I think the holidays and the shorter days increase our anxiety and tensions, no doubt. You just have to take things day by day, minute by minute. Slow down and do something fun for yourself. For me it watching movies, or going out with friends.

Hi Radha, thanks for your insightful post! I guess I just have to sit with myself and keep asking myself why i have anxieties, why i fear everything etc etc. I have done this before and have lead to many answers. Yes, I do fear death. I fear death because death is always associated with BAD/scary emotions, feelings, and experiences. What I mean is, I always hear people dying of bad car accidents, dying of cancer, dying of some disease, dying in their sleep, dying from SOMETHING. Death is just so negative and scary. Thats why I begin to fear LIFE itself because I everything in life is scary to me and can lead to inury or death. For example, the car. The car is a wonderful invention to me, yet its so dangerous.....people can die in car accidents. The plane, phenomenal.......yet dangerous sometimes. CANCER....also my number one fear....because you dont' hear a lot of people surviving this disease. Just everything. I just feel like i grew up learning everything in such a negative way. So i began to fear life itself. This is partly where my anxiety stems from. I know that for sure. that is why i fear every symptom i experience because I keep thinking "well, what if this is not anxiety....it mustbe something else." At times I'm better at controlling it. But lately i haven't been doing well. I have breathing problems lately every single second of every day. So its hard for me to just think positive and ignore it because its THERE. anyhow, these are my thoughts for now. Tahnks for letting me think about this. It actually helps when you vent it out. The closer and closer you get to the core reasons for your anxiety, the closer you are to facing the root of the problem and healing it. thank you radha for that!

Hi Beth and Angel, Yes I am have been rather anxious as well and I am even in a differenct time zone to you guys. Beth did you try reframing your thinking. At times when many of the methods of coping don't work, I say something to the effect " Whatever happens , happens, I am prepared to take the risk" then I usually go and watch some TV and soon my mood picks up and the anxiety goes down. Alternatively I noticed that when I am very anxious and nothing seems to work, I noticed that I was trying all the coping methods in a rushed way and my thought process was something like " This better work, something is wrong, why am I so anxious" . I noticed that when I tried (mind you with great difficulty when one is in this state of mind) and reframe and thought like this ("OK I feel pretty crap now and don't feel as relaxed as I would like to be , so what shall I do now. OK I shall go and do....."). Notice I acknowledged my feelings - PRETTY CRAP , but then I did not bring the word anxiety into my thought. And I usually feel a bit better. Doesn't work 100% but thats OK. Try reframing and let me know whether this works for you guys. Warning though it is very hard when we are anxious because our anxious thoughts are just a very bad habits we have made stronger over the years. Angel, it is interesting you mentioned Fear of DYING FROM HEART ATTACK and STROKE. I thought I was alone before coming to this website. Today for instance I had very strange, not ordinary symptoms, dizziness etc, which I suspect was coming from the TMJ and neck and shoulder tightness I have been having and of course could be anxiety. I hate going to the doctors partly because my husband thinks I am a hypochondriac. I was uncomfortable with the symptoms as it was out of ordinary. I thought I had a mini stroke to be honest. So I've been to the doctor and am having some blood works etc but he doesn't think the symptoms are stroke related. Sure at times we have some strange symtoms and think we might be dying from something and most of the time it could be anxiety but there are times when we somehow know that the symptoms are somewhat different and this is where we need to get it checked out. Sure I might have been seeking reassurances but this time there was a real reason to get scared. S

Beth, You've done a great job today trying to grab a hold of your anxiety! We are proud of you for continuing to persevere! Try channelling all that anxiety into something productive for an hour or two. Any kind of physical activity may help you expend some extra energy. Hang in there. Danielle ________________________ The PC Support Team

Hey Beth! I can agree with you on that one that all of us have heightened anxiety lately. I really dont know why this is so. I thought I was doing soooo good a few months ago and then it just hits me! Ok, so you have tried everything and nothing works today. Well, I believe i told radha this in another post....just try to let your anxiety take you wherever it wants to. Maybe we are struggling so much because we keep fighting with it. Well, I know this is gonna sound silly, but if you feel dizzy....just let it be. I mean seriously, you CANNOT faint from a panic attack/anxiety. Its just there to tease us! So, try to just face it, accept the feelings, work through them, take some nice deep breaths, and just sit down and do nothing. The thoughts of having a heart attack are so common with us. I had this just the other day. Out of nowhere, i feared a heart attack or stroke. But realistically speaking, we are heathly. Nothing is wrong with our hearts. OUr anxiety is just tricking us into thinking these things because we physically feel the intense symptoms of anxiety.....so we mistaken it for something else (even though we really know its anxiety). A friend of mine told me this, "Do not underestimate what anxiety can do to you. It can make you think and feel things you cant even imagine." So just try to stay positive, accept those feelings, work through those thoughts, and know that this is just anxiety all over again! Plz just hang in there. I believe in you so much. Honestly, you are a wonderful person. you are such a strong person as well. I really look up to you for that! Right now i'm dealing with the tightness in my throat and my heavy breathing, its not so fun....but i'm trying! (i find its worse when i'm in the car). Anyhow, stay strong and keep your faith up high. You can do this! Pleaseeee let me know how your feeling! Do you have CBT BUDDIES? Nobody seems to ever launch it to go online! It would be nice to chat and be there for eachother LIVE lol. bye!

Hi All, I have been struggling all day with my anxiety. It has been pretty severe and I have managed to keep a hold on it but it is there for sure. The last day this happened was on Thanksgiving when I was trying to finish my baking. I have had scary thoughts like I was going to have a heart attack (same on T-Day) and now as I was sitting eating dinner watching the Patriots game, I am dizzy. Working on breathing, snapping my wrist with the rubber band, positive thought process to re-direct, slowing my breathing down, redirect and distract, etc etc and nothing will kick it today. I am really trying but I am going through all of my tools and nothing is really stopping it. I know what it is I just dont know why?? Seems to me a lot of us in here this week have been having hightened anxiety. Would this be a fair statement? Are we all stressed about the holidays?? Money for the holidays?? :( Hope everyone else is doing better than I am today Beth