I have had horrible stomach pains whre I would just double over and cry, dry heaves, shakes, heart palipitations, feeling like my body was a volcano ready to explode and I just wanted to run as fast and as far as I could, skin crawls, inability to sleep, constant worry, hypochondria. I have ended up in the ER to get checked and of course nothing. Then I ended up agoraphobic so much so that I did not step out of my house to get my mail.
I found the LESS I focused on the physical symptoms, the less intense they would become and the less often they would happen. It is like a mosquito bite, it you do not scratch it, it most likely will not even bother you.
When we pay attention to the feelings of physical symptoms, it causes us to become MORE aware of them, plus every other little normal body feeling we have. We are hyper aware, hyper sensitive and hyper vigilant on every little thing our bodies do. Then we worry about those feelings if they are normal or what is it or when is it going to stop. We pay attention to them more, we then worry about them more, then we become afraid of them, then we dread them, then we fear them even more. Anxiety symptoms, I compare them to as the boogie man underneath a childs bed...it just does not exist. I am not saying that physical symptoms do not, because I KNOW they do. What I am saying here is that we fear a nontangible thing, something that we cannot physically touch or see. Anxiety fear grows out of thoughts, the more thoughts, the more fears. The relaxation tape/cd will help, exercise helps, diet helps, the program helps, therapy can help (which I did as well), meds can help...there are many things that can help, but it will take more than 1 change in life to overcome this. For me I needed a multi prong approach, I needed to commit to the program and getting myself to therapy sessions, to meds, to relaxing, to eating right, to exercising, to calming and reassuring myself instead of fearing and overreacting which made my anxiety and panic worse. There were times I would just cry because it was alot of work, it was alot of time, it was alot of energy and of course I expected everything to work through osmosis and for me to be AOK in a day. THAT will not happen. I needed to learn to be patient, I needed to reassure myself that I was going to be ok, I needed to get out of my house regardless of how I felt, even if it was going to get a morning paper, going to the grocery store for a couple items...I needed to work on myself daily, maitain a positive outlook, have faith that this program and other tools would work, have faith in myself that I was REALLY going to kick this. It is VERY difficult to believe it when you feel like absolute garbage I know, but IT DOES GET BETTER. Make a sticky note with that saying a paste it up everywhere. Also BE PATIENT, as all good things take time. LOOK at yourself as how you would treat your hurting child, how loving and kind would you be to your own child? You mother them, no? Mother YOURSELF for a change! There is nothing wrong with it. YOU need to take care of you in order to take care of others,. (Just like you need to love yourself and be happy with yourself before you can be happy with someone else...SO true!
Come here for encouragement. There are MANY great people here that will boost your confidence when you need it. Most of all, NEVER give up! It does and WILL get better.
