Random waves of fear

[olds]

Chronic depression is another fun one.

"Think about happy things instead."

"Just stop doing it."

"Get laid. That'll take care of it."



Oh gee, is that all it takes? How convenient. Thousands of psychologists can find other jobs, and be replaced by a sign hung on their office doors: "Just think away the problem. Please slide payment under door."

This came to mind. (Credit: Susie Campbell, per image)

Stop it

 

[Platypus]

Lmao, agree 100%. Psychological issues take much longer to diagnose and sometimes your not able to diagnose them completely. But I think you guys are being a bit hard on the guy he was just trying to help. Can't blame people for things they don't know about.

Not attacking or trying to be hard on the person, just the broken logic he's parroting that I see time and time again. It's literally stuff like this that trivializes and stigmatizes mental illness and makes it harder for people to acknowledge the issue and get treatment for it. Any chance that I can take to challenge this kind of thinking I will most surely take.

I'm glad that he was able to overcome his completely unrelated problem though, grats on that.

 

[Kushina]

What if he is defective

 

[olds]

What if he is defective

And you guys are the normal ones?
:shudder:

 

[KeithTalent]

Pretty much every single minute of every day of my life. This is why I keep a box with my personal effects under my desk at all times, because I assume I am always on the verge of being fired even though there has never been an indication this will happen in the 10+ years I have been with my company. I try not to hang out with new people because I assume I all just annoy or disappoint them. It's also why I rarely have a restful sleep. Good times.

KT

 

[Jeff7]

And you guys are the normal ones?
:shudder:

Join us, won't you?

 

[Markbnj]

Doesn't really happen to me that way. I just sort of go with the flow. 54 here, so maybe Olds and I benefit from some callouses on the soul or something.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

36 here. Had my first anxiety attach about 2 yrs ago about a year after being laid off about 9 mos after I bought my first house and had my daughter. I'd say it was def. stress related lol. I'm in a much better place now though so my stress and anxiety is much better.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I used to get them quite often, but now it's pretty much limited to social situations, and even there I'm getting pretty used to just blocking out my surroundings. For a period it was almost routine, but I think my psyche realized I wasn't going to last having these things since adolescence, so I get lazy "What else is new" thoughts instead to fix/ignore the problem. Slightly worrying seeing that it seems to get worse in adulthood for people here, as I'm still in my early/mid 20s. :hmm:

 

[Kushina]

I think putting a name to it is helpful, the fear of the unknown is always the worst. There are a few things which I need to wrap up, and perhaps settle down with modding my car and things should wrap up nicely.

Worrying about what it was/if I was going insane going to become like my dad is always the most stressful.

 

[Puppies04]

I had a couple when I quit my job and started my own business. Until the first couple of invoices were paid it was a scary time.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Mellow out.

Mel-low.

 

[balloonshark]

What others have said about the breathing is good. It's important to recognize when your having an attack, realize your taking shallow breaths and make yourself breathe in slowly through the nose and out through your mouth.

Self talk also helps but telling someone to do these things and actually doing them while stressed is another story. It's like telling someone to think happy thoughts while bullets are flying around their head.

Just remember it's a medical condition just like a broken arm. If you broke your arm you friends wouldn't tell you "it'll be ok, just take some meds". They would tell you to go to the er, get an x-ray and a cast. It's no different when you have a mental condition. If it's something you can't fix then there is nothing wrong with seeking help.

 

[Kushina]

Err still happening, it's getting common. Will happen two or three times a week. Sometimes more. I'm not surprised by it anymore but the fear still hits and sinks me down making pretty much all my thoughts clouded by fear.

I wonder if it will pass after the things that are stressing me are over. At the same time I wonder if it'll end up causing mental illness since that is prevalent in my dad's side, particularly around my age. Can't help that the place I work at I'm surrounded by weirdos. .

Fuck me this is so annoying I was always the logical type, trumping things like this. Now it just seems useless to fight it.

 

[Mai72]

I've been waking up with anxiety attacks.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Sounds like General Anxiety Disorder.

You can try meds (you need to see a Psychiatrist).

You could also try eating lots of anti-anxiety foods (google it, but here is a start):
- turkey
- whole wheat bread
- salmon
- avacado
- oatmeal (steel cut, not that powdery factory processed crap)
- Greek yogurt
- almonds
- asparagus
- edit: spinach

Avoid coffee and processed sugar.

Take some yoga courses/classes.

 

[smackababy]

I ain't afraid of nothing! /internet tough guy

Seriously though, I have little to no fear, mostly because I simply don't care. If he dies, he dies. That's my motto, even when speaking in the third person.

 

[Kushina]

I don't mind suddenly dying unless I have kids or something. But otherwise failure/second best really isn't an option for me. And I don't like compromising that. And I hate meds.

 

[IronWing]

OP, do you have any kind of breathing problems (asthsma?) or sinus troubles? Low level O2 deprivation can lead to panic attacks.

 

[Kushina]

OP, do you have any kind of breathing problems (asthsma?) or sinus troubles? Low level O2 deprivation can lead to panic attacks.

I'm not sure but I do run out of breath easily when talking, happens some what too often.

 

[rudeguy]

I've dealt with anxiety problems for over 10 years and what you are describing is very common OP.

One of our most basic and deepest instincts is "fight or flight". We are programmed to want to deal with a stressful situation by our brain focusing, our breathing changing, blood flow changing, all kinds of physical and mental things to help you deal with anything nature can throw at you. Sometimes you grain triggers that instinct for no damn reason. So you can just be sitting there and all of the sudden your brain goes into overload or even possibly starts shutting things out, get the chills, maybe have a hard time catching your breath.

For me it was physical. My brain needed some extra drugs to keep it from weirding out. Talking to your doctor or a special doctor is a good thing. Our brains are complicated little balls of goo and sometimes they need some help.

If you ever need an ear, I'm happy to listen.

 

[Kushina]

feeling weird as fuck again. Got dizzy as hell out of no where yesterday and had cold sweats at the same time.

I'd like to talk but I don't wanna mention the things that are stressing me out. Unless it's Rakh then I will speak.

 

[Stopsignhank]

Yep. You could use some meds. It is not one of those things that you need to control when it happens, you need something to prevent it from happening.

Have you ever had half of your body go numb? I did, the right side. Went to some docs and they never really found anything. Even had a cat scan to rule out a brain tumor, my right side went numb again when he said that. That was when I was in my early 30's. My brother was on zoloft and my dad was literally insane when he died is his early 60's, worried himself away. So yeah, meds are pretty much needed for me.

 

[OverVolt]

You guys are a bunch of pussies lmao.

I'm sorry I don't mean to offend. I'm pretty surprised rudeguy is on some type of drug. I picked the wrong major in college and backed out of a plan I had for like 12 years. Had a total crisis of "oh shit I'm doing the wrong thing with my life (pharmacy school)" and managed just fine.

The way you don't have anxiety from the get-go is to make your own decisions, rationally. Then if something goes wrong, at least it wasn't the influence of someone else telling you what to do. Like if everyone told you opening a business was a great idea and you go through the motions and 5 years into running a business you realize you never even wanted a business and start having panic attacks when you need to put in an 80 hour week because of some business crisis, you're probably screwed. You can either take drugs to prevent from cracking under the pressure or you are just going to crack.

But yea, as a rational sober human, it gets annoying when everyone else is on a drug of some type. I take pride now in the fact that I react to things as a normal person does/should. Cause sometimes there can be kind of a shocking moment and some people just don't react like they should. Either sad/angry/scared/zombielike at the wrong times, etc.

My current path, I've had a couple moments of anxiety as I push my comfort zone, but that goes away with time as I get comfortable with my career goals. And if it doesn't work out, whatever I tried my best. Basically realizing I'm not rich and I'm going to have to work petty hard to carve out a place in the world for me.

 

[OverVolt]

feeling weird as fuck again. Got dizzy as hell out of no where yesterday and had cold sweats at the same time.

This is actually an immune reaction of some type or a drug reaction. Either getting sick, withdrawing from a drug, or something you ate.