"Today's anxiety attack is a real belter, how do I cope?"

[Jeff1943]

You cope with it by doing nothing. That's right, nothing. You accept it for the time being. You agree to co-exist with it for the moment. You engage in 'masterly inactivity' to use the words of the woman who cracked the anxiety code and cured tens of millions of people of their anxiety disorder.

And most important of all: you must stop fighting these feelings when they come. Do the exact opposite of what instinct tells you and you will recover.

If you continue to fight the feelings you generate more tension and stress: more of the fear hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. More fear hormones are the last thing your over-sensitised nervous system needs right now.

So Accept your symptoms for the moment, unpleasant though they are. But it must be true 100% acceptance, not just "putting up with".

Don't let first fear be followed by a flash of second fear. Eventually your nerves lose their over-sensitivity, of course: you're no longer swamping them with fear hormones.

The power of anxiety is limited. It will not kill you, disable you or make you lose your mind. All it can do is subject you to bad feelings and troublesome thoughts. Anxiety is a toothless tiger. Its only power is to imitate organic illness and make every minor worry and concern in your life become exaggerated ten fold.

You are a rock on the shore. The ocean sends mighty waves to crash around and over you. Then the sea draws back. Great is the fury of the sea but the rock endures. You are that rock.

To recover you need understanding, an end to bewilderment and a road plan for recovery/desensitisation of your nervous system.

You have two choices. Continue to frighten youself to death every five minutes or Acceptance. Choose Acceptance. Choose the quiet mind that follows. Choose having your life back.

Of course you can do it, you are among the bravest people on Earth: people with anxiety disorder are the most courageous folk of all. Everybody knows that.

*Acknowledgements to 'Self help for your nerves' aka 'Hope and help for your nerves' by Claire Weekes, the woman who cracked the anxiety code.

*My apologies to long time members for my repetition but there are lots of newbies on this forum to whom the 'Face, Accept, Float, Let time pass' method of recovery is unknown.

[mydogs]

As always Jeff 1943 you give the people old and new on this site invaluable information and explain every detail in such a way that we can all relate to and understand.Thank you so much for your time and knowledge.

[autumnthebrat2]

Keep up the excellent advice. You are helping a lot of us here

[Hidden]

Thanks for the reminder Jeff. I know better than to fight the intrusive anxiety that comes out of nowhere, but it's hard sometimes. I'm tired of dealing with it so much! But, what choice do I have? It'll only get worse if I keep fighting it...I know.

[Jeff1943 in reply to Hidden]

Hope356, Acceptance isn't easy, if you can only glimpse it for a moment to begin with that's a start, you can build on that. The more we master Acceptance the less we flood our sensitive nerves with fear hormones. I wish you early respite from your troubles, never lose hope that you can regain your calm and peaceful mind.

[Cjonesabq]

Such sound advice and truth. Thank you Jeff!

[Hidden]

Ahhhh Dr Claire Weekes...the lady who set me on the right path and saved my life...

[Jeff1943 in reply to Hidden]

Good to hear that Suzie. Her teachings changed my life completely. That was 45 years ago.

[Hidden in reply to Jeff1943]

Yes...she changed mine too, I still listen to her on YouTube, amazing lady

[Jeff1943 in reply to Hidden]

She was nominated for a Nobel Prize for Psychiatry.

[Tinkynutbug]

Oh never apologize sir for us oldies need a refresher course reminder and God bless you for doing so!

[Jeff1943 in reply to Tinkynutbug]

Apart from that Tinkybug it's all I know, all I have learnt from a lifetime dealing with anxiety disorder and I'm old enough to have great-grandsons👨‍⚕️👨‍⚕️

[LeoAnon]

Honestly I've been here for almost three years and everytime I see one of your posts (repitition or not) they always help me remind myself because sometimes my brain gets carried away.

It's doing it as we speak. x Thankyou Jeff.

[Agora1 in reply to LeoAnon]

Anon, Jeff speaks the truth. We can't hear it often enough. xx

[Hidden]

Thank you for this, really needed it. I had a real bad panic attack last week. I made a post about being a middleman and emotional dumpster for my family and not being able to get it out. I thought it all came out after that post, but that panic attack happened and it escalated so fast that before I knew it I went into a seizure and woke up with a wounded tongue and hip :(.

[Jeff1943 in reply to Hidden]

Sorry to hear that, NewBlue. When you feel panic attacks coming on don't brace yourself for the attack, let every muscle in your body go limp, offer no resistanve. Feel your limbs relaxing, then your body, then your jaw and then imagine there's a muscle where your brain is and let thst unwind too. So let the panic attack come, just loosen up and let it flow through you. It will pass soon enough and by staying limp you and not tense you will have generated far less fear hormones (the ones that keep your nervous system over sensitised).

[Hidden]

Very well said👍

[Hidden]

Thanks for this post Jeff1943. I'm suffering at the moment with health anxiety, lurching from one imagined illness to another, been this way most of lockdown. It's good that you have the foresight to remind us all about 'acceptance',thank you so much I for one appreciate it and will be reading my Dr.Claire Weekes 'bible' tonight. x

[Jeff1943 in reply to Hidden]

So many of us have health anxiety tendencies but after having confirmed with a doctor that they are not organic pay them no attention as you can't cure yourself of an illness you don't have no matter how hard you try. Instead concentrate on recovering from the illness you DO have: anxiety.

[Hidden in reply to Jeff1943]

Thanks for the good advice Jeff1943, my anxiety is such that I daren't go to my GP in case he confirms something serious.So I go on...hoping I'm Ok but sometimes get overwhelmed with negativity. I live alone so not able to talk much about it on a day to day basis. Still that's my choice I suppose. When I last saw my GP about 12 months ago,he said I was very healthy and I'm on no meds. It's good that I can vent on here occasionally. You're right though Jeff1943 I really should get the courage to visit Dr.

[Jeff1943 in reply to Hidden]

Seeing your doctor brings reassurance to someone with health anxiety. That's a good starting point.

We know that anxiety is very good at imitating real organic disease, we've all been fooled that way so many times.

Anxiety also exaggerates our worries ten fold. Muscular tension of the chest must be heart failure, a cough must be lung cancer, a stomach ache must be a tumour. Always the worst case scenario!

We need to understand how how our nervous system becomes over sensitised and how to stop feeding our nerves with fear hormones. We must trust our doctors more and avoid the old cliche 'they must have missed something'. A good doctor backed by modern testing technology doesn't miss something.

Get your doctor working for you rather than staying in the dark and worrying out of all proportion.

[Hidden in reply to Jeff1943]

Thank you Jeff1943 you are the voice of common sense, perhaps I may summon up the courage,will certainly try! x

[Eddie1987]

Clare weeks have any books or readings I can find on interenet

[Jeff1943 in reply to Eddie1987]

If you search YouTube for 'Claire Weekes' you will find many videos of her advocating her method.

[Eddie1987 in reply to Jeff1943]

Thankes

[PhilFrantan3]

Jeff, this is good stuff. I am trying to save this but i can’t. It’s something I wish I can refer back to.

[Jeff1943 in reply to PhilFrantan3]

Thank you Phil. I'm no expert but on an android mobile you would copy it onto clipboard by pressing the stylus on the first word of the headline and slide the stylus to the last word, lift the stylus off the screen and press the 'copy' option thst appears and then unload it into a 'notes' type of file by pressing the stylus on the screen and pressing on the option that appears. Or you can always Search for my icon, press on it and you'll always find all the postings I've made including this one.