A racing mind, excessive worry, obsessive thinking and perfectionism: the ingredients of my anxiety.
My therapist has been talking with me about my anxiety but I didn't want to believe him and I thought that my main problem was depression. Now I see how wrong I was and the effects anxiety have been having on me.
Fortunately many techniques that work with depression also work with anxiety, so I do not need to begin from zero and the work I have been having with depression is also useful for anxiety. I only add a new technique that I think will be useful: Worry Time (also presented on this program). I will dedicate a daily period of 30 minutes to worry. The rest of the time I will do something else.
I will also try to make my life easier to help not being so perfectionist. In fact I just have applied this to my sleep problems. I was following a CBT program for insomnia because I wanted a perfect plan to finish once and for all my sleep problems. But the perfect plan doesn't mean it is the more practical one. To help with this I used a problem solving worksheet and after analyzing the pros and cons of each possible solution it was obvious that CBT was not the more practical solution to help with my sleep problems (at least at this moment).
My priority is to keep working at maintaining my depression levels under control, to have a more relaxed attitude and not being so exigent with myself. With this in mind I decided to follow the instructions of my doctor: to continue the treatment with Wellbutrin (antidepressant), have Seroquel as a sleep aid at night (which also help with depression and anxiety) and stop the CBT program for insomnia. Also Wellbutrin is known for causing sleep problems and all the work I would put with CBT for insomnia could not resolve the problem. Moreover and for what I have been reading, anxiety by itself is the cause of sleep problems for many people.
Maybe in a near future when I have both my depression and anxiety levels under control and do not need more medication my sleep would improve by itself. If not, I think CBT for insomnia at that time could be an option to consider, but not right now.
) about the "Worry Time" and I concluded that I was doing something wrong. It is important to have a schedule to worry, not just when I feel I need it.
