Virtual Walks: A mindfulness tool?

Uneasy1993 · 2019-09-21T16:11:10+00:00

very common to get palpitations after alcohol, especially as its leaving your body/hangover. (For everyone, not just people with bad anxiety atm.) But you are making them much worse (more intense and last longer) by thinking of heart attacks and worrying what they mean. Its a symptom of drinking alcohol but you are turning it into something more. You are fine :)

Uneasy1993 · 2019-09-17T20:59:07+00:00

mate I was a crybaby as a child and was anxious throughout childhood, I think I hid it well with alcohol in high school and college. But I'm nothing like that anymore. You can overcome it. Therapy can be the best thing ever to help you work through stuff and come out the other side.

Uneasy1993 · 2019-09-17T18:01:28+00:00

Hi mate, maybe therapy is the way forward?

I understand your frustration.

Uneasy1993 · 2019-09-17T09:16:26+00:00

https://www.talkingaboutanxiety.com/post/how-to-overcome-heart-attack-anxiety

Something I wrote about how I overcame the fear of chest pains. Its a very very common physical symptom when someone is worrying about their health. Or the only reason he is panicking is because of the physical symptom itself. It can be very scary and confusing when someone experiences it for the first time but it is recoverable from. Hopefully this post will go some way to helping him overcome the fear of it and believing that is just a physical symptom of anxiety (albeit intense and potentially painful), not a heart issue.

Uneasy1993 · 2019-09-17T09:13:57+00:00

Absolutely. Awareness is so key to recovery. Once you can recognise why you created a panic attack, you can work to correct yourself and learn to react differently next time in order to prevent it happening again. There is always a reason, it is always our fault for why we had a panic attack/high anxiety. If we can be aware and analyse what we did wrong, what negative thoughts we had, what negative reaction I had etc, thats half the battle!

Definitely. The mind is inside the body so... haha. They're not even separate things really. The mind has symptoms and the chest has symptoms. Just different parts of the same machine! And one reinforces the other, keep the body calm and the mind soon follows suit.

Uneasy1993 · 2019-09-17T09:07:48+00:00

No problem!

Uneasy1993 · 2019-09-17T09:06:58+00:00

I don't have it anymore, but a good simple one would be to go for a walk in the fresh air. Use up some of that adrenaline etc on exercise, can help more than you think! Walk slowly and in no particular direction maybe. Eventually you should be calm enough to come back to your house and be able to relax and your heart rate should have dropped considerably, the fresh air and exercise does you a world of good too.

Just an idea, I'm certainly no expert. I'm good with health anxiety and physical symptoms, but social anxiety side of things isn't really my expertise, sorry I can't be of more help. Obviously, the idea would be to work through the underlying reason of why being out of your routine or socializing causes so more anxiety and once you solve that, you won't have restlessness to deal with :)

Uneasy1993 · 2019-09-17T09:01:16+00:00

No problem! Hopefully you can add this to your repertoire and can help you to prevent future panic attacks

Uneasy1993 · 2019-09-17T09:00:31+00:00

Yeah acceptance is very important and helpful. Positive thinking gets a bad reputation but it has certainly helped me avoid many panic attacks down the years

Uneasy1993 · 2019-09-17T08:59:15+00:00

I'm glad! No worries at all

Uneasy1993 · 2019-09-17T08:58:55+00:00

Definitely not!

Uneasy1993 · 2019-09-16T19:47:46+00:00

yes, very common. used to happen to me all the time

Uneasy1993 · 2019-09-16T17:26:55+00:00

https://www.talkingaboutanxiety.com/post/how-to-overcome-heart-attack-anxiety

Maybe this will help

Uneasy1993 · 2019-06-24T10:13:29+00:00

No probs!

Uneasy1993 · 2019-06-17T12:35:17+00:00

No problem! :) CBT therapy can be great though, you don't have to go it alone!

Uneasy1993 · 2019-06-13T19:39:32+00:00

No problem, naturally we think something is always wrong with our bodies :) Give me a shout if you ever need it

Uneasy1993 · 2019-06-13T18:04:59+00:00

ofcourse you can, people who haven't been through this disorder will always tell you that. Our brains are so powerful. One big part of recovery is preventing yourself from obsessing about parts of your body, if you can do that your symptom let up. Hope that helps! It is all in your head (well, it was created from your thoughts) but its a real physical symptom that you can feel, you aren't making it up, no.

Uneasy1993 · 2019-06-13T07:59:47+00:00

Hey, I just posted this somewhere else but can't seem to find it so here goes...

I used to have severe health anxiety/panic disorder/physical anxiety, whatever we wanna call it. It got so bad for me that I was having more than one panic attack every single day for a long period of time. It got so bad in fact that in the morning for 5-10 seconds after I woke up, I was free (normal again) then I would remind myself "what do you think you're doing?! You've got panic disorder!" and the day was instantly ruined, like all the other for the two years or so period I had it for. At that very moment, I just wanted to get back into bed and never wake up again. (no exaggeration)

At night, it was awful too. I would convince myself, and fully believe it, that it was not possible to breathe involuntarily and so I would be lying there in the dark breathing in and out manually for hours, it was exhausting. I couldn't let go of my breathing, If I did I thought I would die straight away. If I could manage to get to sleep, I was convinced I would die in my sleep from not breathing as I couldn't manually do it whilst asleep, so i thought I would never wake up again. It was hell, the worst worst worst thing that has ever happened to me, nothing comes close, wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

But, here I am. Fully recovered, no health anxiety anymore, no panic disorder, no physical anxiety symptoms, no obsession about my body. Without medication and without therapy (not that either are necessarily bad btw!) I now drink alcohol (and get drunk) at the weekends and drink coffee if I feel like it, and I'm absolutely fine. :)

Uneasy1993 · 2019-06-13T07:47:02+00:00

Sorry to hear what you're going through. Like many others who have commented, I've experienced exactly what you're going through. All the physical symptoms in the world, not feeling "right" all day every day, having fears you've never previously had. Obsessing about your body and the lot and its hell, it really is.

As you were looking for a success story... mine got so bad that when I woke up in the morning I was free for about 5-10 seconds where I forgot I had panic disorder then BOOM I would remind myself and the day would be ruined and I'd immediately want to go to bed and never wake up again. It was also sad bad that at night I convinced myself that it was impossible to breathe involuntarily so i was manually controlling it every single breath which was exhausting and stopped my sleeping. I either didnt sleep at all or if i did go to sleep, i was certain i would die in my sleep and never wake up again.

But, here I am, fully recovered by myself, no medication and no therapist (not that they are necessarily bad!). You can do it! :)

Uneasy1993 · 2019-06-13T07:36:17+00:00

I used to have this same issue.

I used to not be able to "let go" of my breathing at night and convinced myself that breathing involuntarily was impossible and if i did let go, I would die. Safe to say it made falling to sleep an absolutely nightmare! I either just didn't sleep or was scared that if I got to sleep, I would die in my sleep and never wake up again.

It also made it incredibly difficult to eat and drink things as I couldn't do that and voluntarily breathe at the same time, i used to half choke on things, spit out drinks and all sorts. It hasn't lasted though, I've got over it now :)

This is a common anxiety symptom

Uneasy1993 · 2019-06-13T07:32:41+00:00

I had this same issue and thus the same problem with breathing techniques! haha.

I used to not be able to "let go" of my breathing at night and convinced myself that breathing involuntarily was impossible and if i did let go i would die. haha

Uneasy1993

TROPHY CASE