The nature of the beast

[Paw52]

What gets me about this whole anxiety issue is the intermittent nature of anxiety. One day I can be absolutely fine and the next a wreck. Today for example, as soon as I got out of bed, I was having trouble with a tight chest and heart palpitations. I haven't had those symptoms for a while so I want to know why now, why today and why when the symptoms appear does it start a downward spiral of being vigilant about any small changes going on in the body and the likely outcomes - so if I have a tight chest and heart palpitations, I am obviously going to die, if my head aches, I going to die, if my vision is blurred, I am going to die. I don't even like writing that down in case I am going to ................ well you probably all know if your anxiety is at a high level. Medication doesn't work for me but mindfulness and meditation does tend to tame the beast, so whatever I am doing I try and concentrate really hard on it. So now I am typing this I try and concentrate on the feelings of pressure in my finger tips and the tension in my wrists. If I go for a walk I concentrate on the pressure of my feet on the ground. If I concentrate on things external to my body the anxiety can diminish. If all else fails I get out my colouring book (sad at the age of 59!) and colour in the pages and that seems to work too!

[Makaluu]

glad mindfulness is working for you. i've recently started trying to use it when my thoughts go out of control, i snap myself out of it with mindfulness, labeling the thoughts helps too, like worrying, remembering, fantasing

this is the book i've read

amazon.co.uk/Mindfulness-pr...

[Untitled]

There is a post on our subconcious, may read that and see if that gives you any clues. Good luck. Its not nice i know but we have to deal and cope and then train it. x

[F_Shadow1]

Hi, this sounds like health anxiety that has been caused by the symptoms of anxiety (if that makes sense!)... very familiar and not very nice. Have you considered getting help for it, either from your GP or Anxiety Uk or elsewhere? It's great that you're doing mindfulness things already. Hope things work out, it will get better