I’ve been thinking about doing this thread for a while now, and here it is. I got permission from the mods to do it, and I want to make it clear first and foremost that I’m talking about my own personal experience, and anyone else with an anxiety disorder can take my discussion here as something that happened in the real world, but they need to make any changes to medications or things like that with their own doctor’s supervision.
I’ve had an anxiety disorder for about 17 years (generalized anxiety with the very occasional panic attack), and was medicated with SRRIs for about 13 of those years. I consider myself very newly recovered from anxiety disorder. When I say “recovered,” it is very much a short-hand term for “I still have anxiety in anxiety-producing situations, and I always will because it’s a normal human emotion, but I don’t have excessive anxiety that affects my life, I’m not afraid of anxiety any longer, and I am on no medication at all.”
My recovery took about 3 years, and it was very hard work. It consisted of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), going to a self-help support group weekly, reading A LOT of books on anxiety disorders and effective ways to treat them, learning to relax my body and mind, building my self-confidence and self-esteem back up, and being willing to face my fears. Over and over. My doctors always told me that I would be on medication for life, like a diabetic. When I discovered three and a half years ago that it was possible to recover from anxiety, nothing short of recovery would be enough for me - I made a commitment to myself to do whatever it took.
I am now a co-facilitator of the self-help group that I used to go to for help myself, with a couple of other ladies who are also recovered from anxiety disorders themselves. I keep going to group and trying to help other people (and I’m doing this thread) because I don’t like it that so many people are suffering from excessive anxiety, and they don’t know that they don’t have to live like that. The doctors don’t tell them, the media doesn’t tell them, even their therapists don’t seem to tell them.
So, any questions? Comments? Stories of your own anxiety recovery?
If it helps at all, I finished a Psychology degree this year, and CBT was held up as an excellent method of dealing with anxiety disorders (depending on individual cases, etc). I don’t know about now, but perhaps in a few years the general medical community will be more willing to talk about it? (of course, by then, there’ll be new studies showing it sucks, or something. )
Today I got up and didn’t take any medications, and didn’t think about taking any medications, and didn’t worry about having excessive anxiety today or trying to plan my day so I didn’t have to do anything or avoid anything that might cause anxiety. In other words, I’m just living a normal life like a normal person (although you have to be careful throwing that word “normal” around, I know. )
That’s really good to hear - our group feels like voices in the wilderness. I have a few fears that big pharma isn’t really interested in promoting something that actually gets people off their meds (and anxiety disorders are big pharma’s wet dream - your patients don’t get better or die, they just keep filling prescriptions forever and ever). In my opinion, of course.
Good question - CBT is such a combination of things. The most effective CBT technique is probably catching all your negative self-talk and replacing it with more positive ideas, but I think my favourite technique which is incredibly simple and incredibly effective is just saying to myself that I love myself. (Yes, I am aware of how hokey and new-agey that sounds, but I get a lift in my spirits every single time I do it - my face relaxes, my breathing slows down, and I feel a little bit better.) There has been a study done that showed that positive thinking affects the same part of the brain as SSRI medication does. I’m inclined to believe it, having experienced both myself.
I sure can recommend books -
Self-Coaching: How to Heal Anxiety and Depression – Dr. Joseph J. Luciani, Ph.D.
The Power of Self-Coaching – Dr. Joseph J. Luciani, Ph.D.
From Panic to Power - Lucinda Bassett
The Feeling Good Handbook – Dr. David D. Burns, M.D.
Anxiety and Phobia Workbook – Edmund J. Bourne
Coping with Anxiety: Ten Simple Ways to Relieve Anxiety, Fear, and Worry -
Edmund J. Bourne, Lorna Garano
Power over Panic - Bronwyn Fox
Hope and Help for Your Nerves - Dr. Claire Weeks
Worry – Edward M. Hallowell
I’ve read most of these myself. One thing that these books do is they really put anxiety in perspective - it’s not going to kill you, it’s not even going to hurt you, and you don’t have to feel awful forever. I really like Dr. Joseph Luciani’s take on anxiety disorders - he says it’s just a habit. It’s a habit of negative thinking and loss of self-confidence.
I think that most larger centres have anxiety self-help groups that probably are free or with very low fees. Most therapists also have sliding-rate scales, or there are groups that work in the community to provide therapy to lower income people (here in Calgary, there is Catholic Family Services and groups like that to help people). If going to a therapist, make sure they work with CBT rather than just talk therapy. I’m not a big fan of talk therapy these days - rehashing old stuff over and over doesn’t really do much to help you move on in your life from this point forward. At some point you just have to put the old crap away, stop feeling like a victim, and start living your life.
Congratulations on how well you’ve done. I’m pretty anxious myself, but fortunately it never got that bad and I’m OK with living with it. I’ve gone to CBT therapists a few times in my life and it’s always been very helpful and worth the time and money.
The #1 book I’d recommend is* Reinventing your life*, by Jeffrey Young.
Congratulations featherlou, glad to hear you are doing good!
In a way, it is a good thing I bumped into this thread, because for the last month and a half, my life has been miserable, and I think anxiety is what is causing my problems.
My question to you is: did you have any physical side effects as a consequence of your anxiety?
I’m having “heart anxiety issues” and it is really messing meup. I feel pressure in my chest, yet all the doctors I’ve consulted tell me that I am quite fine. I don’t feel fine.
Short answer is no. Longer answer is I don’t worry that I will have an anxiety attack because I’ve dealt with them so many times, and stared them down, that they just don’t have the same power to bother me any more. I’ve made a few changes to my life, too, as part of recovery - doing things one way got me into a condition of heightened anxiety, and changing the way I do some things helps me stay out of that condition. This would be things like not letting myself get too tired or stressed out, eating right, not overextending myself - things that people should basically do anyway.
Breathing exercises are immensely helpful. A lot of people having anxiety are either holding their breath or breathing shallowly way up high in their chest. Learning to breathe from the diaphragm and learning to take deep, relaxing breaths is an instant stress-reducer.
My primary physical symptoms are a tight throat, chest pains, and/or a pounding heart that sometimes stick around for days after the initial attack. Any recommendations for minimizing or ignoring the physical manifestations of anxiety? Was this ever a problem for you? While my attacks are pretty rare now, they still occasionally occur. The more I think about the symptoms being there, the longer the stay, the more aware I am of them, etc.
I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me.
Yeah, it does sound pretty hokey! But it’s an important thing, and I think not a lot of people really get it. It’s not really so much about loving yourself as a) taking responsibility for your own happiness, b) making the commitment to treating your self in the best way possible, and c) accepting yourself exactly the way you are. That last part doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t be open to changing yourself, of course, but you have to start out being OK with the raw materials that life has handed you so far. It’s brutal self-honesty, but in a good way.
One of the most common complaints that people have coming into our anxiety self-help group is that they feel they are going to have a heart attack. If your doctors have cleared you, chances are what you’re feeling is anxiety-related. (The second most common issue is feeling like you’re going crazy.)
My suggestion would be to try CBT and relaxation and see how far that takes you.
My problems were more of the obsessive/negative/scary thought variety more than physical symptoms, but I’d say the tools used to deal with them are the same - you’re absolutely right when you say “ignore” and “minimize.” You can tell yourself things like, “I know what this tightness in my throat is - it’s just stress. I need to relax a bit more and get a few things off my plate.” You can acknowledge that yes, you do feel a tight throat or a pounding heart, but it doesn’t have to be any more than that. That gets into acceptance, which is a huge part of anxiety recovery. I always make a point of saying that acceptance doesn’t mean you have to like what’s happening; it just means that you accept that yes, this is what is going on right now.
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