Anxiety Disorder I have been an anxiety sufferer for many years and tried many different methods to try and help myself until eventually I found the answers I needed and my symptoms went away. I want to share what I consider are the absolute key points in getting over anxiety or at least being able to get some control back over the symptoms which you may well feel are taking over your life. Firstly I want to talk about what I consider an anxiety disorder to be and the thought patterns that lead to the symptoms. A few small revelations about the nature of anxiety can lead to huge benefit in terms of how you feel day-to-day and put you right onto the path of rapid recovery. Please don’t take this as medical advice as it is not intended to be and if you have any suicidal thoughts or thoughts of self-harm arrange to see a doctor as soon as possible. My story My anxiety started when I was 13 and drank a spiked drink at party, whatever was in the drink made me feel like my brain was exposed to the outside world and I could only hear in echoes until I went to bed that evening. Terrified of telling my mother, I was sent into a state of spiralling anxiety thinking more and more that I was going to die or was going mad. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night, every time I lay down I would feel like my throat was closing or that there was a large weight sitting on my chest. Eating was also an issue, I had lost my appetite a bit and this I felt was further evidence of wasting away before my inevitable imminent death. Over the next year things went from worse to worser, I started having panic attacks a few times a day and I had an extremely strong feeling of what is called depersonalisation; where the world looks like you are looking through a fish bowl or that your head is the controller of your robotic body which doesn’t feel really part of you. I would be in a constant state of vigilance trying to keep myself alive, checking my pulse several times a day or when I felt a rush of adrenaline. It was actually this that first put me onto the right diagnosis. I was on a train once and saw a man doing the exact same thing, checking his pulse and breathing deeply, it was the strangest thing so I went over and asked him what he was doing and he told me that he had an anxiety disorder. This was the first time I had even considered that I might not have a physical illness, how could I not all my symptoms were physical? The next few years I tried different things to try and combat this anxiety but I had been so anxious for so long through my adolescence that it was a difficult process to break. Eventually I found an online course which showed me the true nature of my problem and after a week of following the principles of this course I have not had a panic attack since and over a couple of months my anxiety levels returned to that of a well person. Nowadays I have the occasional bit of normal anxiety but overall I feel that I have full control back. What is anxiety? There are two natural types of anxiety which everyone experiences- nervousness and fight/flight. When you have an anxiety problem these responses occur at times when they are not wanted or needed and together make up the signs and symptoms of an anxiety problem. Overreaction of the nervousness response causes the background symptoms of anxiety such as heart palpitations, hard to sleep, decreased appetite whereas the fight/flight response is responsible for the sudden adrenaline rush and panic attack-like symptoms.
Having a general nervous feeling before exams or a job interview is a perfectly normal response that everyone experiences from time to time and should subside pretty quickly after the event. Before an exam for example, most people have a knot or tight feeling in the stomach and may find it harder to sleep or lose their appetite for a day or so. Anxiety sufferers may find that they experience these feelings a lot of the time as well as many other associated symptoms, here is a full list: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Smothering sensations and shortness of breath Racing heart, slow heart palpitations Chest Pain Globus Hystericus - 'Lump in throat' and difficulty swallowing Blanching (colour loss in the skin) Excessive Perspiration (sweating) Shaking or shivering (visibly or internally) Pain or numbness in the head, face, arms, neck or shoulders Rapid gastric emptying Indigestion, heartburn, constipation and diarrhoea Sexual Dysfunction Symptoms of urinary tract infection Increased need to urinate Skin rashes Weakness/tingling in arms, hands or feet 'Electric shock' feelings (anywhere in the body) Dry mouth Insomnia
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Nightmares Fears of going mad or losing control Increased depression and suicidal feelings Aggression Symptoms like 'flu' Distorted vision Disturbed hearing Hormone problems Headaches and feelings of having a 'tight band around head' Sore eyes Agoraphobia Hallucinations 'Creeping' or 'pins and needles' sensations in The skin Increased sensitivity to light, sound, touch, and smell Hyperactivity Dramatic increase in sexual feelings Derealisation and Depersonalisation Panic Attacks OCD - Obsessive thoughts and compulsions
Fight or flight is a primitive response to a threating situation where you get a surge of adrenaline, increase in heart rate, breathing rate and other less obvious signs like increase in sweating. This is the response you experience during a panic attack. Now this is the crucial part. What you need to realise is that these symptoms are only the end product of anxiety, the real problem actually lies in the thoughts that you have in the lead up to the onset of an attack or symptoms.
The thought process Everyone is obviously slightly different but understanding this process and how it applies directly to you is absolutely key in getting over this. This is the general thought process which leads to anxiety symptoms and by understanding it you can see where you can intervene to stop your thoughts from turning into physical symptoms. 1) INITIATION: The thought process starts with the feeling of a small sign or twinge which most people would just ignore. However, in your hyper-anxious state where the threat level is already on orange, as soon as you catch your breath slightly or have a heart palpitation or feel a slight lump in your throat it shoots straight up to red and you have a surge of adrenaline. 2) WHAT WAS THAT?- You then might sit bolt upright, check your pulse, start taking deep breaths to make sure that you can in fact breathe. The surge of anxiety now feels almost like its inside your head and you may feel dizzy or like you are going to pass out. The initial twinge is now irrelevant as it is these feeling of adrenaline and dizziness which are causing you the most worry. 3) PACING- I need to be outside, or sit down, or get out of this situation, or have a drink, or walk backwards and forwards. I need to do something to help myself. You may also now feel as though you are going mad or going to die. 4) ONWARDS OR BACKWARDS- depending on your level of anxiety you might settle back down after a few minutes of pacing having now realised that there isn’t actually anything wrong or you may go on to have a panic attack. 5) PANIC ATTACK- the level of anxiety and adrenaline tops a certain level and you start breathing faster and faster until you are hyperventilating which may last a few minutes until you eventually calm down and will usually have a period of shaking afterwards. The key point here is that the symptoms you are experiencing are a direct product of this thought process. It is YOUR THOUGHTS that are causing this, there is NOTHING wrong with your body or your brain despite it feeling overwhelmingly like there is due to all of the symptoms being physical. The other key point is that realising that the very start of this process begins with the initiation step where you panic on feeling a normal twinge or sign, it can go no further if you fully embrace the fact that those twinges are not a sign of an underlying disease, they are normal! Ok so now that we have discussed the thought process that leads to the symptoms lets look at what we can do to prevent this from happening. This is a 10 point anxiety buster: 1) YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DIE. You are not physically ill. Accept this fact fully, embrace it, be happy about it. The thought process fully explains your symptoms, you do not have a brain tumour or a heart problem or a lump in your throat stopping you breathing. You are ok. Be calm. This is the biggest revelation you need to make- you may feel calmer already just knowing this. Some people I have counselled with anxiety have bawled their eyes out after hearing this, it’s a big deal.
2) MAKE IT WORSE- These symptoms can’t hurt you, they are harmless just the result of a dysfunctional thought process. How can a thought hurt you? Next time you are experiencing an anxiety attack deliberately try and make it worse (this takes balls but is so worth it). Say to yourself: Bring it on, do your worst, prove to yourself that these symptoms cannot hurt you. You will soon make the realisation that there is nothing to be worried about. 3) DISTRACTION IS KEY- The louder and more obnoxious the distraction the better. A common mistake here is trying to distract yourself by watching bargain hunt or reading a book but that is just not going to cut it. Put on loud music, shout the lyrics, take up the drums or electric guitar, go for a run, splash water over your face and roar at yourself in the mirror, jog around the room reciting Pi to 10000 characters with a chinese accent. You won’t feel anxious for more than a few minutes, get through this time without panicking and it will subside. 4) PANIC ATTACK ELIMINATOR- This is an excellent trick for avoiding a panic attack once one is coming on and you don’t feel like the above has helped (or you can do this in combination). Take a deep breath in close your eyes and hold it for 10-15seconds whilst tensing every muscle in your body as hard as you can (face, neck, everything!) and then breath out as slow as you can through pursed lips as you relax all your muscles. You’ll be amazed how well this works! 5) MOODGYM- This is a website which offers free online cognitive behaviour therapy. The thought process is a general process whereas mood gym will show you exactly how your personal thoughts are affecting your condition. I can’t recommend it more highly, it takes an hour or so but is definitely worth it- write as much as possible into to it to get the most out. You will need to register but its easy and free. https://moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome 6) STOP DRINKING CAFFEINE- If you haven’t done this already then this is a really good idea. The fewer triggers you have the better, it will also help you sleep. Cutting down on sugar can also help as well but don’t go the full hog and cut it out completely as you’ll end up feeling weak and maybe passing out which won’t help. 7) BREATHING EXERCISES- slow breathing exercises/yoga/tai chi/meditation are excellent for relieving general anxiety for a number of reasons. If you have an anxiety problem chances are you have some stress in your life which having time set aside for just relaxation may help. The act of breathing slowly makes you generally more relaxed and decreases the anxiety threshold which you need to cross to have a panic attack. 8) BEING HEALTHY- Doing exercise will work out some of the excess adrenaline and may also help you sleep easier. Things like diet, exercise, drinking less, stopping smoking/drugs are also amazing for giving you positive feelings that you are making a change from your normal anxious self and that things are getting better. Remember that anxiety is based on your thoughts- if you feel like you are being healthier you will be healthier. 9) STOP GOING TO THE GP ALL THE TIME- going to the GP once to make sure that it is anxiety that you have and not something else is fine and might help but going all the time is a bad habit. You can end up fixating on future appointments thinking I just need to get by until I
can get to the doctor and then the doctor doesn’t do much to help you except to arrange a follow-up appointment hence restarting the cycle. Be confident- you can manage this yourself! 10) COUNSELLING- this didn’t help me that much but if your anxiety is associated with specific life events and you think talking to someone about it would help then counselling might be for you. The university counselling service is excellent and they also have links to mental health professionals if they feel like they need to refer you on.
Causes Why has this happened to me and will I ever be completely back to normal? These are the key questions of someone who is on the road to recovering from an anxiety problem. There may not be a specific cause, some people just have anxious personalities, others may have experienced a life event or in quite a lot of cases it can be associated with taking drugs. Drugs can cause a particularly bad anxiety problem as it hard for the person to be convinced that it is not side effects from the drug that is causing the symptoms. As for getting completely back to normal, nowadays although I live a normal anxiety symptom free life 97% of the time I do still go through the thought process occasionally. However, I haven’t had a panic attack in years and my anxiety rarely gets beyond the WHAT WAS THAT phase, I have full control and that is what it is really about getting back control. I hope that this has helped you somewhat. Stick to these ten rules and hopefully your anxious days will soon be behind you! JW Here are some websites which may help too: http://www.mind.org.uk/?gclid=CjwKEAiA74qkBRCdrM6or7U73QSJABCDL9pL42Rk7Pvf_lvR3UTWJO3yNDIAXVZPq3riEkrfm55pRoCbxzw_wcB http://www.thelindenmethod.co.uk/ - this is a very effective but very expensive method for combating anxiety (there is also a torrent version – shh). It ultimately contains the same information as this document but is much longer and more detailed and probably better written! https://moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome