Stress Center Peer Support

Hi everyone, hope you are all doing well and cracking on with Lesson 2. I am on Day 4 of Lesson Two and feeling good. I haven't had a panic attack in a long time, but I do still get waves of fear. Normally my fear is that this condition will be permanent/get worse. I find it hard to remember during those moments that the fear is always fleeting and that I just need to stay strong and it will pass. I tend to think from a victim point of view, "See, it's here again. I'm still struggling with this." This leads me to get very discouraged and depressed.

This happened to me last night. I was at a sewing class and felt great pretty much the whole day, but I had seen something on television earlier in the day about a girl who had attempted suicide (but was now doing much better!) on a program on TLC, and I guess it became a scary thought. As I pulled into my driveway I started to feel that wave of fear, and I did for a split second have that victim thinking, but then I remembered the six steps and I simply DISMISSED the thought, so that in the FIVE seconds it took me to walk from the car to get into my house, I was feeling just fine again. So this program REALLY does work!!

My Dad used to tell me that if I had a bad thought, pictures myself out at sea on a boat, and picture physically grabbing the thought and tossing it overboard. This never really worked for me, but I agree with the idea that visualisation helps. What I've been doing since I started the program is whenever I have a sad/scared/worried/negative thought, I close my eyes and picture the thought as a red balloon. Then I picture myself with a pin in my hand, and I go up and pop the balloon. The pieces go flying and the thought dissipates and it's gone. Sometimes I have to picture myself popping a whole bunch of balloons, but this usually helps to make me feel better.

I hope this can help someone!

wow ill try that , thank you, I try it during one of my relaxation sessions. I also have a theory of my own.
When Im really hungry my body feels jittery, I get cranky and my stomach hurts. Its hunger! We dont freak out from hunger pains, we just know were hungry.

I feel like Anxiety and panic attacks is our body saying, "Oh your in danger let me help and send you some adrenaline and help you out". I see anxiety like a giant Puppy that wants to lick your face and junp on you but doesnt know how big he is.

So when I feel that dark cloud over me, or feel my nerves twitching. I say to myself." Hey anxiety no, Im ok, thanks for trying to help, Im fine, I appreciate it though" Then I calmly breath through it.
This has helped me a lot.

Wow you sound like a really positive person! You're doing so good!!!

Nice! Both are great ideas. I really like the giant puppy idea. Thanks I already feel relief. I wish you guys s:uccess in completely relieving your anxiety

Thanks so much for your post. I could relate so much to the descriptions of your anxiety. I don't have panic attacks that often either. They just come out of no where it seems. So therefore it holds me back. My main problem is being alone, especially driving somewhere out of what I call my so called perimeter. I have been through other therapy but I think this one is going to work for me. The visual I use is throwing a leaf in a stream and watching it float away. Great post. Thanks.

Great post. I will have to try some visualization next time I chase down those scary thoughts, which I do often. Thank you for sharing!

Both of these ideas are great!! I feel like we can't have enough tools in our toolbox for this.