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Are you 'Accomodating your anxiety?'

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 8760

DarkBlue,

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us & tips with members.

Our program will help you to learn how to conduct exposure therapy in a self-directed manner in addition to giving your skills such as thought challenging.

Danielle, Bilingual Health Educator

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 778

Thanks again DB , think i know that auction site very well

. in fact a few years ago was hooked on it lol . Thats a heck of alot cheaper than i was expecting as well . They used to be very expensive a few years ago anyway .

Johnny0 i must say this to you . I really admire the way you go about things and the help and advise you give us . You really do sound like you try and test so many things . Hats off to you .

There really isnt much in the way of support here in my town/Country . I have had ago of looking into it . Unless you know anything DB ? Cornwall is soooo behind the rest of the Country best of times , its beautiful but so frustrating for other things . I used to live in Oxford , now thats a city that you could find/get things done ! Beautiful as well , awww homesick now d'oh !

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 138

Not meaning to come across as promoting one thing over another, but I gained a lot of ground through my participation with Recovery International. You can read about them by searching Recovery Inc, though I think they are in the process of changing their name given the confusion. I have found their literature in libraries, written by Abraham Low.

They present a slightly old fashioned version of cognitive behavioural therapy developed by psychiatrist Abraham Low way back in the 30'-40's. If you have a group locally, it is nice to attend for the support but they have phone meetings and hopefully they'll get their forums back up soon. Probably not for everybody but it sure helped me get stable enough to secure my present job. The lingo takes some getting used to but for those that adopt the program, great progress can be made.

In the meanwhile I'm awaiting referral to the local Anxiety Clinic which relies heavily on exposure approaches which I learned through attending an info session last week. I put on the evaluation form that they should be more supportive of ongoing peer support groups.

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 150

Hi CD,

Why thank you :-)

Kneeling/posture chairs can be very expensive on the high street or even online. I'm not sure if I am allowed to post links here that could be seen as supporting a certain brand/retailer or whatever, but I'm sure I will be safe in saying:

There is a very popular auction website online...

They have a facility where you can 'buy it now'... If you were to click on a tab that allowed you to 'buy it now' and find the lowest price including p+p while searching for "posture chair", you would find one at £14.99 with £7.95 delivery (£22 all in).

This is the best possible price on the net, and if you search it online, it retails for between £40-£70. I've had to be quite money savvy since being off sick from work so I've searched everywhere for the cheapest.

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 778

Dont apologize DB i love your posts . Great idea about the chair as well , i do tend to sit forward an awful lot crushing myself i know . I have done this for months , but only because it helps with the pain im getting . So now i see doing that is ruining my breathing , that sucks !

Oh yes i do know who Derrin Brown is used to watch him all the time . Funny enough only last week . I love watching him .

I tell what i do find , as soon as i 'think' about my breathing then thats when i start to go to pot . Sounds silly i know .

I will have ago at NLP thing as well . Many thanks for the advise

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 150

Hi CD,

I don't have a fixed time limit on the breathing. I don't believe that you can or should have.

What I do is find a quiet moment, lie on my back with a pillow under my knees and take deep breaths in to my stomach, right down. I don't believe that there should be a time limit on it, because everyone's different. So long as it feels as though you are stretching your diagphram (muscle under your lungs which pulls down to make your lungs fill with air)

When I first started, I felt lightheaded, dizzy, and I even had convulsions of my diagphram. It's simply because you're not used to having that much air being taken in. Your body has to adjust to the oxygen levels.

And the diagphram convulsions are due to the fact that you haven't been using it/using it correctly.

I've even gone to the extent of getting a posture improving kneel chair (search engines will show you pictures)

When you sit on a conventional chair, most people tend to slouch forwards and compress their chest. Kneeling chairs don't allow you to do that.

I am already feeling the benefits. But learning how to breathe from your diagphram again can take a lot of time, and lots and lots of patience.

Seeing as I'm already on a rant, I'll continue with some other things I've found.

I don't know if you know who Derren Brown is... He's like a magician/illusionist, etc. He uses Neuro-Linguistic Programming in order to trick people in to doing/thinking things.

The power it can have is quite profound.

One of the ways that you can use NLP to your advantage is when you are in a quiet, comfortable, stress-free environment - visualise a happy place. A nice memory or just a place that makes you feel good inside. Associate this place with a word. It can be any word that means something to you. Your pets name.. your favourite colour - anything.
Start deep breathing (comfortably and in control). Repeat this often.

I find the best place for me is in the bath. I'm relaxed there.

Then when you are in a stressful enviornment or feel anxious - repeat your word in your head. Your breathing will automatically go back to the way you were in your stress-free place. Your anxiety will drop, and it does work.

Sorry, this was quite long.

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 778

DB that was a hell of a post , but a flaming good one . Couldnt agree more with what you are saying either .

What breathing exercises are you doing atm ? Just curious because like i said before i have been shallow breathing for quite some time myself and over the last few months have been trying so hard every single day 'to get back to normal' . I just dont seem to be getting anywhere either , im no worse . No take that back im a little better actually .

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 23

Thanks Darkblue for posting this you are sooo incredibly right!!

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 150

Before I found this site, I literallly tried it all. From meditation to medication and everything in between.

One thing that kept creeping up every time I was on the web was the 'Linden Method'. Search engine keywords for anxiety, panic attacks, OCD, GAD, the lot - it all comes up with the Linden Method.

So I tried it. It was early on in my panic attacks, and I have to say that it did work, to some extent. I've always been the kind of person who takes what they want from things and ditches the rest. I accepted, believed and put in to place certain things, and ignored other parts.

One thing I do agree with is that I, and probably you, accomodate your anxiety. Building our lives around it, instead of through it.

Exposure works by challenging you. Pushing you out of your comfort zone and in to the real world.

You see we all live in a make-believe world ruled not only by anxiety, but by its symptoms.

You hyperventilate = panic.

You have chest pain = panic.

You start shallow breathing =panic.

And you won't even be aware that all this is going on until you look at it and look at yourself and how you respond.

I had no idea that I was shallow breathing until I actually realised I was constantly taking deep breaths to compensate.

By not accomodating your anxiety, you have to distract yourself. By distracting yourself, you don't notice things like a little twinge of chest pain, and you don't obesess over things like your breathing or choking etc (all of which I've done/am doing)

I am currently at the stage where I don't have panic attacks any more. but I do have bad anxiety. I worry about my breathing, my chest pains, my headaches, my energy levels, my sleeping patterns, etc etc etc. I tend to fixate on one thing. Like recently I've had the relatively new symptom of heart palpitations.
The thing is: I KNOW it's anxiety. It's not some strange, obscure disease or illness. It's anxiety. But I allow myself to be sucked in to that idea. The idea that I have something wrong with me. And then when I accept that I'm not dying of some kind of horrible disease, and realise it is anxiety, I fear that I will always be anxious.

Where does it stop?

Probably whenever I get the guts to live again.
Accept every stupid symptom I have and just get on with it. Eventually they will all die down and I will be free from anxiety.

So I've started breathing training. Which everyone should do (not just those with anxiety)

It increases energy, lowers blood pressure, apparently relieves aches and pains.

It'll take time. I keep saying this, almost in every post, but I know it will. Everyone here must accept and resign themself to the fact that there is no wonder-pill. No miracle cure. This took time to build up. Most people here will have been anxious for the biggest part of their life.

It's going to take time to go away. Time and technique..

</rant>

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Are you 'Accomodating your anxiety?'