I'm curious to know. Has anyone tried or has thought about trying to challenge their anxiety? Meaning facing your triggers (exposure therapy) in order to desensitiz yourself to them. I've thought about this from time to time but dread the setback it might put me through.
When i have a setback it usually takes me a few weeks until i feel somewhat near ok. This is something that I've always considered experimenting with.
Thoughts anyone?
Hi Dnel82, I did do exposure therapy when I was going through my Agoraphobia.
I was stuck in the house for 5 years and I became more than ready to break through
my anxiety and get my life back again. It does work.
I've tried quite a few things. This is something I've considered. Still searching for that magic pill though.
No magic pill but I have the magic key 
Do not fight the anxiety bully...He is a coward and that's
all it takes is for you to call his bluff and he will run away
like the coward he is. Honest Dnel...It takes time and practice
and for me even a little anger that something such as a "thought"
controlled my life for too long.
You know I actually went a whopping two weeks anxiety free. I was still on guard but minus all physical symptoms. Wasn't until this morning my intrusive thoughts got the best of me and I began to get the jitters.
Was nice though while it lasted. That's the longest I've gone without physical anxiety in a long while.
Doesn’t exist. A pill can’t remove your fear. It might mask the symptoms but the underlying fear will remain. Recovery lies within by unmasking your fears which means facing them.
Lol it's a joke. We all know there's no such thing. But it's fun to poke at the idea.
Ha ha ...but the pharma giants rake in billions pedalling their wares so a lot of people do pin their hopes on medication. Works for some but not others but if they came off medication and something happened to trigger their anxiety, they would be back to square one because they will still fear the symptoms and not learnt how to cope with the symptoms the right way by accepting instead of fighting, avoiding, suppressing etc.
Yeah I’ve done that ... it works ... have u listened to Claire weekes ?
I've heard of her literature, but have also heard that it's quite dated material.
She saved my life ! And her material continues to push me through my anxiety and millions of people through out the world to recovery !! U should read it or listen to it !
Any particular book? Which do you recommend?
I don’t know if you’re in the states or UK, but I gave u the link to her audio ! She knew panic and anxiety and depression and obsessive thoughts because she personally experience it and she was a scientist before she became a GP.... she understood the nervous system and how stress impacted the body .... she helps explain anxiety in a way that’s simple and the recovery CAn and WILL happen but slowly. Please let me know what u think
Dnel, Dr. Claire Weekes was ahead of her time. Her concept was the base of
my getting better. Acceptance, acceptance, acceptance of anxiety. It is nothing
more than a thought. Not a physical issue. Our thoughts can be retrained when
we accept anxiety to not be harmful. The ResilientOne tells you true.
It may be dated but that does not matter. She teaches the simple principle of facing and accepting those fears. What is also important is that she helps to explain most, if not all of the weird and wonderful symptoms of anxiety and how / why they happen....this knowledge is the foundation to recovery because it removes a lot of fears. People continue to suffer because they go round in circles wondering and worrying why they are feeling like they do. Worry just adds more stress which keeps the anxiety show on the road.
Dnel82,
anxiety goes by many names, but it is STILL the same anxiety that is was in 1963 or 1912 or 1874 or 2018.
Her material was printed years ago, but her story stays the same.
Please go and read posts by Jeff1943 and Agora1, Beevee, and do a bit of back research on this.
It should put you right at ease.
May I suggest you hit the library to find her books, and use your local library to listen to her lectures.
Getting OFF of any screen will only be of benefit to healing anxiety.
The principle behind recovering from anxiety is all about exposing yourself to your fears. Whether they be a specific fear such as a fear of heights or spiders or anxiety itself. Many people on this forum are not scared of any particular thing, they have become scared of the feelings of fear which keeps them trapped within the anxiety cycle. Fear produces adrenalin which produces more symptoms of fear which produces adrenalin which produces more scary symptoms. The root cause of all anxiety related disorders is fear. So, if you are diagnosed with agoraphobia, claustrophobia, OCD, social or health anxiety, PTSD, the cause is all the same. Fear. For example, anxiety sufferers don’t stay at home because they fear going outside. They stay indoors because they fear the feelings that will come when they do venture outside. The sheer anticipation about going outside may be enough to make them freeze in terror!
Regardless of the medical diagnosis ( it’s just a label), If you expose yourself to your fears which, for anxiety sufferers, can be physical symptoms or intrusive thoughts, they will eventually disappear. In the exact same way as you would remove your fear of flying by continually getting on a plane etc etc. By continuous exposure and understanding that flying is one of the safest forms of travel, their mindset changes. Their attitude changes and they learn to let go of those bad thoughts about what might happen and can relax.
Sufferers stay stuck because they do all they can to avoid the symptoms of anxiety or arrange their life around anxiety so that they don’t feel it. They battle with those thoughts and feelings which is not the best way. How can anyone recover from anxiety if they refuse to feel it??
To recover from anxiety, you have to feel it and do nothing to try and stop it. The brain only learns that there is nothing to fear in the middle of the storm if the sufferer changes the way they react to the situation by accepting instead of fighting ( adding more fear) and using avoidance techniques,
I’ve posted quite a bit of information on this forum about recovering from anxiety which you may find helpful. All from my own experience and knowledge gained by the teachings of Dr Claire Weekes. This lady pioneered self help treatment to recover from anxiety disorders and published books. Her teachings are also widely available on YouTube. If you learn to accept your anxiety and make your life bigger than anxiety , taking it with you, your mind and body will eventually recover and normal thoughts and feelings return,
I push myself to be normal, the anxiety is in the subconscious mind so it’s always lurking. The health anxiety is awful because many times during the day you think you,ve got an illness which is fatal, I,ve had this many years yet at 71 I am very active . All this anxiety drains your body yet I look in the mirror and look ok, people do not think I look 71.
I have had anxiety since my late teens but masked it well on the whole. Only in the last few months has anxiety turned from thoughts ( and sleep issues) to physical symptoms which went all the way up to GP calling an ambulance for chest pains .
I am only just getting better and have wanted to post so many questions but not done so but will soon and so grateful for the support on this forum.
When my anxiety was at its height I read Dr Weekes it was the biggest relief you could imagine, but thoughts started to creep back and was back at the doctors with a " I know all those 10 things were caused by anxiety but this ... "
anyway
Over the last two days I read a letter to sufferers by a guy called Chris on nothingworks.weebly.com and I have found new strength . Worth a go .
I really think the way folks like Beevee are suggesting is the way forward and I see a future brighter than the last few decades but in the last couple of days I have been battling coming off sleeping tablets.
Good luck Dnel82
Dizziness, anxious all the time feeling like I'm just not with it 
Anxiety at University 
Struggling w/ thoughts and physical issues
I am new to this site and it seems that everybody is very understanding.
