Anxiety symptoms can be frightening and people often think something strange and unusual is happening to them.
They couldn't be more wrong. Their mind, body and nervous system are just reacting in perfectly normal and predictable ways to the stress they've been subjected to.
Your nerves can withstand months, even years, of worry, over-work and constant anxiety. But eventually they can take no more and start to protest. What's so surprising about that?
At this point your nervous system begins to play up and you can experience panic attacks, agoraphobia, the feeling that death is imminent, something terrible is going to happen and all the symptoms of health and social anxiety.
All this is the normal response of your body to levels of stress it can tolerate no longer. People hope the bad feelings will go away as quickly as they came: maybe a good night's sleep will do it and everything will go back to normal in the morning. But it doesn't. Days pass into weeks and weeks into months and it's still there.
What's happened is that your nervous system has become over sensitised by too much stress and the fear hormones you generate in reaction to the symptoms maintain your nerves in this sensitive state.
But just as the response to too much over-work and worry is entirely normal and predictable so is the way to recover.
Instead of trying to cure all the terrible symptoms you should focus solely on the cause: the over sensitisation of your nervous system. If you can stop churning out the fear hormones every time you get a bad feeling then after a while your nerves begin to recover. And eventually, as sure as eggs are eggs, all the bad symptoms disperse and you will feel normal once again.
But how do you stop responding to panic attacks, agoraphobia and other bad feelings calmly and without fear?
You could go onto anti-anxiety medications which will quickly bring respite. Nothing wrong with that if you've a job to hold down and a family to maintain. But when you stop the medication the old problems usually come back.
Or you could go for one-to-one talking therapy which has brought recovery to many.
Or you could read one of the many self-help recovery books written by people who know what they're talking about. I've heard favourable feedback about a book called 'Dare' though I've never read it myself and many people have returned to good mental health practicing the Acceptance method described in the books of Claire Weekes.
What has happened to you is not some rare and strange affliction. It's simply a perfectly normal reaction to too much stress and strain. The answer to your problems lies somewhere in this forum. Search and you will find your road to recovery. But it's down to you to do something to bring this about through practice and perseverance.
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Jeff1943
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Thank you so much for your wise words again, Jeff. I use the 'tuning fork' analogy - every time you strike a tuning fork, it vibrates and this is a lot like our nervous system. Keep 'striking' it with stress, and it will continue to vibrate with strange symptoms (in fact, so many of us report the 'internal vibration' symptom, so this is rather apt I feel!
I still get fooled a lot by anxiety - so I still struggle to accept but I do have 'windows' where things improve so I know this is the key to a peaceful life. I also accept that some anxiety will always remain over normal stressful life events even after recovery - this is part of normal human nature.☺
What you say is so true, Tempestteapot, the tuning fork is a good analogy. Accepting symptoms for the time being does take a lot of application but if you can glimpse acceptance for just a few minutes to begin with and build on that you are on your way.
Jeff, great concise explanation of what is going on with anxiety. One thing I found with myself and might be common with other people is that my "fight or flight" response, when triggered, would stay on longer than normal. I think it was because of childhood trauma and/or maybe genetic predisposition. It was a revelation to me in therapy when the therapist was talking about how the normal fight or flight response diminishes quickly. Mine would take hours which would add to the confusion about anxiety and cultivate catastrophic thinking.
I've recently been diagnosed and am being treated for hypothyroidism. It was a relief to find that there was a physiological component contributing to my anxiety and diminished ability to cope with stress and why it would last as long as it did.
What you say about people with high anxiety remaining in fight or flight mode much longer and thereby flooding their systems with too much unwanted hormones makes good sense. Thyroid problems can both cause anxiety or be the cause of it, it would be interesting to know if any meds for thyroid you're on are helpful (my thyroid readings are a bit on the high side).
I have read that readings on the high side can be an indicator for anxiety. In my case, I had already pretty much recovered from anxiety disorder but hit a wall at the first of the year. Had no energy, major brain fog and feeling depressed, sleep issues and sore and achy joints. My numbers are on the low side which can be an indicator for depression. After a week or two of starting a natural thyroid supplement I was amazed at the difference, i have so much more energy and clarity, no depreesion - it's great.
The important thing with testing the thyroid is to get a full thyroid blood panel including Free T3, Free T4, TPO, Reverse T3, Antibodies and TSH. Make sure they don't rely solely on the TSH test, which is a common thing to do, it's not accurate enough and not a complete picture.
Designguy, thanks for that info on thyroid problems, my TSH is slightly raised at 5.2 but under 10 the point they start medication and my T4 is normal. This is something everybody with anxiety and/or depression should consider.
Jeff....I wanted to say thank you for posting about Claire Weekes book. I already owned the book but only got about halfway through it in the past. Once I read a post you made about how much it helped you, I decided to sit down and give it another go. I am really enjoying it and I’m some instances it has helped me greatly. So, thank you!!
I just wanted to say Jeff I read your most recent post about acceptance and I kept your words in my head and went round a very busy supermarket yesterday and felt very calm it was wonderful Thank you for all your advice 🌹
That's good to know, Cat, keep persevering as the full benefits of accepting take time but we can all get there in the end and if we don't then it's not the end yet (as someone else said).
Sorry yo hear your troubles are lasting so long, you may already know it but the Claire Weekes self help book I mentioned is 'Self help for your nerves' uk edition and 'Hope and help for your nerves' u.s. edition. Both available from Amazon where her books have a total of 1,750 reader reviews: 90% rate her acceptance method Very Good or Excellent. I believe it could bring you understanding, reassurance and a path to certain recovery.
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