When anxiety strikes first time it leaves us bewildered. We suspect it's our nerves but what about all these physical symptoms? Our stomach starts playing up, our heart beats irregular, strange visual symptoms occur, death feels imminant, all sorts of aches and pains appear from nowhere - and maybeworst of all we experience attacks of panic. Surely this is more than anxiety, we reason, it must be something serious: heart disease and cancer soon come to mind.
So we go see our doctor, always a good thing to do, and he sends us for some tests or to see a specialist, and back comes the verdict: everything's fine. Of course it does, there's no blood test for anxiety, stress doesn't show up on scans and nervous tension can't be seen on an x-ray. What would be good news for most people only causes more bewilderment to us. We think the doctor's have got it wrong and we know better, so the search goes on usually resulting in a disturbing appointment with Doctor Google.
We're in unknown territory and before long we're frightening ourself half to death: the search goes on for a cure to an illness we don't have. I've been on this forum for a good 6 months now and of all the hundreds of people who have passed our way I can only think of 2 whose symptoms turned out to be from physical illness.
So for the possible benefit of newcomers and with apologies to anyone who has read one of my posts before I'll repeat how anxiety comes to pass. The knowledge won't provide an instant cure but it can provide reassurance and understanding and can help point us in the direction of recovery. Because make no mistake, there is a cure for anxiety disorder as thousands can testify.
You first experience anxiety after a period of stress, disappoitment, overwork and worry that becomes overwhelming. So our nervous system, that transmits messages from the brain to every part of out bodies, becomes over sensitised. In this state it starts to misfire sending out strange messages that we then equate with genuine physical illness. Only these symptoms aren't genuine illness, they are blips from our over sensitised nerves and they trick us into believing we have some serious organic problem. Anxiety is a real shape shifter: it can imitate almost any ailment you care to mention. But unlike the real thing, the symptoms of anxiety can't kill you, disable you or send you mad. They can only frighten the life out of us, make us miserable and make us feel depressed. Life as we knew it appears to be over. Then the fear starts to take control, it causes more symptoms which cause more fear which cause more symptoms etc etc. We become caught up in a vicious circle from which there appears to be no escape.
Only there is an escape. If we can break the fear-symptoms-fear vicious circle which fuels our over sensitised nervous systems then eventually our nerves become pacified and we recover our peace of mind and good mental health.
The key to recovery is to turn down the volume on the fear we generate that perpetuates all those symptoms and bad feelings we hate. Nobody free from fear suffers from anxiety disorder for long. So how do we control those fearful feelings that are the root of our misery? That's another story but you'll find the answers on this forum. So if you didn't know it before you know it now, there is light at the end of the tunnel even though sometimes it feels like a b***dy long tunnel and you can recover no matter how bad or how long you have suffered.Of this I assure you.
Written by
Jeff1943
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Jeff1943, Great Commentary on Anxiety. I hope all the new people on the forum will take the time to read this most important post. We need to stop this insanity of fear and anxiety and more fear. Your post is rational and easy to understand. When anxiety hits us, we are all ready to just jump off the deep end. Your explanation should bring some clarity as to what is happening and how it doesn't have to be a life sentence. As for the rest of us who have gone through anxiety for years or are still going through it, it never hurts to keep our eyes open to reading and learning.
Jeff, thank you for all your input over the last 6 months. I know you have made the difference for many who were struggling and not believing in the word "Acceptance". You have made it possible for us to go forward in knowing there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Take a deep breath because you will probably have to repeat this a couple hundred more times until it makes an impact on our lives. Take care, stay well. My best, Agora1
totally agree Agora Jeffs posts have been invaluable to me and to others he says things in a way that is easy to understand and acceptance is such a powerful thing in fear once we accept fear died simple as thank you Jeff xx
Hi Jeff. Really interesting post. In my case my anxiety seems to be fuelled by intrusive thoughts. However, the intrusive thoughts I am told are a symptom of anxiety.. I am told I need to get the anxiety under control and the thoughts will go. Fortunately I do not suffer with health anxiety, and although my body often feels horrible, I do not worry about physical symptoms, rather the fear is my fear of my thoughts. Of course those horrible physical sensations do feed the fear cycle, so that is unhelpful.
Do you have any views or advice on how I might tackle this problem.
Hi Fidget123, intrusive thoughts are a symptom of anxiety but we are allowed to have strange thoughts. So long as they are thoughtsthey can hurt nobody. So let them come. Clearly they trouble you and the answer to intrusive thoughts is exactly the same as for all the other symptoms of anxiety disorder, which is to say: Acceptance. Agora1 used the word in the first reply to this posting and put it in quote marks for a good reason. Acceptance properly applied can with time and practice free us of all the symptoms that sensitised nervous systems send our way. Who says so? Claire Weekes says so. In her first book written 50 years ago she set out the road to recovery using acceptance. The book is titled "Self help with your nerves" in the UK and "Hope and help with your nerves" in the US. You will find it on Amazon both new and used but if you consider reading it first look at some of the hundreds of reader reviews, 90% rate it Very Good or Excellent.
Doctor Claire Weekes was the first to put forward Acceptance as a method for recovery from anxiety disorder and she makes mention of strange thoughts. Her book has helped untold thousands to recover. It has withstood the test of time.
Thank you Jeff. I am going through a really difficult time at the moment. Very anxious for most of the day, and anxious during the night. I am frequently waking with anxiety, and just feel terrible. My thoughts are very dark during the early hours, and I am sad to say death seems to be the only option. I can't believe I have even written that sentence, as I always loved life, but at times like these I can see no way out for me. 4 months ago I was happy, retired without a care, and now I am mentally broken. I am writing this after yet another bad night and perhaps later things will improve. But everyday, I say perhaps later, and it doesn't.. I'm so sorry to pour out my feelings like this to a complete stranger, and hopefully you will understand. I have yet to find the key to accceptance, I am still in survival mode. My thinking has become so irrational, I sometimes fear I am about to lose my sanity.
Fidget123, you do not say what has happened to make you feel so bad so suddenly. But you must not harm yourself, you must think of the happy times to come during your well earned retirement, live for that time, because one thing is absolutely certain: you are not going to feel the way you do now for the rest of your life. Through therapy and self help and medication you can bring about your recovery and regain your quiet mind.
If you find the bad feelings and thoughts overwhelming you must seek medical support immediately either from your doctor or from A&E or the ER. That's what they are there for and I think you should seek that help without delay. This is a low point in your life, you can recover your peace of mind but you owe it to yourself and others to reach out for that help as this is not a storm you should face alone. Medication for a period of time to bring immediate relief should not be refused. Believe me when I say that this nightmare will pass as all troubles pass eventually. Remember, there are people here who care what happens to you, and you must share your thoughts and fears with us anytime.
Hi Jeff. Thank you for getting back to me. I am confused about how I have gotten into this mess. I have had problems with anxiety and depression in the past, once when I was in my early 20's and again 8 years ago. On that occasion I was prescribed citalopram 20mgm. I eventually recovered from pretty awful anxiety and panic attacks, and enjoyed 8 years of peace. In fact the best I had ever been. Following my retirement last year, I thought I would wean myself of my medication, and after a very long withdrawal which I did over several months as I didn't want a relapse I came off them in March. About 4 weeks later my anxiety returned and has since just escalated. I have since put myself back onto the citalopram, but I don't think it is now working. I plan to see my GP next week. I guess he will be annoyed with me as I made all the changes without consulting him, but my background as a nurse enabled me to have an informed approach about medication reduction
One of the problems I get when I am in this state is the problem of intrusive thoughts. A fear of self harm. I had these last time 8 years ago, although the main focus then was health anxiety (cardiovascular). As hard as I try not to respond to the thoughts they really frighten me. Having been in this state for 4 months, there are times I fear I am am going to snap. I should say, I am not suicidal, it's just my sleeping is so poor, I wake frequently with anxiety, and my mind races away. Mornings tend to be the worse, although I do have days when the feelings are unrelenting.
I hold onto the knowledge that I have beat this before, but there are times when I just feel so overwhelmed with the physical sensations as well as the catastrophising thoughts. I also fear that after 4 months I am getting farther and farther away from the person I used to be.
I have an incredibly supportive wife and caring family who support me. The really frustrating thing is, I have no reason to be anxious, externally, my life is stable. No external pressures. 4 months ago I was just a regular guy who could sit peacefully without problems. Now my mindset is all over the place. We took early retirement, sold up and moved to France to escape the rat race. Life here should be idyllic.
I am trying really hard to focus on your advice on acceptance, and during the early hours this morning I kept repeating to myself just accept this, don't fight it. It's not easy is it !!
I try and spend a lot of time in the garden distracting myself. Sometimes that helps but not always.
Hi Les, there seem to be two suspects regarding why your bad feelings have returned: the fact that you came off the long term medication and maybe the fact that you retired recently which can raise all sorts of issues for some people even if they can't pinpoint exactly what.
Maybe you haven't allowed enough time for the medication you've restarted to kick in. Although we all want to enjoy normal mental health without meds but if the only way appears to be to stay on them permanently then there is no shame in that, specially during our later years. Plenty of people are on permanent medications for diabetes, blood pressure, heart problems etc and we accept that as fine, why should it be any different with anxiety disorder if that turns out to be the only thing that works.
Do give that Claire Weekes book a try, it has brought help to so many people. Your GP's views on all this will no doubt be helpful to you and I'm sure that if the citalopram has worked before for you then given more time it will work again, if not there are so many other meds that can prove helpful. Moving to France was a brave move, perhaps there was more stress to that move than you realise. Whatever the cause I hope that before long you feel the beginning of your recovery.
Hi jeff1943, I'm very new here and yours is the first post I've read. Just wanted to say thank you, a lot of what you've said make sense, where nothing did before. I feel I might get the support I so dearly want from here. I felt so isolated and Lonley with this horrible horrible condition and stumbled across this forum, it just might turn out to be my saviour. Thank you
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