Anxiety...

[*PROTOCOL*]

A good fucking time...

 

Everybody knows the circle with a slash through it is the universal symbol for "do this".

[GucciCondom]

I had TERRIBLE anxiety my whole life. It was mostly social anxiety, with a bit of depression here and there. It's slowly gone away over the past couple years and I've now been free from the grasp of it for a while. I'll still get it a tiny bit if something fucked up is going on in my life but I no longer fear interaction with any kind of humans.

 

Things that helped me get over it:

 

1. Got a job at Home Depot as a cashier when I was 17 or 18. It was a very high volume store. Having to interact with thousands of strangers on a daily basis REALLY helped me out.

 

2. Deep thought and meditation to sort of re-wire my mind to think differently. I referred to the fact that nobody is any better than anyone else and there should be no reason to give a mother fuck what anyone thinks or says about you. Once I realized I own my world and I'm whatever I want to be and can do whatever I want to do, I just stopped caring about petty stuff.

 

3. Stay busy. I noticed once I got older and wasn't spending a lot of time doing nothing, that in turn took away the time my thoughts could potentially wander off into bad areas and kept me more relaxed.

 

4. Don't allow things to happen that you know will make your anxiety bad. Some of us sabotage ourselves. We know if we don't complete a certain task or if we allow a certain thing to happen, that we're going to be bugged out and anxious but somehow we allow it to happen and then freak out. Take precautions to avoid things that cause you anxiety.

[NightmareOnElmStreet]

that.

[Soup]

There's also the whole side of just recognizing what's going on physiologically during the panic attack. Your body is reacting to something. It has increased your heart rate and made it hard to breathe but you don't know why. It could be just physical/mental exertion (there's really no difference), a combination of lack of sleep or other events putting strain on your mind and body. Your first thought is that something is wrong, either a heart attack or something life threatening. Believing this is true will create more panic throughout the body and worsen the physiological effects. Realize that this is only a guess and just acting on the first thought to come to you is never the best plan of action.

 

The bottom line is this: Your body has just overexerted itself and needs to rest. Just focus your mind on breathing deeply from the gut, not the chest, (the natural way of breathing when one is calm) and everything will eventually stop in its own time. Every time you have a panic attack it'll be easier to subside.

[Lemonjello Jones]

I had this problem awhile back.. I got a job as a sales rep and I had to talk to 100+ people a day. I'm never nervous around new people anymore but I'd much rather not get to know them!

[Soup]

Yeah there's a difference between social anxiety and thinking you're better than everyone. Those two always get confused.

[..romero..]

anxiety attacks can be a bitch sometimes.ive tried the whole breathing exercises to try to calm me down,and for a while it helped.but then i was having them one after the other and couldnt find any peace.shit was rough.i ended up taking benzos for it.those worked too at first but now after taking them for a couple months i cant tell if they are still working or if its a placebo affect.in the beginning you could feel the drugs kicking in and calming you down and it was a very distinct feeling to them.but now i cant feel the shit.i still calm down after a while but i dont know if its the pills or not..i take them maybe 2 or 3 times a week.xanax and ativan and shit.i think im becoming disillusioned with them.

[Soup]

Benzos are only considered useful in the short term (2 months). After that time your body builds up tolerances and dependencies, which leads you to going over the prescribed dosages. Then theres a whole slew of paradoxical side-effects you dont really want to deal with, especially if your goal is to manage anxiety. After two months you should be quitting benzos all-together and looking at long-term therapy such as cognitive therapists to help you out.

 

I think you should also try to accept that when you are feeling anxiety, you're going to have it for a while, and that it's fine. There is no set time that anxiety is supposed to be over, and if it goes over your perceived finishing-time there's no reason to panic about if it'll ever end. It just takes time and every time you try to force it all to finish with benzos or breathing or running away from the situation etc., you're just going to give yourself more anxiety because it's not working.

[Lemonjello Jones]

Yeah... I actually was just a really awkward dude before the job and now I'm too much of a dick to give anyone a chance.

[john_gacy]

I'll briefly build upon what someone else said about dealing with panic attacks. I've found that it is helpful to take a physiological and cognitive approach to them. From the physiological side of things, your body has the 'fight or flight response' built into it. If you're cutting through an alley and you see a pit bull running at you, you'll likely think "Oh Shit!" have an adrenaline rush, and run. In this moment, your heart rate will jump, your muscles will tighten, your breathing will increase, etc., etc. This is all natural reactions made to help you fend off danger or escape, but you will likely not notice it because you're main concern is not leaving a piece of your ass behind in that pit bull's mouth. If one of your homies has ever jumped out and scared you, you might have been startled for a moment but then you see it's someone clowning you and you chill. Still, you may notice your heart beating fast in your chest from being startled but you can rationalize that as a reaction from being startled.

 

With panic attacks, people get that adrenaline rush, but do not necessarily connect any sense of immediate danger with it. Sometimes there is no obvious stimulus for them, other times it's more obvious like a dislike of being in crowds, but the 'danger' of that may not be apparent. Without that distraction, people tend to focus on the physical reaction and assume they are having a heart attack, are choking, or that there is something else physically wrong with them.

 

The body has this system to get you out of trouble, but it also has a system to chill you back out. Thankfully, you CAN manipulate this system of your own accord, although it takes practice for some. The main piece, as someone mentioned, would be slow, deep breathing from the belly. This naturally slows your heart rate, controls your breathing, and helps relax your muscles. It helps relieve that dry mouth you might feel, etc., etc. If deep breathing alone does not help, slowly sipping a glass of water is a good cheat method. Because you can't breathe and swallow water at the same time, it helps regulate your breathing. It also helps with that dry mouth/choking feeling some people get. I've also heard people say that running your hands/wrists under cold water helps a bit, but I've heard the drinking water more.

 

On a cognitive/thinking level, if you've had panic attacks before, you know it's fucking uncomfortable, but you also likely know that if it hasn't killed you already you're unlikely to die from it. This being known, you know that you only need ride it out for a short while and the feeling will reside. Even the most uncomfortable person does not feel high anxiety 100% of the time, there is a relaxation or refraction time somewhere. Knowing that you won't die, and that it's only a matter of time for the feeling to reside, should help you ride it out. Some people get racing thoughts when a panic attack occurs, and stopping your thought process and switching gears helps to stop that cycle and focus on the task of reducing the uncomfortable symptoms.

 

Well, maybe that wasn't so brief, but for some people knowing the above helps kill the moment of a panic attack and then they can move on or be able to face any underlying issue that may be causing anxiety.

[..romero..]

i always worry about having panick attacks,which then leads to panic attacks.haha.like anticipating them and shit.

 

 

i know the attacks arent deadly but i worry about how they correlate to overall health.i mean all that stress you go through cant be good in the long run.thats why i hate having those motherfuckers...

[Soup]

Gacy, once again, saying it better than i could've.

 

I'll just add tho there has been clinical studies showing that the breathing exercise has been known to trigger anxiety in very specific instances. The reason being is that someone who is already at a high level of anxiety going into the clinical study, and is worried about what is to be expected.

[Tyler Durden]

i'm prescribed mood stabilizers and benzos for bipolar/anxiety issues. i have pretty bad panic attacks at least every other day. i tend to rapidly cycle and alternate between manic/depressive episodes. for the past few days i've been fairly manic. the "crash" is always inevitable.

 

i get a huge kick out of people who think that psychiatric issues are not "real" and that it's as simple as "just getting over it". the chemical imbalance inside of my skull is just as real as your diabetes (or whatever...). whenever someone tells me that i should "just stop thinking about it", i want to punch them in the throat so so so badly.

 

[fatbastard]

^^

What are some of the things you do and thoughts you have when you're in full manic mood?

 

My other question is how long do you think you'll be taking the Xanax for. I ask because benzos will only treat the symptoms and not the actual cause of the mental imbalance, and eventually you will dull/wear out your receptors.

[_blank_]

this thread is awesome.

[SOBER-GENTLEMAN-ONER]

I know this link and book seems MAD HOMO but a lot of the content in here relates directly to Shyness, social anxiety and all the problems that spawn from it. It's a interesting read points out multiple theories for shyness and various other problems humans have, but obviously in a more male oriented perspective. After you analyze what causes your specific troubles the book points out some of the effects from them, and finally treatment/self help options. Some of Dr. Gilmartins stuff is a little overkill and out there in my opinion but a majority of it is reasonable. Anyways if you want to glance through the main chapters that catch your interest and look past the main chapters that revolve around relationship shyness info you might get some good knowledge.

 

http://www.love-shy.com/resources#shynessandlove

[Suber Giraffe]

i gots teh anxiety

 

smoke blunts

[Butter_Milkshake]

Being Insecure=Shyness.

[john_gacy]

One more point I'll add. There's positive and negative stress. The same can be said with anxiety, but it's a matter of how you frame things. I recently came across Randy Couture writing about this, so I'll use his example since he kicks ass and people might sooner listen to him than me. Not a direct quote, but- he was saying people ask if he gets nervous before a fight. He said, what's the point in that? When you get nervous, you get tense, butterflies in the stomach, feel like you have to pee, etc. However, when you get excited, you feel the same exact thing. It's a matter of how you frame it. He prefers to think of it as he is excited for a fight. And having that mindset makes all the difference when you're about to fight, or do anything for that matter.

 

I guess the same can be said of other situations. If you're about to ring the doorbell of this smoking chick for a date you're going on, you can be anxious and think something like 'I hope she likes me' or 'I hope I don't come off as a douche' or you can think 'Damn, I can't believe I get to spend the next few hours with this smoking hot chick.' Either way, you might feel the same sensations physically, but how you frame the situation mentally can make the difference in how your night goes.

[~KRYLON2~]

^^ real talk ^^

[binge&purge]

This is a quote from a dr. Heather Ashton, once a professor of psychopharmacology... "the grave mistake you made, in all your innocence, was to supress your anxiety with pills because that stops you learning any other ways to stop your anxiety from ( making your body freeze up in a particular situation." The doctor later tells the author that he wouldve been much better off working with cognitive-behavioral techniques, a way of retraining one's thoughts. The author goes

on to say that during his years of benzo use he learned no life-coping skills.

[DurkStevens]

Duhhhhhhhhh thats why u you just abuse the pills.

[Classified]

only an expert can deal with the problem...

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgaUOdJBSvY

[Butter_Milkshake]

Anyone have any advice on dealing with this type of stuff at college. I dont wanna screw it up but public speaking is a bitch

[jkob]

NO HOMO TO THE STARTER OF THIS THREAD. GET OVER IT YOU FUCKING BABY. YOU EVER BEEN LAID, OR DO YOU START SWEATING AND CRYING EVERY TIME YOU SEE A GIRL YOU LIKE?

 

I AM GENUINELY AMAZED THAT THIS THREAD HAS GONE 10 PAGES.

[jkob]

JUST BECAUSE I'M NOT AN ASSHOLE, IT'S CALLED XANAX, OR CLONOPIN, OR VALIUM...........TAKE ONE, OR A COUPLE, AND CHILL THE FUCK OUT YOU GOD DAMNED WEIRDOS.

[CMF]

[Butter_Milkshake]

anybody ever take xanax for public speaking and what not? Or does anyone have any information on Beta Blockers?

[MrChupacabra]

I have been on a few beta blockers for a month or two, but it was always in regards to my chronic headaches and trying to find a solution. It was also usually a low dosage, so I'm probably not much help. I never had any sort of noticeable side effects though, so thats a plus in low dosage at least.

[Butter_Milkshake]

True i just need something for giving speeches. I dont want to fall into some xanax trap, i've heard tons of bad xanax stories. Maybe i should just man up..