41–50 of 71 posts
Used to have panic attacks and constant anxiety (without knowing what they are and what was wrong with me) every day for about 2 years triggered by a bad cannabis experience . Turned out I was predespositioned and it runs in my dads family. It started to mix with depression. 7 Years later I still sometimes get panic attacks and anxiety and dystonic thoughts, especially when my perceived stress is high (I work as a fr…
It didn't take a lot of analysis to figure out the implications of that pattern. Everyone is different, but sometimes it may be fair to say that the root cause is work.
I started a Silicon Valley FANG job about two years ago. I now wake up early most mornings with anxiety. I’m close to 40 years old, and this is the first time in my life I’ve experienced this. I’ve wondered if the pandemic and quarantining has exacerbated this. I don’t have much going on in my life right now besides work, and get little human contact beyond Zoom calls with my coworkers.
One thing that helped me manage anxiety was to monitor my caffeine consumption more closely. I found that if I went over a certain threshold (> 4-5 cups of espresso) my overall functioning was pretty severely impacted. Sometimes this resulted in me waking up super stressed and not relaxed at all in the morning and not getting enough sleep overall. Now I have a strict no coffee/tea after 14:00-15:00 policy. If I feel…
Yeah if I go over 2 double-espresso's... there's no purpose for it at that point. I just get tweaky, can't sit still.
Caffeine is much stronger than society lets on.
I have been able to: 1. Reason my way out of anxiety. 2. Take my mind off anxiety by visualizing myself surf the perfect wave. 3. Box breathing. #2 is very effective in going back to sleep and has yet to get old / used up after years of use.
I just wanted to chime in to say that #1 can be a very counterproductive strategy in the long run. The most important idea I can convey about anxiety is this: if you aren’t willing to face your fears, your anxiety will probably escalate over time. (Fortunately, the inverse is true as well!) Reasoning one’s way out of anxiety is an attempt to avoid fear. Fear asks: “what if X happens to me?” Avoidance is an attempt to…
for me reasoning about something that made me anxious means to find the positive things that i can do if that thing does happen.
if i miss the deadline, then the pressure is off. it's only money, i'll need to reduce spending but i'll survive. the customer might cancel their contract? well, at least i don't have to deal with that jerk anymore. actually, why don't cancel the contract?
in other words rationalizing is to realize that X is not as bad as i think it is because or Y. not that it can't happen, but that it will happen, and that i can deal with it.
now i got a plan how to deal with X and so now i no longer need to be anxious about it.
Used to have panic attacks and constant anxiety (without knowing what they are and what was wrong with me) every day for about 2 years triggered by a bad cannabis experience . Turned out I was predespositioned and it runs in my dads family. It started to mix with depression. 7 Years later I still sometimes get panic attacks and anxiety and dystonic thoughts, especially when my perceived stress is high (I work as a fr…
Which app do you use for eating?
Used to have panic attacks and constant anxiety (without knowing what they are and what was wrong with me) every day for about 2 years triggered by a bad cannabis experience . Turned out I was predespositioned and it runs in my dads family. It started to mix with depression. 7 Years later I still sometimes get panic attacks and anxiety and dystonic thoughts, especially when my perceived stress is high (I work as a fr…
Are you using a kind of self-administered EMDR for short term stress relief?
Used to have panic attacks and constant anxiety (without knowing what they are and what was wrong with me) every day for about 2 years triggered by a bad cannabis experience . Turned out I was predespositioned and it runs in my dads family. It started to mix with depression. 7 Years later I still sometimes get panic attacks and anxiety and dystonic thoughts, especially when my perceived stress is high (I work as a fr…
Having strong anxiety (from family and especially a bad mushroom experience that let me wrecked), I can only strongly recommend Escapadl advice. The best combination has been cutting sugar definitely plus a lot of sports (freeletics + a lot of running. Running helps A LOT) You can't imagine how sugar affects anxiety before cutting it entirely. This is insane. Just having some sugar raises my anxiety for a few days. J…
I vividly remember one day around that time I was on my way to a therapy session and I started crying in joy while on my bike, literally sobbing because I was so happy about how much my life has improved simply by changing this one variable. I went from "I don't know if I can live like this another year" to "I love my life and I can accept my handicap as an occasional unwanted companion but now I define what my life is and not my anxiety".
Therapy: The focus was on techniques from cognitive behavior therapy.
Job: Don't do this if it doesn't make sense for you. I crunched the numbers and found I could last 2 years on my savings without much struggle (I was young, single, and debt free, this was not as much as it sounds as my apartment was cheap). I got another job immediately, though.
Exercise: I found that being healthier reduced my general anxiety and depression symptoms right off the bat. But running, for me, is also incredibly relaxing as it is "mindless". 30-60 minutes of "move a leg, move a leg, breathe, move a leg, move a leg, breathe". Whatever anxiety I left work with disappears after a run. I've maintained a pretty consistent (except for last year, and a couple periods with injuries) exercise routine since discovering this.
For me, creating that clean break at the end of the workday did wonders for my general anxiety but also for my sleep (and poor sleep itself exacerbates anxiety and depression). I was going to bed thinking about technical problems or other work issues (frustrations with project directions, with poor management decisions, etc.), and consequently slept poorly. Letting go of work with my after work runs meant my evenings were mine again, and my sleep significantly improved. Being fitter also improves sleep, at least for me. I kind of let myself go last year, but started exercising again in December. I have been falling asleep faster and sleeping more soundly than any time in 2020.