Stress Center Peer Support

I'm on session 2 of the program and i am definitely noticing a decrease in my anxiety levels. i am able to talk myself out of having panic attacks, which i am ecstatic about. the one thing i am noticing, however, is that i am more on edge now. i seem to have a short fuse, and am blowing up easier than before. i am just wondering if this happened to anyone else.

Hi Purple.

All of this hard work sometimes makes us a little more anxious in the beginning, until we get use to it. It takes a lot to face your fears. You'll feel much more relaxed, the more you do the program. There is also a lesson on anger that will help you greatly. So just relax, you're doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!

DeeDee.

yeah, as a women I can testify to that. I am middle age so the chemical imbalances is present. ON top of that I have Anxiety Disorder or like I would call it an Condition. I not disfunctional, just hyper than the next person. In this life, everyone is going to experience some problems, we are all humans with one life on this earth. I will not put myself down,but address my discomforts and inbalance case by case. I can focus on what is causing it, and become aware of what I need to do to fix it. I will not subject anyone to unnecessary anger, because I don't like it when I am mad, it only hurts me at the end and cause me to be sickly in the body. I need my body, mind and spirit!

Hi Purple

I can completely relate to that. Everyone isn't like me, of course, but I feel that part of the problem was that I was stuffing my anger down where I didn't have to deal with it and it surfaced as anxiety.

In my opinion, I feel that we tend to label emotions like anger as "bad" or "wrong". So we stuff it back into ourselves because we don't want to be bad and angry. But the feelings are still there. I don't think that anger is bad, it's what you do about it that's bad or good. If you walk into work and shoot people, that's definitely very bad. But what if you acknowledge it and find ways to release it. You could write about how mad you are in your journal. Or beat the crap out of a pillow. Or exercise to release steam.

Anger for me can be a motivator. Sometimes I procrastinate about confronting things and taking care of them because I'm scared. Finally, I get so ticked off that I just go do it. (I hope to stop this pattern as I keep working on this!)

There is a section about anger later on in the course, too.

And yes, Section 2 was definitely where one seems to have some issues come up. For me, my panics got worse and I wondered if I was nuts for even attempting this course. But things did get better and better, and by the end I was looking back and realizing how far up the mountain I really did climb!

With Care,

Jeri

Anger and anxiety eventually lead to major depression for me. I usually get angry when I am having anxiety. And of course it is everything and everybody who I thought was causing it. Now I realize I cause it and I can control it with the proper skills. I do wonder why I didn't hear that years in counseling?? I can't wait to see what I will be like at the end of the courseware. I thank all of you for being there and wish the best for all of us!!