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[itme]

Hi! I made a profile today because I am sick of feeling like anxiety is dictating my life. I am 23 and I have been dealing with anxiety and panic attacks for about 10 years. I have pretty severe health related anxiety - I am nearly constantly worried about my heart health. I am vegetarian and relatively healthy, but I am always afraid something could be wrong with me and I assume I'll die any day. I have such a fear of death, which I have never really been able to admit or write down until today. I travel a lot for work and family, but my anxiety has been so bad recently that just today I canceled a trip to visit family because of the 15 hours of flying. Planes send my anxiety through the roof. Canceling that trip made me join this group and commit myself to changing for the better.

[Hidden]

I suffer with anxiety and have all my life. I tried every self help, started and stopped counseling. I wish I had seen counseling through until I was better. It will not magically go away on it’s on. Get some counseling and stick with it until you are better.

[Jeff1943]

Itme, ten years is a long time to be experiencing anxiety disorder and the next ten years don't have to be more of the same. You can recover from anxiety no matter how long or how deeply you have suffered. And if you're one of that small group of people whose anxiety is inherited you can still reduce it to an absolute minimum.

People with anxiety disorder have usually experienced a long period of worry, stress, disappointment and/or over work. Finally our nervous system has had enough and becomes over sensitised. In this state it causes all kinds of aches and pains that can closely imitate symptoms of serious illness. Panic attacks are also a frequent visitor as is the fear of dying.

The reason for this is simple: over sensitised nerves start to exaggerate every small fear and concern ten fold. The natural concern not to die prematurely becomes magnified into a feeling of imminent death. The slight worry about major illnesses becomes exaggerated to the point that we believe we have all kinds of cancers. In fact every minor ache and pain is interpreted as the harbinger of serious illness.

That, Itme, is why you have a fear of heart failure, death and even the fear of flying (the slight concern about a plane crashing that everyone has to a small degree is magnified ten times).

There's no point in trying to cure illnesses you don't have and are just fake symptoms caused by over sensitive nerves. Relief and recovery depend on healing our over sensitive nerves, when we achieve that all the bad feelings and fake symptoms are automatically resolved.

You're not going to achieve that by constantly fighting your anxiety. Fighting causes more stress and tension which produces even more fear hormone that keeps our nerves sensitised.

Recovery depends on doing the opposite. Stop fighting anxiety, accept it for the time being and agree to co-exist with it. Accept the bad feelings as calmly as you can and with as little fear as possible. Although anxiety can convince you that you have some serious illness, in fact anxiety can't kill you, can't disable you and can't send you crazy.

So I say again, Accept all the bad feelings that sensitive nerves throw at you. When you feel them coming just chill out, feel every muscle go limp and let the bad feelings come, the one after another. And because you now understand how anxiety works, how it's really a paper tiger, you can accept the panic attacks and feelings of doom and death with less fear. You're no longer swamping your nerves with fear hormones on which the sensitivity thrives. So eventually your nervous system loses it's sensitivity and you are no longer troubled by the disorders of anxiety.

So remember that simple word - Accept. Acceptance means no longer stressing and obsessing about your symptoms - and eventually your anxiety dies of neglect.

[Hidden]

wow, i feel exactly the same way. flying is one of my worst fears, i am always afraid the plane is just going to randomly explode. it has kept me from flying anywhere for my upcoming honeymoon. instead we are doing a cruise which i have never done and am hoping and praying i don't get anxiety on the boat. i am afraid of death too, and could never admit it until now. it keeps me up at night, i can't sleep, my heart pounds, and i toss and turn. i am constantly exhausted and have sore muscles all the time. i am irritable and cranky. i feel like my friends hate me. i have no patience and snap on loved ones. i have a great fiance, new house, great job, awesome life but am just so anxiety ridden lately. i've had anxiety for a long time but it's gotten way worse in the last few months and i made a profile because i am sick of it and want to change!!