It took a few months of filling out forms and being thrown into situations where I had panic and no form for the mental list to start working. It's pretty awesome. I still have my scary moments that I have trouble getting out of but they get easier and easier to overcome.
I have found the forms to be very helpful. Filling them out helped me to break free from the panic cycle on many occasions. Now, when I am not able to fill out the form (i.e. I wake up at night in a panic), I can mentally "fill out the form" and this almost always does the trick for me now. It took a few months before my husband was able to be of help during my periods of anxiety. He means well but he didn't understand what was going on with me and he was also frightened and frustrated.
Not long ago, he asked me "Can you tell me what you are afraid of?" - and when I thought about it, I realized that I was most afraid of having an attack. So, by asking this question, he helped me to start the process of questioning my anxious thoughts. Sometimes, once I say aloud what it is that I am afraid of (or write down), I am able to more easily challenge the anxious thoughts and recognize them for what they are - in most cases, a little unreasonable or unlikely.
I don't use your symptom tracker, but I take my PC site posts to my doc, as part of my "homework". I'm not using the thought record enough.
This helps describe, in an open-ended way, what happened qualitatively in my life so more homework will generate more postive behavioral changes. I've used the thought records, and always have them on hand in my wallet, but am not using them hardly at all. That's good news, the way I see it.
What I do track now, are other behavioural goals, like the amount of sleep, daily tv i watch & time on this website, as well as how well I'm completing my list of things "to do"(based on Mastery Of Anxiety and Worry{the workbook}, and I found an online clock to minimize time at a computer so I don't stress my hands by too much keyboarding.
Some people receive immediate relief from their panic attacks or anxious thoughts as soon as they start monitoring them. Keeping track helps them feel more in control. For others, as soon as they start tracking their physical symptoms, thoughts and behaviors they may find that things get worse. Tracking symptoms forces people to look at their symptoms and avoidant behaviors causing them to realize how much panic and anxiety has disabled them. This awareness can lead to increased feelings of anxiety and even depression. These feelings will not last and the more involved in the program you become and familiar with your symptoms thoughts and behaviors, the more in control you will start to feel.
Members, please share your experiences when you first started tracking your symptoms. If you’re just starting, let us know how it's going.
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