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Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

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Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#61

Post by _y5hn »

moneywoes wrote: post #28
burlesona wrote: post #6

I noticed as young adult that I didn’t really worry or consciously stress, but my body had somewhat predictable reactions to situations that I would realize, in hindsight, were highly stressful. Those physical reactions sucked, and as they got worse over time, it really concerned me. At some point I was encouraged to go to CBT, which I did, but honestly it made things worse. I became hyper aware of how anxious I was…

>I’ve concluded that the best advice is to learn not to worry about things Any tips with doing this? The thoughts I try to avoid end up in my dreams even if I try my best to distract myself during the day

Don't think about MONKEYS.

Did that help?

You start to think about MONKEYS, even though told not to.

So you have to do the opposite:

Embrace thoughts and feelings, then let them go, or be (Let It Be).

With meditation you can focus on breathing and not thinking. With physical exercise you bring refreshment to your system.

Watch your inputs and outputs! You'll have no time left for anxiety.

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#62

Post by ironmagma »

moneywoes wrote: post #28
burlesona wrote: post #6

I noticed as young adult that I didn’t really worry or consciously stress, but my body had somewhat predictable reactions to situations that I would realize, in hindsight, were highly stressful. Those physical reactions sucked, and as they got worse over time, it really concerned me. At some point I was encouraged to go to CBT, which I did, but honestly it made things worse. I became hyper aware of how anxious I was…

>I’ve concluded that the best advice is to learn not to worry about things Any tips with doing this? The thoughts I try to avoid end up in my dreams even if I try my best to distract myself during the day

One solution is to make it so you don’t need to worry about things. Keeping a maintained calendar, to-do list, or simply dumping responsibility for some things (e.g. selling a car) can help.

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#63

Post by _y5hn »

zepto wrote: post #53
tern wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think mindfulness here is meant as a synonym for a particular type of meditation. This article is broadly correct from my perspective—we should approach meditation with some caution, because it is not a well-defined self-therapy modality. It's quite possible, with the wrong practice instruction, to end up hurting yourself, or just getting nowhere. Meditation—and even just mindfulness meditation—is a domain of pract…

> I recommend working with a qualified teacher in a spiritual tradition. These practitioners will have extensive training (at least decades) and will be drawing from a few thousand years of careful study of the effects of meditation (as found in Buddhist and Yogic/Hindu documents and oral traditions). How many teachers actually have this, and how can one know that the one you’ve chosen is one of them?

You will notice you have lots to learn and experience that gives you something. No teacher is forever, except life itself perhaps.

It has more to do with the "student".

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#64

Post by Zelphyr »

QuercusMax wrote: post #41
scorxn wrote: post #36

I was almost 30 when I had my first ever panic attack. I was alone and convinced it was a heart attack, called 911, and felt fine by the time the ambulance reached the hospital. Embarrassed, I was ready to brush it off, but instead saw a therapist for the first time. She took out a stopwatch and had me breathe through a narrow straw. Within seconds, my face and limbs went completely numb; I couldn't move, and was ama…

Why did breathing through the straw cause that reaction?

Simply breathing through a straw may not do it. My therapist had me run up and down a flight of stairs for about 30 seconds and then breathe through a straw cut down to about 3 inches while holding my nostrils closed.

Your body thinks you're not getting enough oxygen. You're getting plenty, it's just that it all coming through that tiny hole tricks your body and that triggers panic sensations. Doing that several times exposes you to those sensations and you eventually get used to it and allows you to manage more intense sensations.

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#65

Post by singingfish »

I have a close friend with an autism diagnosis who has a very unusual relationship between their brain and the rest of their body. One of the consequences of this is that they become very anxious and get trapped in a nasty anxiety vicious cycle that can last several days.

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#66

Post by franklyt »

Your body and mind are one.

It is scientifically inaccurate to believe otherwise.

This isn’t a pedantic point: the mind/body distinction is pseudoscience that used to be believed widely in scientific circles. This readjustment hasn’t really reached common practice yet.

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#67

Post by zests »

burlesona wrote: post #6

I noticed as young adult that I didn’t really worry or consciously stress, but my body had somewhat predictable reactions to situations that I would realize, in hindsight, were highly stressful. Those physical reactions sucked, and as they got worse over time, it really concerned me. At some point I was encouraged to go to CBT, which I did, but honestly it made things worse. I became hyper aware of how anxious I was…

I've realized a lot of the same things. My understanding now is that it is the physical feelings themselves that are the stress. Managing stress is about learning to identify it and then learning how to best take care of it (which you can only do when you are first aware of the stress and the toll it is having on you.)

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#68

Post by Zelphyr »

A form of CBT that has been shown to be particularly effective at anxiety and panic is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). If you've been struggling with anxiety, I highly recommend seeking out a therapist who has been trained in ACT.

You can also read and watch anything produced by Dr. Stephen C. Hayes, one of the therapists who developed ACT. He did so himself due to panic and anxiety and this was after becoming a psychologist. The whole field is quite fascinating.

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#69

Post by neitherboosh »

Barrin92 wrote: post #11

I think the advice of focusing on how to turn anxiety symptoms down and moderate physical responses are fine, but it's kind of missing the point, at least for serious cases of anxiety. I suffered pretty badly from it in my early 20s (apparently typical age for this kind of stuff), and you go very quickly from particular anxiety attacks being the issue, to fear of anxiety itself being the bigger issue. An anxiety/pani…

What you described sounds a lot like what I’ve been going thru, especially the part about “fear of anxiety itself being the bigger issue”. Have things gotten better for you?

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#70

Post by [deleted] »

burlesona wrote: post #6

I noticed as young adult that I didn’t really worry or consciously stress, but my body had somewhat predictable reactions to situations that I would realize, in hindsight, were highly stressful. Those physical reactions sucked, and as they got worse over time, it really concerned me. At some point I was encouraged to go to CBT, which I did, but honestly it made things worse. I became hyper aware of how anxious I was…

[deleted]
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