Anxiety Management

[adaptive1]

So I am reading think book on mindfulness and acceptance of anxiety. It's a good book but its kind of confusing. It seems like they are saying that trying to manage anxiety is pointless. They seem to be saying that you should just accept your anxiety and stop trying to manage it and that working harder at it is not the solution. Then it says to make a list of all the things you have done to manage it and I they have worked. So, I made the list and realized that they were right, nothing I have done has worked. So, I now conclude the answer is to do nothing and just accept it and focus on other things. This book says there is really no proof that these things are biologically based.

Do you think this is good strategy? Do I not need medication and therapy then if I just quit looking for solutions to manage my anxiety levels? Maybe I can quit all that other stuff and just practice mindful acceptance?

 

[forgetmenot]

I think medication and therapy will help you to accept what is and to let the emotions go and not fight them I don't think giving up on medication and therapy is a good move until you have mastered the skills perhaps and your doctor feels it would be safe for you to do so hugs

 

[Cat Dancer]

Don't give up on the medication and therapy. OCD anxiety is not your "garden" variety anxiety and needs professional help to be managed.

 

[adaptive1]

I imagine you are right and there are no easy answers. I mentally exhaust myself sometimes I have to go back for my final visit with the counselor next week and then I'm supposed to,be going to see someone else. I have to say I have had enough all of this and I hate leaving the place where they have been so supportive of me. I don't even think I can say goodbye I feel so torn about leaving but I guess it's what's best.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I think you are probably misinterpreting the message of the book, adaptive1. What book are you reading?

 

[adaptive1]

You are probably right, it's "the mindfulness and acceptance workbook for anxiety." George Eifert and John Forsyth are the authors. It seems like good information but it seems like they say the answer is to quit trying to manage anxiety and that things like therapy and medication are not the answer. That we should just be mindful.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Well I don't know that book but if they're really saying that therapy and medication isn't the answer, I would have to disagree.

 

[adaptive1]

Thanks for your thoughts, I've known you longer than them through this forum and you have not steered me wrong yet. I wil go with what you say.

 

[OtterB]

I am trying to learn mindfulness which helps with staying in the moment and recognizing anxious thoughts and just letting them go. Accepting the anxiety as it is is part of the therapy. With acceptance and not letting anxious thoughts get any traction anxiety levels can be managed so they are not as distressing. I wouldn't think the book is saying you can't do anything about excessive anxiety. We all have anxiety, but most people can usually manage it. Those of us with excessive anxiety can learn to keep it at a level that doesn't cause as much distress. And medications like SSRI's do help.

 

[adaptive1]

I think you are right, that's basically what the book is saying, watching your thoughts without judgement and letting anxiety be there and quit trying to control it. Thanks for your thoughts. I'm probably taking some of it out of context and looking for an excuse to not take medication.

 

[W00BY]

No matter what medication your on anxiety will always come up.

So it is no bad idea to learn strategies for coping with it even with the help of medicine and therapy.

My most anxious moments are when vulnerable or alone.

During therapy I regularly had moments of total panic (and I think I have described this else where in the forum) when I was doing something mundane like doing the dishes etc, It sometimes was caused by flashbacks or just by my mind not coping well with whatever therapy had brought up.

It is our natural reaction within our own minds to literally run around in our own skulls avoiding these thoughts and sensations, I would suffer dissociation at times too which again was completely beyond my control.

CONTROL is the key here to what I am trying to point out.

My first therapist taught me to think about what was worrying me, that sensation as a child when you had homework you knew you had to do but hadn't, whereby you spent more time worrying about not having it done rather than doing it.

She taught me to walk into that worry within my own mind making it a far less potent sensation, I have also through psychotherapy learned to accept anxiety and what it brings to me, what may cause it, and that no matter how well I manage all aspects it will still bleed through, but at that point I can still control it.

I accept it, I try and understand it and I set about distracting myself with a lengthy session of playing scrabble robots, going for a walk, going for a swim, a bit of yoga or picking up the phone and speaking to someone.

Anxiety can be controlled to a certain extent but I think in coming to terms with it you also have to accept what an unpredictable force it is and that whether we like it or not it is deep rooted and connected to parts of our life that where traumatic and sad.

I don't like the way anxiety changes me, I don't like the fact I suffer from it at all, I hate the way people think of me because of moments when I am anxious, I REALLY hate the reasons for it's existence within me, however I have learned to think past the anxiety and refocus my mind and have learned to live with a most unwelcome bedfellow.

It takes practice, constant self monitoring and determination, a bit like being at school and doing your homework!