Topic: Your positive story... please share

Hi. Anxiety is you.a scared you

Running away in your mind.so when you fight that it becomes harder to.handle. imagine someone suddenly making a loud noise thats not expected.what happens? Well you feel like lashing out.or running for safety. If you cant do either.your mind and body dosnt cope.it tells you by sending you fear sensations. Get it? So. Picture yourself screaming at that frightful noise.or sprinting away.picture that the next time.maybe the feelings of panic wont last too.long. .. thanks. Snagz.

Hi,

I have struggled with health anxiety since I had a breast cancer scare shortly after having my baby. This was five and a half years ago. I battled through nine months with it as I was breastfeeding and didn't want to take medication. I tried regular counselling but that didn't help. Once I weaned my baby, I started taking medication and admit it did help. After close to two years on medication, I decided to try coming off and everything was fine for probably six months. Progressively, things got worse again. I didn't want to go back on medication as I felt that it my situation, it helped but was just a band-aid for a bigger issue. I felt I needed to treat the illness and not just the symptoms, so I saw my doctor and got a referral to have Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). It was the hardest thing I have ever done. It was three months of hell but it helped immensely. It has given me the tools to deal with my anxiety. It hasn't "fixed" me - I certainly have my relapses (am having one right now) but I know what I need to do when this happens. I would highly recommend it to those who haven't tried it. I will say, however, that you need to give your all to it and dedicate yourself to doing everything that is asked of you, no matter how tough. I felt like it was my last hope, so I committed completely to the process. I became disheartened with a lack of progress halfway through but at about the eight week mark, I started noticing a difference. From there, things improved drastically and have allowed me to go 2.5 years medication-free.

Hello.

I've shared in a few posts on BB now.

But, I would like to share this positive story...

I have decided to get back out there and perform again.

My first career was as a professional performing artist but I had a major 'breakdown'...the lifestyle got the better of me - I was very young from 16yrs to 28yrs... a lot of drugs, and drinking.

After the 'breakdown', I lost my nerve completely.

I have performed since, but my nerves were still shot to pieces.

I am ready again...as ready as I will ever be.

Me and The Wolfhound, my dog...are gonna do some street theatre and busk!

Starting small...but its big for me.

I dont see this as a career move as such but more-so...a healthy soul move!

I do it because my soulful self needs to sing, dance, entertain and perform.

When I sing at home, I feel the buzz and know that I must get back out there...

Thanks for having this space for us to share our positive times too.

MuchAppreciation

Hi PatT. well done, you are an inspiration.

I try to look for what it is that helps others overcome these intrepid conditions, it seems that accepting what you are is the biggest step forward and after acceptance comes forgiveness and empathy of self, but don't make yourself a victim or seek pity because then it will just become a never ending cycle. Easier said than done, however reading posts like yours gives inspiration and hope.

i had some panic attacks a couple months ago, i then went to a psychologist for help. a good psychologist is the best and the initiative that you get 10 free/discounted visits a year is awesome. i always think up different strategies and ideas to deal with everything, some worked for a little while and others made it worse :p but i have recently settled on 'just dont fear', seems rediculous, right?

it was a bit of a weird epiphany but i watched something that said anxiety is seeing threats, so i thought i should just not be afraid of things. so i practice not fearing anything, staying relaxed, doing lots of things especially those that will challenge me, knowing my anxiety is there which is fine and knowing this is easy which stengthens my no fear and self conifdence.

My first time reaching out. After six months of circles and not being told why I was constantly shaking I've finally found have major anxiety n depression. am stuck at home alone so need communication - this is what stops my shaking

Hi anxistuk,

this place is great for communication. I have just started 'talking' here and I think it is helping me. I am new too, but I see this has been added to an older thread. It might be better to post a new thread on anxiety forum, you will probably get more replies.

It is great that you now know why you've been feeling so bad. There is lots of help available for anxiety and depression, so I hope you continue to get professional help, but every little thing you do to help yourself will add up.

My main problem is major depression. Very long standing. I thought that was bad enough until I did suffer anxiety for several months last year. It was terrible. I had no idea how much worse it made me feel. I am very lucky in that it resolved spontaneously once the added stress I had in my life at the time was resolved. Thank goodness, it really was too much.

If only I could kick the depression. It is probably due to multiple circumstances which are unlikely to change or improve in the foreseeable future, so I'll keep riding it out.

This is the start of your recovery. Hopefully you will be feeling like your old self soon. I hope it is a smooth journey for you.

Hi Comets,

Love your story dude. Acceptance and mindfullness are two of my main strategies for coping and overcoming my anxiety. Takes time for the skills to take affect, but once practiced and given plenty of breathing space to develop can be very effective.

Muddleee

Hi Lind779! This is such a lovely idea to share our struggles and joys together!

My story starts out a little unexpected. Growing up, I was the happy, smiley girl who always shared a relentless positivity, hope and optimism for the world. I didn't take life too seriously, and I was a lover of all things fun! Because of this however, nobody expected it when i said i was struggling. For a long time, I didn't really feel like i was taken seriously, and my mates, didn't really know how to help me. My family told me, oh don't worry, be happy which is super hard when you're stressed! When i got to school however, I experienced a lot of awful bullying, grief and physical abuse which really took a hit to my self esteem and confidence! I became more quiet, introverted and i bottled up a lot of awful feelings of discouragement and worthlessness inside, and I felt really alone. It was horrible. I began to over think situations, and believed that nothing could feel right again, that i was now sad, and a total loser which was honestly so far from the truth! In reality, I was a great artist, a writer, I played lots of sports and learned piano, violin, flute, guitar, drums, ukulele and did singing lessons. I had a great family, and a few friends who were a great support network during this time. Everything seemed great right?! On the outside, I was totally fine, but on the inside I was experiencing doubts, and I slowly slipped into a pattern of low self esteem, where I never truly felt like I was good enough. I became ambitious, I strove for more, I compared myself to others and I stopped caring for my body and my health. This took a massive hit for me during my university years, as i felt so behind the crowd as a result of the struggles i've been bottling up for years. Because of my low self confidence, I couldn't find work, get my license or engage in positive relationships. I had regular panic attacks and felt like a total failure. I saw the counsellor at uni, and that helped me to deal with study stress, but ultimately i still felt at a total loss. Until my third year of uni. It was in my third year of uni that i truly learned what self care meant. I saw a new psychologist who was a huge help to me, and helped me to understand my struggles, my battles and to empathise with myself and my past experiences, to learn to catch the negative thoughts and recognise the positive reality, that hey life is actually a blessing and really great and that I am actually good enough.

Hi lind779,

Bit of a postitive storie from myself.

I was struggling with everything from my day to day life because of anxiety. I was unable to function like a rational person and quickly became depressed. I have lost my apartment. My day job. And a relationship because of this state. But i have begun to heal drastically by talking to my gp and a councilor(she is fantastic!!) Slowly but surley everything is falling back into place in my mind and i am not afraid anymore. But i will keep pushing to be well again.

I am in the same situation even started clomid which I do not reccomend for anyone with anxiety as the symptoms are 10x worse hence i stopped and now don’t even want to try for a baby until I get my panic attacks under control.

Hopefully with some luck they settle down and try again good luck though and I honestly hope they settle for you soon as I think panic attacks have to be one of the most awful things to go through

Hello Kristie 8

Welcome to the forums and good on you for having the courage to post too!

Im sorry that you are going through such a bad time with these awful anxiety attacks.

I understand you pain as I started having chronic anxiety in 1983 when I was 23 and they were awful to have

The Good News! My chronic anxiety did decrease after I had a few months of visits to my counselor and GP...Its a hard road but the panic attacks do lessen in frequency and intensity

Its just my experience but super frequent counseling did help a lot. I have been on an SSRI antidepressant when the anxiety became worse and the meds and counseling combined helped so much

When you are up to it you are more than welcome to post your own thread under the 'Anxiety' heading if you wish as you will have heaps of people who have the same anxiety offer their support to you Kristie

The forums are a rock solid safe place to post and are also non judgemental too :-)

I hope you can stick around...the forums also have social threads like the Beyond Blue Cafe or the Christmas Chillout Lounge too if you want to take it slow

You are not alone here

My Kind thoughts

Paul

I'm trying to hold on to the idea of being an ideal candidate for a job interview (even if all I do is go outside to do some gardening or go to the shops). If I wake up when the house is quiet, I'll try to find some positive quotes or songs to quietly listen to so i get up out of bed.
Even if I'm slouching around the house all day, I'll dress up a bit. I've just had my hair cut and had a bit of a wardrobe makeover - nothing huge, just a bit of colour added in. But this is helping.

I love looking at colourful flowers or just watching birds enjoy their bird bath when I'm feeling yuck. That often changes my mindset and mood a bit.

When in a panic, I try to remember my toes or visualise going to the beach on a warm (not hot!) day. Its tough, but if we can try, things will get a bit better :D

Good luck everyone

Hi All!

I thought I'd share a positive story in the hopes it will provide some inspiration. I am struggling a bit right now, but not with anxiety.

I've had 2 major periods of severe anxiety - and extremely severe panic attacks, to the point of not being able to breathe, not being able to eat, being force fed food by my family, and being prescribed strong anti depressants, which I used for 6 days and promptly removed of my own free will (NEVER do this without the appropriate knowledge/support/understanding).

I just ended a 10 year relationship, a few weeks ago. It was a very interesting scenario - but essentially I was acting as a carer, and the love we had became twisted, skewed, and had a severe lack of actual intimacy. By intimacy, I mean attraction to me, making out, strong and passionate sexual contact...

We started an open sexual relationship in the last couple of years which worked in many ways, but did NOT in a lot of ways. The reason for all of this was that he cheated on me 5 years ago, because he was not attracted to me anymore. Why he didn't leave (or why I didn't) is beyond me, but anyway...

The positive here, is that I have confidence. I gained my confidence, and I have self worth. I tried as hard as I could to pull myself of my severe panic episodes, which occurred about a year ago (and I posted about them) mainly due to some financial distress I put myself into for the both of us, and some moral and ethical dilemmas I was having in life. There was also the intimacy and love problem but that was very much low on my priorities, because of my confidence.

Essentially - I don't really know how to convey what I did, but I know that countless hours of research - knowledge, and open communication was key. Real communication. Conversations with people who want to listen to you. Speak about your interests, your thoughts, your feelings on the world and on society as a whole. It really helped me with perspective, and it helped me to have my own self validation - which I don't know if I needed or not - but I knew I wanted.

In short - I think open and respectful communication is the key to a lot of heartache, and I can't stress enough that you need to locate people who understand you and will listen and appreciate your thoughts on life, on struggles we all go through. We are a collective conscience and I really hope we can all work together to remain happy as individuals.

Hello everyone!

I wanted to share my experience in overcoming anxiety and mental health issues. I had severe anxiety and ocd which came on suddenly so I knew it had to be a chemical imbalance in my body. After 1.5 years of trying many things I cleared it and I can confidently say I have overcome it to live normally. I hope I can help others with my information. I did dry fasting (no food no water between sunrise and sunset). I could feel the mental health issues lift rapidly. It's not easy to fast (but mental health issues are sooooo much worse) and not everyone can do it so check with your health professional first. I did 30 days straight plus I tried to do two days a week which is what my religion (I'm Muslim) teaches - Ramadan plus extra fasting during the week. I sincerely hope this info helps anyone out there struggling! :)

Wow. One of the things I’ve learnt is that we will struggle to conquer our anxiety until we understand it. And I really think - from reading this - that you understand yours. Good on you!

I’ve heard talking to your anxiety works but that just makes me feel crazy which is what I’m trying not to feel lol.

What works for me is baths, counselling, writing in my journal, meditation (#1 choice), going for a walk and reading/listening to feel the fear and do it anyway. That book changed my life!

From the book, I learnt that everyone feels fear but in different ways and that we will feel fear most times we grow as a person or experience something out of our comfort zone.

But the most important thing that book has taught me is that underneath EVERY fear, it is the belief that we can’t handle it. I find that if I say “I’ll handle it” to whatever “what if?” scenario in my head, it really helps. I feel stronger too

However, something may work for someone and not for others. It’s a personal thing I guess.

Although I hate my anxiety some days, I wouldn’t be as strong and brave as I am without it. So I kind of thank it in a way.

I have moments when my anxiety plays up but for the most part, I’m stable and extremely happy with life.

Congrats to you for doing what you have and hope you continue being brave and strong and loving yourself. Confidence is a beautiful thing everyone should have!

Sarah x

Hi everyone. I’m sitting here thinking about how hard life has been over the past 10 years. All the horrible mornings not wanting to get out of bed. When I do get out of bed – I don’t want to eat anything. I can’t actually leave the house and to be honest it’s a struggle to even leave my room. When I’m finally able to get out of the house and go to the supermarket – crowds make me anxious, so I start feeling weak, dizzy – a choking sensation and a tight chest. In a matter of seconds I lose control and run away feeling completely helpless, in front of friends, family, everyone. I’m all alone, I feel completely out of control like I’m going to die. Nobody understands what is going on inside my body and it’s the most isolating horrible feeling ever. I stay up all night sweating and paranoid about the next day.

I tried everything from CBT, Chinese medicine, Benzos, therapists etc. and eventually started taking a medication which I’ve been on for 3 years. I know there are side effects but I am SO much happier, I can live my life to the fullest and I am so thankful I finally found a way to live my life again.

I used to speak to people on this forum and it helped me so much, so I wanted to be open and share my experience so I can help others

Hey all,

Firsts things first, I do love this idea of sharing stories as it can bring us all together and help fight such a nasty illness.

I was diagnosed with a mild case of anxiety all thanks to University. My first ever anxiety attack came out of the blue two months ago while I was having tea, I thought I was having a heart attack, it's scary enough when you are not sure on what is happening to you. I then went to see my GP the very next day and tests were run, bloods were all clear and an ECG was performed and heart was healthy, so I did not have one. I was told to take it easy for the next week or 2 and see how I went, unfortunately not much of an improvement as a few weeks later, I had another major attack that was that that bad, it ended up sending me to the ER, again tests performed and was clear. I went to my GP a few days later and said due to all the feelings I was describing to him, I was then officially diagnosed with a mild case of anxiety.
My Dr wanted to put me on medication (which I did not really want to go on as it was not as bad but he wanted to trial it). Took the medication for 2 days, body immediately rejected it and I could not eat for a few days and being underweight already was not a risk he wanted to take, so the Dr took me off of them quick ( no nasty symptoms followed) . He told me to take a Multi Vitamin, especially one rich in B vitamins, which has helped, but it does take a bit of time to notice the effect, usually a month if taking one everyday.

I went to see a Councillor at my Uni (as we get 6 free sessions per yr, and if you are a Uni Student I strongly recommend you use this valuable service as it has helped me out a lot of dealing with anxiety) and he has given me some mindfulness exercises to do via an app called Koru, it's a 4 week program but I have seen results within the first week but it is something that will take a long time to master especially as it is training the mind to bring it into the 'now' and not wonder off a lot which mind tended to do for the first week or two.
My Councillor has pointed to it was my uni course that was causing it and one teacher in particular as I feel so unsettled and uneasy with and I can feel an attack brewing in his presence so I will be taking to the course coordinator to see if I can have another teacher.

Currently, I might get one small anxiety attack once every 2 or 3 weeks and I have managed to calm myself down before one happens.

Hi All,

This is my story.

I am a hypochondriac. To be honest, I am actually quite healthy ( could shred a few kilo's at the most ) however anything that involves doctors visits, which is routine check-ups for the most parts freaked me out.

I want to talk about my most recent story - The Dentist. The last time I had gone to a dentist I was 21, I am currently 46 - that is a long time.

My main reason for never going is a complete fear of dentists - this is due partly to bad experiences as a child which I never truly dealt with. To make matters more challenging, I work in health insurance so I get to see both the costs of what dental procedures can be, see daily what wonderful dental conditions exist, the potential consequences of having condition A,B or C and the time taken to have said procedure. Unless I wanted to change job's I simply can't escape it.

Anyway, recently I decided I really should go.

I rang up and made an appointment with a dentist, initially during my lunch break at work. My first action was to ring back a day later and change the booking to a date that I was on annual leave. In my head I justified that it would be better as I don't need to "rush" at lunch time when I am on holiday's, but let's face it, it was really just an excuse to not go.

I was on leave for two weeks, the first week I wouldn't be home so initially I made the appointment to the Wednesday of the second week ( which is today actually ).

So how do you think my anxiety was ? absolutely peaking !! My biggest fear was that of the "unknown", since I hadn't gone in such a long time I was thinking "what could I have ?" I was looking at my teeth all the time and brushing them to the point of obsession. My gums were bleeding, so it was time to contact old' Dr Google - I had everything from severe gum disease to cancer. From the moment I booked my appointment, that was all I could think about and it was ruining my holiday and driving my wife crazy in the process.

Fast forward to Monday on the second week of my holiday's. I just wanted to get it over with. For this reason, I picked up the phone and changed the appointment to go on Monday afternoon instead of Wednesday.

I walked into that dentist and sat on "that" chair. It was nowhere as bad as I first envisioned. I conquered one of my greatest fears - that feels awesome ! I now have a totally different attitude and plan to look after my teeth ( every six months getting that checkup and clean). You can do it too : )

Hi there :) I also have been diagnosed with anxiety recently. And I do suffer from periods of very low. And I really hate my panic attacks. But I have decided to change my life around in order to cope with life without medicine cause parents don't believe in mental health and doctors don't want to give me medicine. Some of the stuff I employ is:

1. Maintaining humour. Trying to put things into perspectives. If I cant do anything about it, then I will try not to think about it.

2. Striving to maintain a work-life balance. Know my limits and know when to take a break.

3. Maintain and encourage a strong supportive family and friendship circle. Reach out to close and trusted friends.

4. Find some things that make you happy.

It is hard. And I do find it hard to remain happy. But I keep thinking of my parents and close friends and I tell myself to live for them. And if that fails, I tell myself, that I have made it so far in life. And that I have a long way to go. I need to learn how to handle with life pressures.

Dear SourceShield,

Thanks for your positive story. I really needed to hear this at the moment. And thank you for reminding me of the power of music and song. I found singing helps to get me out of my head when I'm in a cycle of thoughts. This morning it was Florence and The Machine and Washington which helped me.

When you're out there busking again with The Wolfhound, just think of us, this community clapping you along.

Bluehorseshoes