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Ask HN: Anxiety is limiting my enjoyment of a wonderful career. Can you relate?

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Re: Ask HN: Anxiety is limiting my enjoyment of a wonderful career. Can you relate?

#71

Post by celadon »

robg wrote: post #36
awaythrow15 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do appreciate the suggestion, and I wholeheartedly agree that therapy can be a powerful tool. As can medication! I've had mixed success with both. I wanted to take that off the table for this particular discussion, as a thread filled with "seek professional help" didn't seem like it'd be a useful one for the community (or for me).

Keep in mind that confiding in and talking with close friends is a good form of therapy.

I have to object to this. Friends can be an invaluable support. But they are not professionals, and I've been on both sides of friendships where trying to use a friend as a pseudo-therapist strained the relationship too much. It's also far too easy to temporarily relieve the burden of an anxious mind by talking to a friend, but most friends are not trained—and are not good at—helping someone find concrete ways to overcome their anxieties.

Talking about your troubles isn't the same thing as facing them, and good therapists are all about making you stronger and more resilient. More capable of facing your fears when you don't have someone to lean on. This is a very, very valuable thing.

Re: Ask HN: Anxiety is limiting my enjoyment of a wonderful career. Can you relate?

#72

Post by specialist »

Have you checked your cortisol levels?

TMI: I have a chronic life threatening illness.

Unlike you, I didn't realize I was anxious. Until it was gone.

I also have terrible insomnia. The root cause for me is adrenal fatigue.

I did a bunch of different things to get my cortisol, adrenal function, and insulin levels to "normal" cycle. I continue to work with my family doctor, a naturopath, and a nutritionist to find strategies that work for me. There isn't a cure-all. But stuff like anxiety, stress, insomnia are certainly managebale.

Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: Anxiety is limiting my enjoyment of a wonderful career. Can you relate?

#73

Post by malkia »

I'm feeling the same (on a new job since december last year), but knowing that many others went through the same, or feel still this way kind of helps, that I'm not at least isolated. It's topic openly discussed, talked and there are people that can help you (haven't used them yet, I always try to do things by my way first, then ask for help (might need to change that behaviour)).

So maybe if the company somehow has topics on this nature, internal memos/notes/guides/mentors - then this could help... If nothing else, only by knowing that you are not alone in this, and it might be something that happens.

I really don't know how to help you, since I'm feeling this way (And gosh, I came especially to this company to learn new things - and hell, I'm glad - I've learned so much and still excited... but need to get on my productivity...)

Re: Ask HN: Anxiety is limiting my enjoyment of a wonderful career. Can you relate?

#74

Post by OldSchoolJohnny »

awaythrow15 wrote: post #8
davidkim wrote: post #2

I've struggled with anxiety for as long as I can remember. I used to approached it with a fight or flight relationship. As I shifted my ways of identifying with it, I was able to turn that fight/hostility into a gentle dance. From there I was able to start taking the small steps that would help me have better control of it. Start now, or do I let it manifest further for my future self? Here are some things that have…

Thanks for your thoughts! It's great to hear from others who are experiencing these feelings, and I've also found meditation and sleep to be fundamental. The fight/flight response is a cool way of characterizing the difficulty of running away from and/or resisting these feelings.

As someone who has had that flight / flight response many times as a result of anxiety I think that poster was being literal, not figurative. Also, thank you for posting this; though I've come to learn to manage my condition with sleep, exercise and mindfulness meditation it's nice to see the other thoughts on the subject and see that many others are helped by the same things I've come to over many many years working on this on my own.

Re: Ask HN: Anxiety is limiting my enjoyment of a wonderful career. Can you relate?

#75

Post by brokespoke »

I was at the point where I was getting short of breath delivering status in meetings...so I started meditating + exercising which definitely helped.

The biggest thing, however, that ended up helping was that I had to give two 5 min presentations in front of about 100 people. I practiced for a couple of hours, got super stressed out and a little nervous during the presentations, but got through it.

And now...the day to day anxiety is much less. I think my anxiety meter got reset at a much higher level so most interactions now are not a big deal. So it helped to lean in to the problem rather than try to minimize it.

Re: Ask HN: Anxiety is limiting my enjoyment of a wonderful career. Can you relate?

#76

Post by free2rhyme214 »

I'm in sales and I probably have more anxiety than you.

The best way to deal with anxiety is to realize what's going on right now is not really that much of a big deal in the long term. If you can adopt an attitude of not caring as much, you'll find work is easier or at least for me it has been when I changed my mentality.

Re: Ask HN: Anxiety is limiting my enjoyment of a wonderful career. Can you relate?

#77

Post by ca98am79 »

I highly recommend a 10-day vipassana meditation course. It's free: http://dhamma.org

I had panic disorder and nothing helped. Sometimes I would lie awake all night panicking, without sleep, until morning. Medications or therapy didn't help. Vipassana meditation has basically "cured" it/made it completely manageable.

Also, consciousness.io helps me

Re: Ask HN: Anxiety is limiting my enjoyment of a wonderful career. Can you relate?

#78

Post by robg »

this_is_not_me wrote: post #70
robg wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you getting enough sleep and exercise? Meditation? The brain is a muscle like any other.

Plenty. I am on a tight sleep schedule, I sleep well mostly. I run 80-100 km a week. I don't meditate. I tried Headspace for a week, but it didn't do much for me.

Might be time to talk to a CBT specialist. Think of it like physical therapy for the brain. It actually changes connectivity patterns.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19622682

Re: Ask HN: Anxiety is limiting my enjoyment of a wonderful career. Can you relate?

#79

Post by robg »

celadon wrote: post #71
robg wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that confiding in and talking with close friends is a good form of therapy.

I have to object to this. Friends can be an invaluable support. But they are not professionals, and I've been on both sides of friendships where trying to use a friend as a pseudo-therapist strained the relationship too much. It's also far too easy to temporarily relieve the burden of an anxious mind by talking to a friend, but most friends are not trained—and are not good at—helping someone find concrete ways to ove…

I didn't mean to imply an either-or. Sometimes the stigma of a mental health professional is too great a burden.

Re: Ask HN: Anxiety is limiting my enjoyment of a wonderful career. Can you relate?

#80

Post by enraged_camel »

ca98am79 wrote: post #77

I highly recommend a 10-day vipassana meditation course. It's free: http://dhamma.org I had panic disorder and nothing helped. Sometimes I would lie awake all night panicking, without sleep, until morning. Medications or therapy didn't help. Vipassana meditation has basically "cured" it/made it completely manageable. Also, consciousness.io helps me

>>I highly recommend a 10-day vipassana meditation course. It's free: http://dhamma.org

It's always hilarious when people recommend this to those who have not even done meditation. It's like they say they are thirsty and you say, "here, you can drink from this fire-hose!"

The guy is at a stage where he can benefit from even just 30 minutes of meditation per week. I think it's highly irresponsible to suggest he drops everything he's doing to go to some ten day meditation retreat...

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