I was on another forum where it was suggested that in order to get rid of your anxiety you should just not think about it....I can't help but not think about it.......this was my response
yeah...about that....Work in a prison for 26 years.....don't worry about whether or not you will get assaulted at work because you "looked" at someone wrong....don't worry about being exposed to fentanyl because someone decided to smuggle it in in an attempt to make easy money...don't worry about whether or not the officer you are working beside is the one supplying the fentanyl you just found in a cell search because the inmate was intoxicated. Did you give the naloxone in time....I can't help but worry about those things....I can't help but to have my anxiety heightened because of what I deal with....
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mizzou7016
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Reality versus ignorance? 🤣.yeah just buy yourself a pair of rose coloured glasses and get on with it !🤣 the world and everyone in it is made of candy and rainbows 🤣
Hope your OK anyway. You did say you should probably leave that job 26 years is a long time to be on high alert all the time. The strongest minds would struggle with that x
I started this wonderful career in 1997 at the age of 26....I am now 53....don't get me wrong....I have no regrets.....but it pretty much has become a life sentence....it's hard for me not to be cynical and guarded....anxiety is sometimes what keeps me alive
Ignorance is Bliss.... And god takes care of those that cannot take care of themselves.
Hmmmm 🤔🧐🤷😶🌫️😶....
I wish I knew how to employ either of these tactics but my mind, brain, intellect and logic will NOT allow for that sort of blind faith. It's not like you can just turn it off like a light switch. It's a curse 😔
I wouldn't say ignorance....but misinformation....because again what works for 1 may totally crash and burn for another....and everyone's anxiety isn't the same
I know everyone's is different and what works for one may not work for another, but anyone who hasn't experienced extreme anxiety will never understand..
I know everyone's is different and what works for one may not work for another, but anyone who hasn't experienced extreme anxiety will never understand..
These sound like valid reasons for anxiety. High stress jobs will do this.
Not everything people say applies in every situation. Some people think it's all neatly bundled in one category and one thought process cures it all
I worked in am ER and in cardiac nursing. High stress waiting for the next bomb to go off, and they did. There is also physical violence in nursing and most people don't realize that. A friend just called me the other day.... a patient broke her wrist! They going back to work after that and not having anxiety
Your concerns are valid.
Let's start counting the days toward your retirement
I have much respect for anyone in the public service/health care field....especially ER nurses for me...to see what people in these areas go through is heart pounding.....I'm just so ready to be done with it
We've all been anxious at some time in our lives and so we can't understand what it is to suffer from it the way people do on this forum. I have anxiety but it is nothing like what is often described here, and I can see that. I suppose some people can't see it. If they care enough to write a response, they should look harder.
Sorry again, Mizzou, At the time I wrote that, I was unsure whether you were writing about being in prison, working in prison, or using prison as a metaphor. As you can see from my more recent replies, now I see that it's your work and it has not been a walk in the park.
I was just thinking that, as I got up this morning - that I hadn't written that you meant all of those things.
We don't usually know, here, what jobs people do, so the word prison can often be used metaphorically and only in that way, i.e. being a prisoner of your own mind, being a prisoner of your family, being a prisoner in your own home, etc.
The cycle of an anxiety trait .. in order for it to escalate.. you need to feed fear with thoughts and reactions… so yeah.. that ignorant reply was partly right.
Dr Claire Weekes.. put it another way.. you cannot run from anxiety.. nor “think” you way out of panic.. you let the feelings wash over you and let whatever you feel happen… when you lower your reaction to it.. the circle gets broken.. breath .. float… let go of it… so yeah the more you think .. the more you react.. the more aware… the less you react the less it takes control…. Someone who could not travel on public transport .. stand in shopping queues 49 years ago without melting down… now I travel on ships planes and give talks to large groups without issues.. because I learned not to “what if” and body listen… through over thinking.
but in my circumstances....lowering my reaction and or thoughts about panic and anxiety can get someone killed....Each Circumstance is different...I have to be prepared for anything that can happen or people could die or be severely injured
Yes I understand your point.. Americans have never returned to relaxed observation since 9/11… but this is probably why you have so many cops shooting people for nothing at all.. sure stay alert.. but learn to relax.
I'm wondering what you mean exactly by you cannot float trauma? I have PTSD but my my trauma event occurred when I was nine and I'm 57 and I I'm not well. I'm really trying hard and I do get I do get to a good place. And but I can only stay in a good place for a couple of years at a time. I've been to therapy so many times in the last 30 years I take my medicine when I fall down real hard I do get up but this particular time I fell down I actually had a kid watching the in one day I woke up and realized I was very unhealthy for her. That was 6 years ago and she's still very resistant to me. She does talk. I'm sorry I'm going on I'm having a very bad scary moment. I was on the suicide hotline Saturday night and they were supposed to send somebody out and nobody came. I was very lucky because the one friend I have left is she fell asleep and forgot I guess I woke up and then she called and I was she was able to help me. I'm really scared right now I've been looking for a job I've been trying to pick myself up and dust myself up and I've been making good steps forward but I just found out today that I'm way farther behind in the online training then I thought I was and I got fired. I haven't even actually started the office job yet. I feel embarrassed. My best friend made a really bad decision she hurt me and I normally never say anything I just take the pain and I hold it in and this time I spoke up for myself and she went ballistic so far ballistic that she's actually telling my own daughter that I'm suicidal and I'm trying I was trying so hard for my kid not to know so now my kid told my mother. Oh my God I feel like there's so much pressure. They're all thinking I should just behave better and I'm trying to tell him it's not that and they just look at me like I'm dumb or I'm like a drug addict. I'm feeling really low right now I'm scared I'm sorry to let load on you I just wanted to know what you meant my phone trauma not flirt drama.? Have a good day be well
I'm so sorry to read all this. Are you safe right now?
PTSD is a whole different diagnosis than GAD. The anxiety and depression are symptoms of the PTSD
When you have PTSD there is more work required to try and stabilize things. We get triggered and get thrown into the past and it takes lots of work to reach a point where we can pull ourselves out of that feeling of anxiety.
It is now known that there are brain changes in people with PTSD. We have to work a different way to change our thinking.
I find the word " float" to be too simple for suck a complex disorder
When I get triggered I'm sent back in time. I have to put my heart and soul into deescalating myself.
and for the record....my anxiety/hypervigilance started 4 years before 9/11...but it just got really bad in the last 5 years...have learned some techniques...
I would have to read what was said in the forum the OP talks about to put it into context. It might be that it was a really ignorant thing to say, or it was just an ignorant way to say what Dr Claire Weekes was trying to say. It's all very true, but when the anxiety has gotten to the point where you can't function normally day to day, any type of sound advise can seem impossible to achieve. What Dr Weekes was saying sounds like something I learned when I was in DBT therapy for BPD. It's call emotional surfing. Instead of trying to run away from an emotion you may be feeling, you "ride the wave" and let it be. It's a kind of acceptance therapy in a way, as you learn to accept the way you're feeling, and not always putting a negative connotation on it. It may not feel good, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're flawed in some way because you're feeling the way you do. That's one of the biggest obstacles to overcome with BPD, learning to regulate emotions.
I can't remember where I read this quote, but here it is: "You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf".
Klilkklok, I hope I spelled that right there's a lot of K's in there. I read exactly what you said in a very good book and I've read so many damn books I would know which I found it in. I actually had to use distraction and that's not healthy either but I used distraction to get me out of the extremely heightened state of mind. But now I find I turn the TV on for company but I don't watch. I'm busy working around my house and that's good for me because I've been severely depressed for over 6 years and I'm exhausted. But now my house is nice and clean. You said something interesting to me and I wanted to ask you a question..You said you let go of the what ifs. I'm wondering if you would be willing to share a little bit of process. I do not suffer severe anxiety but I am lately having it everyday for months now early in the morning when I get up. Never at night I don't get it but that's the pattern. The what if and letting go I noticed that when I tried to mellow my brain out and say okay I'm not going to dwell on the fact that I may have anxiety tomorrow morning. It seems like I practiced what you wrote and maybe I understood it that particular month. And today when I hear you repeat it again it seems a little elusive. I'm not quite sure how I did it but whatever I did I did it effectively and I would love more if effectively in my life. Thank you for your words. Have a great day be well
I have never said that mindfulness is not a good practice....I actually use it for some forms of my anxiety....but while it helps with some parts of my anxiety it doesn't help with all parts.
That was clearly someone who does NOT suffer from an anxiety disorder talking to you. I know my husband occasionally says something stupid like that to me... and I just give him the look and walk away, because we all KNOW that if we could simply ignore it, we wouldn't actually have a disorder, would we? Ignorance on the speaker's part (sorry I accidentally wrote poster!).
I don't like having this freight train of emotions on the track.....however I don't really have a choice...i have to think about every scenario and possible situation.....and it makes my anxiety paramount.....and sometimes it carries over in my home life....hoping that will change in 8 months
Wow.. you just said something that proves you do not know what you are talking about.. having lived with ME and anxiety so crippling that I stayed in bed for 9months checking my pulse every few minutes.. with multiple A&E visits even an angiogram.. lost a marriage and several jobs.. but mastered how to live alongside anxiety.. your reply just infuriates me.
Ok and again i say it is different for different people....I work around 1500 people who could kill me in the blink of an eye and not blink....I worry about going home every day...I worry about getting exposed to narcotics that can kill me....do a google search on michael J. Devlin... this is the type of person that I deal with on a regular basis
You have every legitimate reason to worry. I just meant that the person who said that to you simply had no clue about the nature of anxiety disorders. I used the word poster accidentally and meant THEM not you. <3
Read Dr Claire Weekes several times then come back on here and read what I wrote… anxiety is over production of cortisol.. and Adrenalin even when you have no roaring lion to run away from… been there done it.. learned how to let anxiety run without escalating it..something you still need to figure out.
No .. but once I had realised that I was keeping myself locked into a mindset.. I could make the change.. everyone has their own key.. anxiety is horrible but it is never going to kill you in the short term.. it will deplete your cortisol.. and burnout follows.
I never tried to use any explanation to offset PSTD…which causes anxiety .. anxiety due to unknown origin is often the body in an over sensitised state responding inappropriately to normal stressors.. PSTD is a reaction to a profound event or events.. such a war like scenarios and requires professional therapists… how the hell can you put them under the same umbrella?
Anxiety is a symptom of PTSD. There is a huge overlap on the forum, people with GAD and PTSD. I guess that's where they fit under some umbrella if you want to call it that. I wouldn't put them under the same umbrella at all. That's why I asked if you had read the other book
The poster and I have PTSD we can't float like you did.
I apologise.. this forum hub is actually about anxiety and depression..I am nort sure where you would go if you have a job that creates PTSD.. but if my health took a turn for the worse due to my job.. I would seriously ask myself if income was more important than prolonging my existence .. sorry we did not get much out of this interaction… best wishes for 2024.
When I 1st started working as a corrections officer I didn't have ptsd...but has my career has progressed...I've either seen or been involved in some pretty serious incidents...one of which was a riot situation..I was alone with 125+ inmates who had taken over the dining room. My anxiety was very much under contro l
Okay I responded earlier and now I recall I was actually in Google scholar reading clinical studies. The subject was mostly mind emotions and how they're connected. That's where I read you have to let it wash through you. And some of our people here don't agree but I did find it helped me for the time that I practiced it. And then I let it go and now it's becoming a little bit of a faded memory. I have a very difficult time with follow through on anything. Every time I hit a vague piece of trauma I'm devastated. My best friend of 35 years, I just did the most incredibly difficult thing I have ever done, she offended me and I spoke up, I told her and I was not rude or hostile. Really, I'm over polite and I'm very cautious about what I say because I don't suffer rejection very well at all! So I'm busy trying to make peace and trying to have everybody get along and have harmony. I've been doing that exact thing since I was probably four or five years old. I believe it was my mom and dad's violent profane ugly Glass broken all over the house has fights that I was hearing not seeing literally when I was probably barely walking. I am so deeply affected by trauma and my triggers come at me more often, and response seems to be abnormally high but I'm not sure. Indeed did read about the amygdala which is the source of your fight flight or freeze mode there's one more f word but I don't remember what it is. And it said your brain gets stuck there and then there's release of cortisol which is a stress hormone and adrenaline which is a an amazing amount of energy to actually run from that damn big ass tiger. But I haven't had a tiger chase me in a while. I do believe I'm stuck I do believe that when you grow up with trauma your brain literally does not grow effectively and appropriately always changes the neurons synapses I'm not sure the exact word. But I was reading a research scientist w/PhD in neurology. I am the kind of person that doesn't believe holy in homeopathy but I do really like the idea of integrative medicine. And in these studies that they're putting in position journal and scientific America, and some of them go way back to 93. I actually do feel like I'm stuck in panic. Or PTSD symptoms rather. I don't know just my two cents and I'm not at all trying to offend anybody. But I had to acknowledge more I thought about it the longer I thought about it. And when I actually worked real hard on trying to let it pass through me I felt something different and better. Yeah and then there's me I come along and interrupted myself and I quit doing the work.We must play nice, have a beautiful evening take care and be well.
I agree that anxiety won't kill you short term.....but if you don't think that anxiety can save your life.......as for your comment about cops...not all of us are bad....not all of us react based on our anxiety....my anxiety has helped me more than I care to realize.....I don't go around all the time looking for things that trigger my anxiety...but I don't discount it.....
It sounds like your amygdala is always alert - and you need it to be alert in your job, but you are overworked and/or unsupported. You may also be working through the burnout that year of this has caused. Imagine what it would be like if you were looking to retire in August 2025! Not surprised you are suffering.
One of my friends said to me how trauma that isn't addressed stays in the body and festers like an untreated wound.
Since I got evicted back in May I feel that it's too much of a happy accident that my health has improved and ibs has gone into remission as the sources of the problem have gone.
I am also very high functioning....scares me sometimes.....i've attended a couple of programs that have helped me better deal with it....but it's still a struggle
I think when we are high functioning people others have a hard time accepting we have a problem. That works to our disadvantage as well.
You work so many hours it's hard to get the extra treatment. You are getting by. Things can get better and I'm sure when you are finally out of that environment you will feel freedom
Exactly. To me the worst anxiety you can have is the type that has no factual basis for having it, and is so detrimental you can't function normally. It is the fear of fear, and the more you fear it the worse it will become. Some days it feels like high pressure adrenaline running through every vein in the body. I haven't read Dr Weekes book although I've heard good things about it.
That's just like telling someone to get over it. Unbelievable!
Wow, that's a lot to deal with mizzou7016. I think some or most people just don't understand depression or anxiety and they say the wrong things to us. We need to stick together and support each other. I'm searching for a group of like minded people myself.
I am Klikklok.. formerly Jomico.. been a supporting member for 15 years.. but I will not stand for people who stab you in the back.. this thread instigator is not very nice.
I'm not trying to be mean....but if it was as easy to turn it off as everyone says....that would be great.....I'm not stabbing anyone in the back.....I just have a very different opinion on anxiety and it's triggers....i'm not saying that your ideas didn't work for you.....but they haven't and wont work for me....
I don't want to put words into klikklok's mouth, but I don't think what he/she said was agreeing with the suggestion to just not think about it. She was referring to the work of Dr Claire Weekes, which I assume takes much more work than just waking up one day and deciding not to think about it. In any case, I can only hope when you are no longer in the environment you're in at work, things will improve.
and for the record.....all I said was that if I could reduce my stressors just by not thinking about them so much I would.....I'm not saying that what you are saying is wrong or doesn't work.....I've tried to reduce my stressors especially over the last 5 years...
Think about those adaptogens that keep the cortisol levels high.. because that keeps your stress threshold high.. ashwaghanda (Indian ginseng) … rhodiola ..nettle seeds… Astaxanthin… research on adaptogens/stress.
and i will be more than happy to look into everything you have talked about. I'm very open to suggestions and learning everything that I can about all of this
No Ashwaghanda will calm the output of cortisol from your adrenals during stressful periods…as will motherwort….
People with long term stress may find the
Adrenals have run low on cortisol… ashwaghanda is not good for this… nettle seeds can help restore exhausted adrenals but you need very little .. quarter of dry nettle seeds from the male plant will speed up restoring cortisol depletion.
Cats claw may help rebuild low cortisol…there are adaptive that restore adrenals or reduce cortisol.. hope that helps you a little more… you can research the symptoms of both conditions..
It can take two years to restore exhausted adrenals .. people with high output still have a lot of cortisol.. and may not realise they are producing a lot .. stress does do this to you.
There is tutorials on YouTube but I cannot give you links…on both low cortisol and too much cortisol…
Thanks for that Klikklok. I was worried because I have been taking Ashwagandha for a long time (not at the moment). I suspect my adrenals are working harder than they should but I probably don't need to take extra of anything. I think it's amazing how all these natural remedies work and how were they discovered to have these properties way back before science was ever a thing.
I try to support everyone....sometimes at my own expense....I am not trying to devalue anyone else's opinion on anxiety triggers....but...being a public safety professional my triggers aren't as easy to get away from....
I have never once said that your opinion isn't valid overall or for you....it's just not valid for me....I've tried to quell my anxieties and fears....but it's not easy.....as a sufferer of both generalized anxiety disorder and ptsd......things that work for the gad don't work for the ptsd....it's not that easy for me
I wasn't aware that you were. You have always been very supportive of forum members. I can't begin to understand the pressures of your work but I can understand what you are saying about not being able to get away from your triggers.
yes....I've been in corrections for 26 years....working in the city within the city.....I have been physically assaulted....taken hostage so to speak....and deal with mental verbal and emotional abuse from offenders...corrections is the lost area of law enforcement
thanks ma'am...I try to be supportive of everyone and everything....but sometimes I get frustrated trying to explain things to people...thanks for being honest....would love to hear about your troubles
Re the title of the post - laughing is a great response. I try to laugh at myself on a regular basis. Among my many problems, I've dealt with long untreated and then ineffectively treated ADHD. For a long time it infuriated me that the leading so-called expert, who has written a number of books on the topic, and set up a boutique consulting practice, almost certainly and without a doubt in my not completely uninformed lay opinion does not have ADHD. The so-called Harvard Dr. Hallowell. The same goes, in my likely malinformed and incorrect opinion of one of the leading so-called experts on brain and mental health Daniel Amen. It is too bad that the state of California was unsuccessful in suspending his medical license for over hyping his get rich scheme of, what turns out then and likely now as well, have very little benefit but make him lots of money. Laugh. We all need to laugh. And support each other. There are several versions of the story that parents with one kid think they know everything about raising kids, but once they have a second kid they realize they actually know nothing about raising kids. I don't really know what anyone else is going through or dealing with, I don't even know what I am going through or dealing with, we are all different, we are all different every day. Let's all try to support each other and try to laugh, and try not to offend or get offended. Good vibes and best wishes to all.
I also wanted to add that both Amen and Hallowell have published and put out a lot of wonderful and free content. I have read and found useful several books and many podcasts by both of then. Both of them are wonderful people that have had a lot of good ideas. Unfortunately, in my opinion, both of them became greedy for personal profit and my opinion is you should be very careful when they try to sell you anything. Yes, I was very tempted to burn thousands of dollars both at the Amen Clinic and the Hallowell Center. I am happy that I did not. Again, some of you may have benefited from those ultra premium services, but they were certainly not within my limited unemployed budget and I ultimately decided they would be of limited utility to me.
imagine having your own mental health issues......and then trying to deal with others who have their own mental issues on a daily basis....very scary....very frustrating...very unpredictable....again sometimes my anxiety is what keeps me alive
It must be helpful to the inmates that you understand them, and you must have 26 years of experience that you can put to use in dealing with them. Having positive input to their distress, however that manifests, must some of the time leave you feeling that you have helped them and that you have done a good day's work. Or at least that you have done the best you could in the situation you found yourself in.
Not a perfectionist....but always 2nd and 3rd guessing when something happens that I have absolutely no control over...I have been told over and over that I handle situations the best that I can given the circumstances...but I always wonder if I did enough
It depends on the setting and or situation...there are people in my personal life that i trust with my life.....there are very few people in my professional life that I trust...too much turnover and too much new inexperienced staff....hard to explain the difference....as the professional aspect has overlapped the personal aspect..
Yes, you are right. All these suggestions of dealing with anxiety by forgetting about it or doing meditation or something with your mind would make me laugh if they werern't so useless. That is the nature of anxiety; it takes over your mind and you cannot forget about it. And trying to mediatate or do yoga and "clear your mind" is equally impossible when you can't even sit still due to the anxiety and you can't get those thoughts out of your mind. And especially in your case where the anxiety is not some neurotic imagining but stems from your real-life situation. Good you'll be out of there soon.
But recognising them is the first step, isn't it? Then it is a case of asking yourself how valid they are, and how relevant they are in the present moment.
It would be nice wouldn't it if anxiety problems could easily be wished away by getting over things and forgetting them but unfortunately it doesn't work like that!
Here’s the thing.. the brain does not know the difference between real and imagined.. if you think it does.. imagine a time when you wake up from a bad dream.. heart racing sweating yet there you are safe in your bed…Once you understand the physical mechanism of anxiety.. you will be able to use the deep breathing techniques.. these increase nitric oxide which relax muscles slow down heart rates.. the other part of the “package” is the mind.. reassuring yourself that it is just a state of heightened awareness .. like all the lights are on all the alarm bells ringing.. which only you control.. internal stress comes from your mind.. which is equally as bad as external stressors onlyvtriggered by memory.(PTSD).. is included.. flashbacks etc.
Flight or fight… is a survival response.. pretty much unwanted when all you are doing is sitting in a chair.. fear produces fear hormones.. which go round and round.. breathing and using calming techniques reduces that reaction.. the more you try the less it happens… best wishes.. an old guy with a life time of anxiety.
It's the subconscious that doesn't know the difference between real and unreal, not the brain per se. It seems that what you describe is probably the only, but painfully slow method of easing anxiety, that is, without the use of drugs.
I prefer to think without pigeon holing cause and effect… conscious and sub conscious use the same brain and the same pathways… ever wondered how you recognise a face you haven’t seen in a while?.. the memory is also part of both systems .. you can recall … an event consciously .. that some might say was a subconscious action..you can perceive a threat both asleep and awake…the brain uses input to react.. real or imagined.
It’s the REACTION that causes effect… anxiety just feeds the same reactions .
Because anxiety secrets the same hormones and triggers conscious or otherwise.. amygdala reactions.. the lizard brain does not need conscious thought but reacts to perceived anxiety like a hand touching a hot surface.
Chicken or egg .. both parts of the thinking processes respond to deep breathing and relaxation.. you just need to practice slowing down the body and reassuring both the conscious and sub subconscious .. the more you do .. the easier it gets… that’s worth more than pills alone.
It’s both… anxiety gets triggered by pain threat and fear..the reaction of pain threats and fear (real or imagined) will produce hormones which produce anxiety.. it’s a roundabout that produces excess cortisol and Adrenalin…and anxiety you try switching it off by talking to your lizard brain when some outside of it is threatening your life.. the amygdala is the alarm bell to switch on all the resources to help you stay alive..
The over ride switch is breathing and muscle control… letting the larger muscles chest legs arms abdomen..that hold you in check resets the amygdala.. calming all the hormone secretions down is key.
I can only share my route to recovery from having panic attacks several times a day on 20 or so tablets and constant anxiety to living a normal life with no medication by repeated reassurance for the past 20 years for what it’s worth.. if I can do this as a “body listener” so can you.
The real idea is to use certain "tools" to cope before you're in a crisis situation. I agree that many of the suggested ways to control anxiety, such as mindfulness, seem to be an insult when it's hard to function normally. But, they have worked for many people, and they do take persistent practice because nothing works overnight, if at all.
You also bring up the point of anxiety that's caused by a real-life situation. Anxiety that causes us to be unable to function normally is never good, but at least if it was a real-life situation you would have the awareness of what was behind the anxiety, in contrast with the type of anxiety that has no basis at all other than fear itself. Fear that is often unfounded in any way.
It sounds like besides the psychological impact daily of your job situation, you may be dealing with trauma/ptsd or c-ptsd from your years of working in such an intense stressful job. You may find working with a trauma therapist to be very helpful, mine used emdr to help me get in touch with and process my difficult/repressed emotions and desensitize myself to them and the memories of them so I was no longer triggered by them.
Incase you haven't you might check out the Psychology Today listing to find a therapist in your area. You can sort through them by what type of issues you have (trauma and PTSD) and check their profiles and therapy types. A lot of therapists also have websites so you further check them out. This is how I found mine but I was going to him before covid which changed things but I think it is getting back to normal now.
What strikes me is that you don't mention anything about how your colleagues cope with the situation, or whether there are any talking therapies available at work, that can at least get your concerns of the day heard.
When we had our major incident back in 2018 they brought in someone from our eap. 3 of us went in for over an hour and we came out even more lost. We lean on each other a lot....need more 1st responder specific mental health advocates
I would imagine you are in a similar situation to the NHS - staffing-wise. I don't know what an eap is but I can well imagine that you are more help to each other than any outsiders. You need outsiders with prison experience or people who know the prisoners really well. That would be you and your colleagues, of course.
Trouble is, you can use a therapy and the next day you go into work and whatever anxiety you are dealing with from the past, you still have to deal with whatever the day throws at you.
Oh my fanny yes! I totally have had this happen to me. I would hear that very statement repetitively over the past 20 years, usually in the community of Behavioral Health services. I have to laugh. My bestest coolest best friend of 35 years who did not relate or understand my specific condition. Her advice was always go stand out in the sunshine for 15 minutes and get your vitamin D. I'm totally rolling my eyes, shaking my head, politely listening to her, saying the same sentence for 20 years because it made her feel better to think she was helping me. But I was totally laughing inside thinking how ridiculous these people can be. Few months later I go to my doctor they do blood test and son of a bitch if I didn't have a vitamin D deficiency, so then I had to take prescription vitamin D, moved you over the counter general vitamin D and I take it everyday because I really don't like being outside unless it's absolutely necessary, doing that exponentially causes high anxiety. Then one day I'm sitting on the couch at home alone, and I recall that statement I kept hearing, just stop thinking about it. And I started thinking about it, I dissected the words, dissected the sentence, I dissected the underlying meaning. And then suddenly I thought.... I need to find a distraction, something that will take my mind away from repetitive overwhelming negative thoughts. I turned on the TV, found a mildly interesting program, turned up the Volume loud enough that it would drown out the voice in my head.
And it happened for one moment! I stopped dwelling on the crappy stuff that was consuming my head. I had that one moment of stillness and it was inspiring, I wanted more, I did it again for a little bit longer. And again and finally I have the ability to slow my mind down, not for extremely long time, but I can achieve some peace. And then I thought how the hell could these average people have it figured out? I am baffled, they have no idea how to relate to us but yet have some pretty decent ideas. You never know where the answer is going to come from. The people that I've grown with, my family and my friends have watch me go through major depressive disorder, ptsd, generalized anxiety disorder. And I've heard a lot of them say negative things, I've heard positive things, I've had people inspire me and I've had people traumatize me. You never know what you're going to get when you walk out the door.
But I'll never ever again assume that an average emotionally well balanced person can have specific and profound insight into a problem that is simply out of their scope. It happens! I'm not quite there yet, I have a lot of anxiety still but I can sit down find a distraction and allow my mind to rest, then my logical connecting thought was do it again but just try to go a bit longer. And I did. I am feeling much better and more optimistic and I was completely surprised at what I originally heard and how it actually came to make some kind of sense to me. I wish you well I wish you peace I wish you stillness in your mind take care of yourself and be well.Montana
I use distractions every day just to get through. But I firmly believe that distractions are just a temporary solution to a bigger issue. Will I stop using distractions? No, I can only hope the distractions I use are somewhat healthy, because there's a lot of other ones I could be using that would only make matters much worse.
The thing about distraction - you might first think that distraction is not something that's going to do anything once you've come out of it, but it can help with physical illness as well - pain. If it helps for the length of time it lasts, then that is something. Does anyone know if the effects are cumulative?
Advice to not think about something never works. It implies you can create a vacuum in your thought life, which, as with the rest of nature, is impossible.
Instead, you have to replace the anxious thoughts with pleasant/soothing ones. It gives you something to focus on instead of literally nothing, a void the anxious thoughts will inevitably refill, like digging a hole in water.
Anxiety (often brain derived) creates physical symptoms… Breathing techniques can reduce the level of cortisol produced by anxiety.. no one is saying stop thinking.. but to stop the circle of fear by learning to relax DURING an anxiety attack.and not not to over react.. all of these are controlled by your thoughts.
Childhood traumas are the hardest to treat.. neuroplasticity is it’s highest between the age of 6-8 years.. we “adapt” inately and I believe most anxiety conditions stem from our early years… often retriggered by traumatic events in later life.. this is why most people never join the dots.
There is a wide range of tactics and strategies for defeating mood disorders. I do not mean to suggest that what I said is THE way to handle it. It's just tactical, as opposed to zeroing in on the cause of the ailment, which is strategic. I meant only that thought replacement therapy is far superior to thought negation therapy, not that it is any sort of comprehensive cure or treatment. Ultimately finding the cause is the only way to effective long term treatment.
But tactical methods will help in the short term until that cause is ferreted out, and it's all I can offer someone who likely isn't willing to spill all the details of their childhood in here, especially to someone who isn't a mental health pro.
But I do have hard experience, lessons learned from nearly eating a gun 30 years ago, and this is one of them. And look -- I'm still here...
It sounds ignorant, but I would have to read what you did to put it into context. It sounds as if you have a legitimate reason to have the anxiety you do because of your work environment. Hopefully when you are no longer in that environment things will improve. What's worse to me, is having the type of anxiety and chronic worrying that is based on nothing at all. Nothing to fear but fear itself honestly, but when chronic anxiety becomes so severe it prevents you from being functional, it tends to become your reality.
Different types of therapy are used to help cope with anxiety, but I don't believe they are built on the notion that at some point you just won't think about it anymore. There are a lot of different types of anxiety, not all of them bad. The truth is anxiety is part of life and we can never get rid of all of it, or would probably want to. It's when it prevents us from functioning normally that it can be detrimental.
I guess something I said was taken out of context. Please tell me where I implied that you were ignorant. You must be referring to a reply I made saying that I thought it was ignorant, as in just not thinking about anxiety as a way to "cure" it. I was actually agreeing with most of what you were trying to say, and the work of Dr Claire Weekes. What you speak of here, sounds like exposure therapy. If you're saying you have PTSD, I guess I missed that somewhere. I know of PTSD, but have never had to deal with it fortunately. More along the lines of C-PTSD and BPD. Believe me, I've experienced, and still do, the effects of high cortisol and adrenaline levels. I might also add that I've been dealing with anxiety issues for over 50 years.
That was my response. I have both anxiety and ptsd. My anxiety is amplified by both ptsd and my work environment. I've never meant to imply that he was stupid. He's reading way more into it
My bad. I thought it was someone else in this long thread. I totally understand where you're coming from. I was also agreeing that someone saying to just not think about anxiety was rather ignorant, but I don't know the full context of what was being discussed in this other forum you're referring to.
Dang, I’m sorry you’re going through all of that. I can’t even imagine…. But I’m glad that you’ll be able to retire in August. Do you have any big plans for retirement? Or do you plan on just chillin’?
I wish you well and I pray for your safety most of all 🙏
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I know my husband occasionally says something stupid like that to me... and I just give him the look and walk away, because we all KNOW that if we could simply ignore it, we wouldn't actually have a disorder, would we? Ignorance on the speaker's part (sorry I accidentally wrote poster!). 
Scared of blood test results. Please give me support.
I don't know where to begin...
I Don't know what is wrong with me
I don't know if anyone will care to read this
