I am new to this site and I found it while looking for a way to help alleviate anxious feelings that I’ve been struggling with.
I have had anxiety for years and finally decided to get some help for it and I was told by a therapist that I have GAD (generalized anxiety disorder).
My doctor prescribed me 10mg Lexapro and I’ve been taking it for almost 3 weeks. I’m not sure that it’s really kicking in yet as I still have some pretty bad anxiety. The other day when I went to work my anxiety was through the roof. I ended up telling my boss I needed some time off to deal with my intense anxiety which he was cool about but now I am worried to return in Monday because of what my co workers might think.
If anyone has any insight or advice you could provide I’d really appreciate it.
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Steveo2286
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Don't worry about your co workers, if they are good work mates they will show genuine concern which is fine. Tell them you've had a lot of stress recently and it's been getting you down, that's all. The rest aren't worth worrying about.
What's caused your anxiety overload? Whatever it is needs to be addressed, always correct the cause rather than the symptoms. High anxiety is a pretty awful feeling but that's all that it is: a feeling. A feeling caused by glitches in your nervous system that has become OVER SENSITISED due to worry and fear and the fear of fear.
Feelings of high anxiety aren't life-threatening in any way, they are tricks our frazzled nerves play on us. If you can break the circle of fear that feeds sensitised nerves you will soon recover.
To do this face your anxiety and panic, don't run away from it or try to avoid it or lose yourself in distraction. You must pass through the feeling of panic instead which is to say you must accept it temporarily with as little reactive fear as you can. After all, the symptoms of anxiety cannot kill you, disable you or send you crazy. They do not have the power to do that AS THEY ARE ONLY FEELINGS AND NOT THE REAL THING!
So why fear them? Instead agree to accept them temporarily to stem the flow of fear. Learn to live with your anxiety and you'll be able to live without it.
Do not fight your anxiety, fighting only causes more stress and tension so does not help you.
Learning to accept your anxiety temporarily in order to disarm it takes a while, not an instant fix. It takes patience and practice. But you will be following in the footsteps of untold thousands who have walked the same road to recovery before you.
You said in the post that I should learn to accept my anxiety as a way to alleviate it. My therapist has suggested breathing exercises, meditations and mantras to use but I guess I’m it entirely sure how to use it.
It may sound silly but could you describe step by step how you “accept it” and calm yourself?
I’m thinking when I feel overwhelmed by anxiety to let those feelings come and focus on my breathing while letting my mind process them?
Acceptance is the method devised by Doctor Claire Weekes more than 50 years ago for recovery from anxiety disorder and depletion. It is the central part of her mantra: Face - Accept- Float - Let time pass.
Acceptance does not bring immediate relief. It begins the process of de-sensitising our nervous system which we have been subjecting to fear hormones.
It does not mean permanently accepting the symptoms of anxiety. Only as a temporary measure until we have recovered our quiet mind.
You ask how to practice Acceptance? When you feel your symptoms of anxiety you do nothing. You practice 'masterly inactivity'. You just let the bad feelings and strange ideas come. Let them occupy your mind. Agree to co-exist with them. Let them wash over you even as waves break against a rock on the shore. The waves rush violently round and over the rock but the rock endures. You are that rock.
Do not seek to 'forget' it in distraction as that is not facing it. But occupation is good so continue to carry on with your tasks as a breadwinner, parent, housekeeper, whatever. Why not? You know those dreadful feelings are fake. They are only feelings, they cannot put you in harm's way. Annoying but fake, you know that now. So constantly remind yourself that there is nothing to fear.
Learn to live with anxiety and you'll be able to live without it.
As far as acceptance is concerned there is only one step. Refuse to fight it and do nothing instead. Do not flinch from it. Do not keep testing yourself to see if it's going: that's the opposite of acceptance. Who cares if it's gone or not, you have started a process that with the inevitability of gradualness will hand you back your life.
Doctor Claire Weekes' first book that outlines her method in non-technical language that tired minds can follow is titled 'Self help for your nerves' in the U.K. In the U.S. exactly the same book is titled 'Hope and help for your nerves' and in 1977 it became the second best selling book in America. It continues to sell in quantities all these years later. Both books are available from Amazon and Ebay new and second hand for a few pounds/dollars.
You might ask: how many people has it cured? Nobody knows but millions would be a conservative estimate. One New York psychiatrist claims tens of millions.
Mine is but a poor description of Claire Weekes' method, originators are always the best people to describe what they have created. So maybe hear it from the horse's mouth.
My anxiety overload was caused by my job. I am a teacher and started a new job last school year. I hated it but decided to stay for year 2, thinking it would get better. The high expectations coupled with the fact that it’s a difficult population of students has lead to a lot of increased stress for me and eventually I felt completely drained.
Before I took a break from work I had lost about 15 lbs and was having trouble sleeping.
I want to be able to face my anxiety and come through the other side but I guess I’m just not sure how to do that. I feel like I am constantly anxious while at work and occasionally it leads to an anxiety attack.
Last thing we need to worry is what others think. People who have empathy will understand. There will be always population think that we are weak and so on... Who cares about them. They don't have a clue what we go through them.
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