Anxiety

  On 3/29/2012 at 4:59 AM, lumpenprol said:

  On 3/29/2012 at 4:40 AM, Franklin said:

I'll be on watmm usually at night at least for 30 mins and can respond.

 

for longer sessions, he can be found after hours on the Minecraft server. Payment in diamonds in advance. One month's treatment for a "fortune +5" diamond pick.

Creepers would undoubtedly bring on another panic attack.. this sounds like a terrible idea..

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

  On 3/27/2012 at 9:52 AM, AcrossCanyons said:

Please fell free to post them. I'm interested in hearing how everybody deals with it, if not for me, just for general interest purposes.

Well, Atop already gave one of my best answers, which is whatever works for you. If you keep trying stuff, you're in the right frame of mind. If something bothers you, try to fix it. Just trying usually feels good.

I was going to say that you could try focusing on your body and senses more. Stress & anxiety manifest in my body but begin in my mind. They grow out of control when I assume they are part of who I am. When I focus on what I'm actively perceiving at the moment - the pressure of the keyboard, the breeze through my window - stress melts away because it is false, just the product of an overactive mind.

For some people, this will come easily, and they can become closer to their true selves almost overnight. It took a long process of trial and error for me, and never did I learn more than when I was in error.

The easiest thing I can leave you with is a deep breathing trick. If you expand your diaphragm as you breathe through your nose (some people call them "belly breaths"), you'll do your body great good. You can take in about 30% more air this way. Your lungs function more easily because they're not straining against your ribs. It massages the abdominal organs and digestive tract, resulting in increased bloodflow to those organs and better digestion. It also encourages better posture since it's easier to breathe with your back straight. You can try this while you're waiting for something or when you catch yourself thinking about something that doesn't matter. I have a church near me that chimes loudly every 15 minutes - this used to annoy me no end. Now I use it as a reminder to breathe this way and I enjoy the bells.

The mdma thing.

I've only had one, but relatively massive panic attack. I was doing mdma like you once a month for a fairly long period of time, one night out in London I took my usual dosage and didin't think anything of it, the next day I was travelling home on the tube (I'd crashed at a mates house) and I started freaking out. I can't describe it now as it was about 6 years ago but I remember being hit will a wall of sheer panic and claustrophobia. It just came out of nowhere, I just had to sit there and ride it out, after about 10 minutes it just dissapeared and I returned to normal. It wasn't very nice at all. 100% it was down to the mdma.

As far as I've experienced, anxiety is worse than depression. Then again, I've had much more anxiety than depression; the last couple of days I've woken up freaking out about my Chinese classes and how I don't study enough.

Lately i've been feeling just about the opposite of anxious.. downright manic happy almost. I continue to eat a paleo diet and experience an extremely stable mood, especially once introducing fat soluble nutrients and upping my consumption of quality animal fats. I've even been laughing randomly at nothing occasionally, like I get hit with joyous feelings in small waves. It's both supremely awesome and.. kind of weird. LOL

I really don't know what contributes to my mental problems but they come back fast if I start eating grain based foods.. Whether wheat proteins, lectins, the fact that processed food is full of sugar, etc.. I honestly could not tell you. I don't think the refined vegetable oils those foods are cooked with has much to do with it. I'm feasting on real food 24/7 now and eating absolutely nothing that would rob my body of the nutrients contained. Allowing my brain to source what it needs is probably the biggest contributing factor to my mental problems going away.

Thing is paleo diet is fairly encompassing.. There's days where i'm practically eating vegan, eating raw fruit like a maniac and rarely meat. Others i'm eating extremely carnivorous, downing meat by the pounds. It would also be considered gluten-free, dairy free, sugar free, etc.. I would be especially curious to reintroduce grain back into my diet and see what happens. As of now i've had zero of the stuff for many months.

i think we're living in a world largely dominated by narcissists and deluded phony assholes.

i mean, that exists to a large extent in all of us. i'm just noticing that those in dominant and so called 'high social positions' often have that sort of a characteristic.

I'm finding now that the best path for me is to find love in myself and to cherish that needing not to broadcast it, being myself silently offering myself to others and ignoring the loud mouth motherfuckers that are dominating every aspect of everything I can see for miles. then again they're good too, they just tend to get in my HEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haha. anyway.

can anyone attempt to describe a first hand experience of "depersonalization"? The way it's used in this thread, I keep thinking depression, but wiki says

  Quote

an anomaly of the mechanism by which an individual has self-awareness. It is a feeling of watching oneself act, while having no control over a situation.^[1] Sufferers feel they have changed, and the world has become less real, vague, dreamlike, or lacking in significance. It can be a disturbing experience, since many feel that, indeed, they are living in a "dream".

I think I have my own way of understanding this, but some people sound like they are referring to it as almost a mental problem, and some are referring to it as an unbiased perceptual capability, im trying to understand what that's like.

well that wiki quote also says "sufferers" and "disturbing experience" :p I don't see how anyone used it in place of 'depression'.

it is a mental problem if you find it unpleasant and/or if it makes you an unpleasant person to be around. so yeah, it's not necessarily a problem.

  On 3/30/2012 at 10:45 AM, david said:

I think I have my own way of understanding this, but some people sound like they are referring to it as almost a mental problem, and some are referring to it as an unbiased perceptual capability, im trying to understand what that's like.

It could be either, really. I think it happens to everyone occasionally, and some people don't mind it as much as others. My friend doesn't mind depersonalization at all, actually, so long as it isn't coupled with anxiety (which SSSUUUUCCCKKKSSS). It means about what it says; like you're in a dream; like you're going through the actions of life in third person.

Dissociation is about the same as depersonalization, right?

  On 3/30/2012 at 10:45 AM, david said:

can anyone attempt to describe a first hand experience of "depersonalization"? The way it's used in this thread, I keep thinking depression, but wiki says

 

  Quote

an anomaly of the mechanism by which an individual has self-awareness. It is a feeling of watching oneself act, while having no control over a situation.^[1] Sufferers feel they have changed, and the world has become less real, vague, dreamlike, or lacking in significance. It can be a disturbing experience, since many feel that, indeed, they are living in a "dream".

 

I think I have my own way of understanding this, but some people sound like they are referring to it as almost a mental problem, and some are referring to it as an unbiased perceptual capability, im trying to understand what that's like.

I forget about it sometimes but as soon as it comes up it has me thinking "I actually just did that - that happened", like I floated through the whole situation unknowingly at the time. I look at things and I really try to focus in on them that they are real but they seem distant. Something just feels constantly "off".

I went away for a few days with my girlfriend a month or so ago and had one of the best times of my life but when I think about it it feels fractured and blurry despite remembering it clearly, almost like I wasn't there, and that makes me incredibly sad.

It's very hard to describe so excuse me if I'm not doing a very good job. It just makes things seem "blurry" and I don't feel entirely connected to my body or surroundings.

  On 3/30/2012 at 11:15 AM, tauboo said:

well that wiki quote also says "sufferers" and "disturbing experience" :p I don't see how anyone used it in place of 'depression'.

 

it is a mental problem if you find it unpleasant and/or if it makes you an unpleasant person to be around. so yeah, it's not necessarily a problem.

It's definitely unpleasant, and I'd say its definitely a problem.

Visited the doctor today and he told me to have a paper bag by me incase I feel it coming on but other than that just said to let him know if it happens again. I didn't mention the depersonalization.

  On 4/4/2012 at 2:46 PM, AcrossCanyons said:

I didn't mention the depersonalization.

why not?

  On 4/4/2012 at 2:46 PM, AcrossCanyons said:

Visited the doctor today and he told me to have a paper bag by me incase I feel it coming on but other than that just said to let him know if it happens again. I didn't mention the depersonalization.

isn't that what is bothering you the most?

i told him i had had signs of anxiety for a few years when he was questioning me but we didn't go into the details and the conversation passed that point quickly, then i felt a bit awkward and just asked him about hayfever tablets and left when he signed me a prescription. i'll see how it rides out for a while longer and if it gets on top of me again i know i can always go back. there is a mental health clinic literally across the road from where i live so i might see if i can get an appointment there instead of through my regular GP, but I'm not sure if I have to be referred through him or not.

you need to be totally honest with your doctor, including your drug use. if you feel uncomfortable with that, then find a new doctor.

I'm curious as to what people think (almost curious enough to start a poll, but not quite) about anxiety vs. depression. Which is worse/harder to handle? I guess they're not things that are necessarily easy to compare, but in my book anxiety is much worse. Especially when it's bad and you feel like the world is going to end or something. But then I guess I've never had severe depression (I don't think, at least), so maybe I would find that worse.

  On 4/8/2012 at 6:54 PM, gmanyo said:

I'm curious as to what people think (almost curious enough to start a poll, but not quite) about anxiety vs. depression. Which is worse/harder to handle? I guess they're not things that are necessarily easy to compare, but in my book anxiety is much worse. Especially when it's bad and you feel like the world is going to end or something. But then I guess I've never had severe depression (I don't think, at least), so maybe I would find that worse.

fun fact: they're usually comorbid.

  On 4/8/2012 at 7:02 PM, Hoodie said:

  On 4/8/2012 at 6:54 PM, gmanyo said:

I'm curious as to what people think (almost curious enough to start a poll, but not quite) about anxiety vs. depression. Which is worse/harder to handle? I guess they're not things that are necessarily easy to compare, but in my book anxiety is much worse. Especially when it's bad and you feel like the world is going to end or something. But then I guess I've never had severe depression (I don't think, at least), so maybe I would find that worse.

 

fun fact: they're usually comorbid.

Yeah, I've definitely had both at once. That sucks. But when my anxiety peaks it outclasses depression by a long shot for me personally.

Can't tell. But a good depression is like being emotionally dead. It's like you stop existing, but your body somehow moves on. Not good.

  On 4/8/2012 at 6:52 PM, Hoodie said:

you need to be totally honest with your doctor, including your drug use. if you feel uncomfortable with that, then find a new doctor.

I'm not very well versed with doctors. I've never visited one before other than to get a shot I missed way back in school. I went in unsure of what to even do when I get there. (evidently just sit down and tell them what's up I guess?) When I walked into the room he didn't even ask me what the problem was so I was a little anxious (lol) and confused and when it never really came up in the conversation and he seemed to sort of shrug it off as nothing I never rewinded the conversation and told him.

  On 4/8/2012 at 7:20 PM, gmanyo said:

  On 4/8/2012 at 7:02 PM, Hoodie said:

  On 4/8/2012 at 6:54 PM, gmanyo said:

I'm curious as to what people think (almost curious enough to start a poll, but not quite) about anxiety vs. depression. Which is worse/harder to handle? I guess they're not things that are necessarily easy to compare, but in my book anxiety is much worse. Especially when it's bad and you feel like the world is going to end or something. But then I guess I've never had severe depression (I don't think, at least), so maybe I would find that worse.

 

fun fact: they're usually comorbid.

 

Yeah, I've definitely had both at once. That sucks. But when my anxiety peaks it outclasses depression by a long shot for me personally.

I believe both came at the same time for me. I've shaken most of the depression now but I'm left with the anxiety, and when any depression comes it heightens the anxiety for sure. I think my depersonalization originally stemmed from my depression when I dropped out of college actually.

depression + anxiety is the worrrrrrrrrrrrrrrst

so tired of it

  On 4/4/2012 at 2:46 PM, AcrossCanyons said:

Visited the doctor today and he told me to have a paper bag by me incase I feel it coming on but other than that just said to let him know if it happens again. I didn't mention the depersonalization.

a paper bag? is he 90 years old? how does hyperventilating on carbon dioxide help with anxiety?

i had anxiety too. advice from me would be get a script for something like ativan or klonopin. use the meds to observe what brought on the anxiety and slowly face the issue while on the meds. teach your mind to face the trigger while slowly decreasing the medication dose

  On 4/8/2012 at 9:18 PM, marf said:

  On 4/4/2012 at 2:46 PM, AcrossCanyons said:

Visited the doctor today and he told me to have a paper bag by me incase I feel it coming on but other than that just said to let him know if it happens again. I didn't mention the depersonalization.

a paper bag? is he 90 years old? how does hyperventilating on carbon dioxide help with anxiety?

coupled with the fact the doctor "shrugged it off," i think you should go find a second opinion.

great posts magnetandsteel (and everyone else!), i think there are a lot of tidbits there that will help a bunch.

i've started to identify times the feeling is much higher. i think it's a start to me understanding it.