Sorry for jumping in late. My take is that what you are going through is completely normal for someone who is working on an anxiety disorder. Recovering from an anxiety takes time and sometimes it is two steps forward and one step back. Having bad days is not only normal but it is also an important part of the healing process. Stress is a trigger for set backs. When stressed and anxiety starts to become a problem think about what is causing it. What learning needs to take place? How can you manage your stress differently? What cognitive distortions are popping up etc. Examine your anxious thoughts and continue to challenge them.
Rest assure you are not going crazy. Anxiety disorders are very common and they do no lead to other more serious mental illinesses like schizophrenia. Depression can occur in individuals with anxiety disorders but depression is also a very common mental disorder. Both anxiety and depression are very treatable and managable. The programs here can help you with that. If you would like more information on depression you can visit our sister site www.depressioncenter.net.
Keep posting, we will always help you get back on track.
So what I should do when I have anxious moments again is to keep going as if they aren't there? And it will eventually diminish and fade away? Is that how we beat anxiety?
They don't last the whole day like they did before, they lasts seconds to minutes to hours. I try to challenge them and pay no attention. I'm hoping I'm doing the right thing.
There is the fact that for 25 years I've had to live with Arthritis. There is little a person can do on a bad day other than to live with it and work around it or through it. At times it makes the anxiety harder to live with (long trips to doctors) at times it made it easier. (sitting in the garden) Now it is sort of balanced. Yesterday I over worked, today I get to live with it. There will be no stress other than physical.
Davit's insight about not resisting is critical for me. I forgot this, and could never grasp this advice, as I struggled at work, which I eventually left and never returned.
The paradox is that not feeling normal about anxiety is normal, but I don't think many people, including professionals, grasp this, as you and Davit, and my previous doc have.
For now it's a little like living in a windy area. To keep leaves and stuff out of your yard you can build a fence and maybe for a while the wind won't blow bad. But one day the wind blows stuff in your yard because the fence isn't ready or it isn't high enough. All you can do till it is, is clean up the mess and ignore the wind. Moving doesn't do any good. There are few places without wind. Maybe one day you notice the wind isn't so bad or maybe you are just used to sweeping up the leaves. What ever it is, the wind isn't bothering you and for no reason you can see one day it just stops blowing or you just stop noticing it. So one day it blows hard enough to notice but you know it is going to go so you ignore it. And now knowing that there will be days when you do notice it blow you might find how you deal with it interesting instead of scary. In fact you might even be proud of how you handled it.
Not sure if this helps but I get to feeling that way too when I get much on my plate..It feels like I am going losing it but I am not going crazy and I don't think you are going crazy either even though it feels like it..I know it that feeling well..
Maybe a little me time would help..Like a nice shower or bath and maybe read one article out of a magazine or look up something that you find pleasant on line. Just any pleasant distraction to take your mind off all thats on your plate for just a little while. That helps me when I think I am losing my mind and I find my mind going in to many directions.
Just a little time out to give my mind break for a while. It helps me get centered again..
I was feeling anxious and felt some dread again. I guess i didn't bury the feelings of anxiousness and dread deep enough because it surfaced up again. I just didn't pay attention to it and thought positive. I feel in lingering still as I type. I try not to think about it too much because I don't want to give power to the feeling and thought.
I hate setbacks. I thought after two weeks of good days, I got hit blind sided with a bad day today. I went for a night run and I felt better. Now, my anxiety about feeling that dread again is back. I don't want to feel that anxious dreaded feeling about my life. the past two weeks I felt myself and was real happy. Now i feel like back to square one.
Any advice? How do I bury these bad feelings for good?
