Anxiety

[tenngolfer]

FF, I really do not have any unreasonable levels of anxiety, but I will share some thoughts in hopes you may find one or two things that help.

First thought comes from over a couple of decades ago when I was a Pre-med college student (before switching to bio-medical engineering). I had a physiology professor suggest we learn about vitamins and minerals on our own, because we would not acquire that in med school. I remember wanting to test some of the stuff I read, and one summer taking classes, started taking zinc, B complex and C vitamins to see if I would have any less test anxiety. After a couple of weeks, it made me TOO relaxed, I did not want to study for the test, and discontinued testing. I pulled up a couple of links that may, or may not be helpful (similar to some of the others' suggestions) for vitamins.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/vitam...r-anxiety.html

http://drlwilson.com/Articles/ANXIETY.HTM

Also, having had others work for me over the years that had this issue, I usually tried to make sure the person was situated as best possible to be productive without having to under go routines of high stress events that may trigger an attack; and assign high stress events to others who love it, because they love to fight fires. Hopefully your boss is thinking along those lines. A lot of employee job success is how the employeer sets up the job conditions for success. Good bosses think about the environments, tools, tasks, and processes to achieve successful results without over burdening the human in the equation.

As has been pointed out, what anyone fears, plays a large part of how anyone (with or without anxiety) live their lives. You might try reading a book or two like The Science Of Fear, or looking up youtube on John Stossell investigations where he talks about public fear. Most things people fear, are stastically very rare to ever occur, and we waste energy on fearing them.

Also you may want to do a personality profile on yourself. You can do these on line for $50 to $120, one service has both DISC and Myers Briggs tests. I have used these folks before for testing : http://www.thediscpersonalitytest.com/ . Workplaces that do use them, use them to help everyone understand we may all hear the same sentence someone is saying but have a lot different reactions to the same information. An example: Someone that works for me now, has anxiety attacks, occasionally leaves meetings when he feels attacked or frustrated, although the rest of us heard an "informational sentence", he heard an attack or unreasonable deadline. He has a high C component in his DISC profile, which translates as he is very conscientous of his work, a hard worker, feels he "HAS TO" "check off lists", and does not like to be questioned about anything that may even hint of a performance issue, because he is giving a strong effort (regardless of results). Using the test results and study hints for working with him, I can try to address his fears or phobias, and still work with him for best results.


I don't know if any if this helps, but FYI. Hope you find what you need.

[tenngolfer]

I forgot something very important, pray and keep praying. Secondly, we are all inadvertendly "programmed" to respond to the world in ways that we did not necessarily intend to let happen. Take time to purposefully reprogram yourself (easier said then done). Helpful books come in the form of positive thinking information. Two books I covered recently on similar subject, The Power Of Habit (more scientific), and the Wishes Fullfilled (psychological and spiritual; reprogramming, similar to the Law Of Attraction).

[tenngolfer]

Just to make it easier to review, Wishes Fulfilled: http://youtu.be/xdD_V3n0-FM

The Power Of Habit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H0fTwtPLfo

[fushingfeef]

Just wanted to give an update on my situation:

My short-term disability is preliminarily approved through the end of this week. I am seeing my doctor on Friday morning and at that point she will determine whether I'm fit to return to work on Monday, or if I need an extension. Friday will be 5 weeks since I started the Lexapro, so it might be jumping the gun a bit because Lexapro can take 6 full weeks to start working. Last week I felt great and ready to return, but this week has been somewhat of a setback and I definitely didn't feel ready yet. For one, I was sick over the weekend, and my body may have not been absorbing my medication properly for a 48 hour period. Consequently (at least that's my uneducated guess) I was very anxious yesterday, felt like a weight was on my chest all day, and couldn't stomach the thought of returning to work next week. This morning some anxiety was there but a little less, and as of right now I am starting to feel almost good again.

One thing that didn't help yesterday was I had a conversation with my sister who had been on Paxil a couple years ago and had a bad experience with it. So now she is against all medication-related solutions for anxiety. She was saying how horrible it was to go off the medication and how it drives you crazy and all these horror stories, knowing full well I am on an SSRI and trying to help myself after 2 years of not going the medical route. Finally I told her that she just needed to stop talking about it--she was making me feel much worse. She is a sweetheart and I know she means well but she sometimes just doesn't think about what she's saying and how it can affect other people. So, I felt extra anxious all afternoon yesterday.

Today I'm feeling a bit more empowered and have done something that may seem very silly and minor to you, but it made me feel good to do something constructive and physical. I completely cleaned out our laundry room, cleaned out our deep freezer and defrosted it (it was thick with ice) and I am going to restock it this afternoon! Keep in mind that for the past few weeks I have mostly slept, posted here, read books and watched movies and TV. So the fact that I was able to start and follow through on a project like this is really big for me and makes me feel optimistic that I'm headed in the right direction! Silly, I know, but one small step towards recovery!

[Moderator]

Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Here's hoping that path continues smoothly and whatever bumps you encounter will be small ones that you easily get past.

[Spideyman]

Small steps, all going forward and the journey becomes complete. That is fantastic about cleaning out the laundry room and the deep freezer. Just take it slow, listen to your own inner self and body signals. Much love and only green lights!!

[blunthead]

Just wanted to give an update on my situation...Friday will be 5 weeks since I started the Lexapro, so it might be jumping the gun a bit because Lexapro can take 6 full weeks to start working. Last week I felt great and ready to return, but this week has been somewhat of a setback and I definitely didn't feel ready yet. For one, I was sick over the weekend, and my body may have not been absorbing my medication properly for a 48 hour period...This morning some anxiety was there but a little less, and as of right now I am starting to feel almost good again.

One thing that didn't help yesterday was I had a conversation with my sister who had been on Paxil a couple years ago and had a bad experience with it. So now she is against all medication-related solutions for anxiety. She was saying how horrible it was to go off the medication and how it drives you crazy and all these horror stories, knowing full well I am on an SSRI and trying to help myself after 2 years of not going the medical route. Finally I told her that she just needed to stop talking about it--she was making me feel much worse. She is a sweetheart and I know she means well but she sometimes just doesn't think about what she's saying and how it can affect other people. So, I felt extra anxious all afternoon yesterday.

Today I'm feeling a bit more empowered and have done something that may seem very silly and minor to you, but it made me feel good to do something constructive and physical...the fact that I was able to start and follow through on a project like this is really big for me and makes me feel optimistic that I'm headed in the right direction! Silly, I know, but one small step towards recovery!

Hi, ff. First, thanx for the update. I read good news in it. You were feeling at least a little better before you got sick (there's a lot of that going around), and I think you're correct about absorption of the med being adversely effected when your body's defense mechanisms are detoured by illness. Two steps forward one step back is the progress in this game.

Second, never listen to family unless they are saying loving, gracious, angelically-worded things to you. Family members are the world's worse advice givers. What choice did you have but to cut off your lovely sister's well-meaning but ill-placed remarks? You did good. You gotta take care of you. Tell yer doc about yer sister. Doc's guaranteed to agree with me about that.

Third, yer correct about the cleanup project being an entirely different behavior from what there had been, one impossible to even try to do not to mention want to if you weren't feeling better.

I say look forward to yer appt with doc on Friday, allow yer health needs to be job one and try not to fret about job two, yer employer. This is serious stuff. A good result cannot be rushed. Now I'm preaching to the choir, though, aren't I?

Keep up the good work, ff, which includes keeping us posted.

[gniknehpets]

Good for you FF! Every little step moves you forward. Some days are big step days, some are small step days and sometimes we just have a backwards step day. But they are all important days. Embrace each one for what it is.

[Hayla Lathan]

I do suffer from anxiety, although mine is linked to PTSD after the death of my two year old son. However, I do greatly sympathize with you and would be happy to talk about it with you!

[blunthead]

I do suffer from anxiety, although mine is linked to PTSD after the death of my two year old son. However, I do greatly sympathize with you and would be happy to talk about it with you!

(((((Hayla)))))