Looking for encouragement with this scenario

KKross · Post by **KKross** » Sun Nov 21, 2010 3:55 am

I have a scenario I want to run by people. Basically, I'm looking for some encouraging words. I definitely obsess over my health, but I try to do positive things, such as eat very healthy foods, exercise regularly, adn I don't smoke or drink. Exercise has helped me tremendously. One thing I enjoy doing is working out with my trainer to box. This involves a lot of cardio, hitting the bag and mitts. I'm not training to fight proefessionally, I just really like the workout. A couple of years ago, we used to spar, but I stopped it because I got paranoid about brain injury. The other day we sparred after about a year of not doing that, but it was very light. I took a couple of jabs to the cheek and chin. I was wearing headgear, and these were not incredibly hard punches. The thing is, I love this work out, but now I'm obsessing about concussion and brain damage. I feel ridiculous doing that because these are not really hard hits, but I check myself for symptoms of brain trauma all the time(dilated pupils, dizziness, nausea, etc.) I've had none of these. When I get that tightness in my head or weird, spacey feeling that I got long before I ever started this workout, I think its brain trauma. I asked my doctor about it and he didn't think I had anything to worry about. He said that if I had brain trauma I would have a severly bad headache. He he didn't think I should stop my workout, but I still obsess about this. Every little thing I feel becomes a symptom. I wonder sometimes that people with anxiety find reason to worry about things we enjoy doing because, on some level, we don't think we deserve to be happy. Overall, I feel so much better since I started working out with this trainer, physically and emotionally. Any thoughts from anyone would be appreciated.

THH · Post by **THH** » Sun Nov 21, 2010 1:51 pm

KKross,
I too have health anxiety's. I'm doing better with them doing the program. For me, I obsess with it when I'm avoiding something, or worrying in the future. ( The fear of fear is a big one for me)
I had back surgery and I have been a horseback rider sense I was 9! After my surgery I had trouble getting back on. What if I fall off, what if I re-injure and can't walk again! On and on...
What I come to think is, there is a risk in almost everything we do. And for me, if I really enjoy riding it is a risk I take, ( I also use caution in the areas I can, and it sounds like you do as well) but I am going to ride. If I die from a fall or get hurt I was doing what I enjoy doing. Thats a good way to go!
I don't know if I helped at all, but thought I would share.

NinjaFrodo · Post by **NinjaFrodo** » Sun Nov 21, 2010 5:45 pm

I agree with what THH has said and this reasoning is very important when it comes to this thought however with obsessive thoughts we need a little bit more to overcome this thought. If you have ever watched the show Obsessed (its a tv show where Cognitive Behavioral Therapists would go and treat people who have OCDs) then you'll find out that one of their techniques is to put the person through that scary image and then get them to accept it. The purpose of this is to change the response to the obsessive thought in the first place and those thoughts belong to a portion of the brain that isn't a thinking part. It has more to do with experience.

This program suggests using humor (and I think that is alot better when it comes to handling the thoughts) so you link joy and excitement to it and that makes it less scary and eventually go away. Tony Robbins has a few diffrent ways to handle it where you evoke the mental video and then you change little parts of it and rewind the video and change something else and let it play and rewind it and keep doing that until you have made it so you cannot ever have the original video again. Its like scratching a record until it can't play anymore.

For me I would probabbly visualize myself turning into one of those blow up clowns that keeps popping up when you punch it. Or I get brain damage and I become handicapped and I go to malls and just poop wherever I want to and use the brain damage as my excuse. Or I'm being punched by a leprachaun and when he hits me, skittles come out of my ears.

Mike

KKross · Post by **KKross** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:09 am

TTH, Mike,

Thank you vey much for responding! It really does help to have a community with which to commiserate.

Both of your comments helped, and they were a good thing for me to see first thing in the morning!

NinjaFrodo · Post by **NinjaFrodo** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 5:37 am

Your welcome and actually I want to tell you a story.

EArlier this year in my thread (The Onion) I had actually posted about some of my humorous replacements for obsessive thoughts. One situation I was really afraid of my friend yelling at me, I mean it had really bothered me because he had yelled at me before and when people yell at me, I feel like I'm a bad person and I'm already very vulnerable so I just close up and feel really bad about myself.

So In response I would imagine when he would yell, monkeys would fall out of his mouth and they would slap each other on the butt and then run around peeing all over the walls!

I posted this on the forums and then one lady actually decided to try that because her husband was the type to explode and yell. When he actually did explode she had thought about what I had said and started to laugh right then and there. In turn her son started to laugh as well as her husband and it diffused the situation. It was so funny to read about it and I know thats not your situation but it could potentially have the same effect!

Mike