Stress Center Peer Support

I have anxiety and I feel like I am on a rollercoaster of being okay then not. I was just reading on StressCenter site about anxiety and it identified anxiety disorders as a mental illness. This sounds so harsh but I guess that explains why I feel "different" than others in how I think... any comments?

Technically it is a mental illness. I guess in relation to other "mental illnesses" that need to be treated with medication, Anxiety CAN be treated with cognitive behavioral therapy. But I know it is a mental illness, as I've been affected by this since I was a little girl and the majority of my family suffers from it as well.

It is an illness, something we are stricken with treatable in many ways. Don't let the stigma of mental illness sway you. It's the same as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and such.

Very true, friends. Thanks. I have also been dealing with anxiety disorder since I was a little girl. I feel great and am thinking positive and then I relapse into a spiral of racing, negative and self-defeating thoughts. You'd think after years of dealing with it I should know to STOP when I am feeling that way, but I don't. It's like I think I "know" what is going to happen so, I freak out. I am so frustrated and embarassed that I do this to myself. Sometimes I feel like I "missed the memo" in life.

Originally posted by ACann:
Very true, friends. Thanks. I have also been dealing with anxiety disorder since I was a little girl. I feel great and am thinking positive and then I relapse into a spiral of racing, negative and self-defeating thoughts. You'd think after years of dealing with it I should know to STOP when I am feeling that way, but I don't. It's like I think I "know" what is going to happen so, I freak out. I am so frustrated and embarassed that I do this to myself. Sometimes I feel like I "missed the memo" in life.

I know exactly what you mean ACann... I am so well educated on the subject of anxiety, panic and depression that you would think I would be able to stop myself from experiencing them. When I am feeling good, I can talk to people about it and really help someone who may be suffering, but when I am in the throws of it, I can't even help myself. But I must admit, that since buying this program I am slowly learning how to calm myself down. It doesn't always work right away, but I think I am starting to get the hang of it. At least I hope I am

Good for you! You will get the hang of it. I learned so much from the program, it changed everything. I was so young when I did the program that I think I might do it again. What do you guys think about going through the program more then once?

Yes, I agree with most of you. But I feel its a mental illness with a cure. anything related to the body can be helped, alleviated or cured all together. I am right now going through very hard times dealing with a childhood thing...I am divorced and alone, I am losing a good friend because of this anxiety over moving. Its a destroyer of your life anxiety. it murders your logicical thinking, you blur into a state of numbness and unbelievable downright fear that seems out of control. I am feeling it now. I feel up and down, loss of control , than feel ok, then spiral down again.
Once I get out of this house I will purge this out of my system...its literally killing me physically and mentally. All the memories of my childhood here. when you are alone this is the most difficult of all.

CreamcheesePuff--What do you mean about your memories of your childhood? Are you talking about leaving the house you grew up in? Or the house you shared with your spouse? What is all your anxiety about?

Anxiety is NOT a mental illness, it is a bad habit of bad(or wrong) thinking. Many doctors put it in the category of mental illness because it falls into a place they personally know nothing about(they have not experienced it for themselves!) Many are starting to realize it for truely what it is. Anxiety CAN be overcome and stopped, a true mentally ill person can not do anything about their situation, a truely mentally ill person cannot think in the capacity that we can.
Let me suggest that each of you look into the studies of Dr. Caroline Leaf, she has it figured out. Dr Claire Weekes also had it figured out years ago,(she was a former sufferer of panic) and wrote books for us to learn from. I have spoken with a man in NZ that is also a former sufferer of panic/anxiety, he has not had panic attacks nor requires meds for 16 years now.
There IS HOPE and there is a way out of this kind of thinking!

AMEN!