back to the core making it stronger. When people say nasty things or when things go wrong are you a proud Spanish lady that can handle it or a scared little girl. 
You need self esteem to do what comes next.

In the next post

Davit.

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