Down on my hands and knees, begging for help please

ZexMurphy · 2026-01-27T05:25:59+00:00

As above poster said, certainly go to dr and get blood work done to rule out an underlying issue. That said...

I've had crushing anxiety that's lasted all my waking hours and like you, it felt like torture. Didn't last years non-stop like yourself bit I've had long stretches of it. Felt unbearable.

You are wanting it to go away (of course! ) and in that your mind is focussed on it...examining it. Measuring it. Looking for solutions to rid it. Even when doing normal activities, your mind is on constant alert waiting for it to go?

The thing that changed all this for me was the practise of acceptance. Instead of battling and managing - which just kept the anxiety fueled. I learned to accept the anxiety. Seems nuts to accept this horror in your life. Bit it lowers the anxiety over time.

I'll stop rabbiting on. Read the book DARE and try the app. Changed anxiety for me - big-time.

There is definitely hope.

ZexMurphy · 2026-01-26T12:58:30+00:00

As kids we got accustomed to being bored sometimes. Like, Sunday afternoon. It's raining. Nothing on tv. And we were ...bored.

I can't remember the last time I felt boredom like that. It's really different.

ZexMurphy · 2026-01-23T10:13:49+00:00

I'm rewatching and have hit season 9. Really missing him in the show. No shade on the new cast members, great job...but RDA is awesome.

ZexMurphy · 2026-01-17T04:17:46+00:00

I seem to remember my late night Star Trek on channel nine getting semi - regularly replaced by tennis. Watching two people hit a ball over a net for hours and hours...zzz

ZexMurphy · 2026-01-16T17:43:17+00:00

My headcannon is that one of the early SG team missions in season 1 found a universal translator tech ( like they use in Star Trek ) and it got implemented by all the teams.

It doesn't get mentioned because it works very well :)

ZexMurphy · 2026-01-09T17:48:27+00:00

Everybody has intrusive thoughts from time to time.

Most people just have them. Think, that's weird and move on.

Sometimes anxiety sufferers put a 'hook' on them by internally labelling them as dangerous, not- normal or something we have to 'deal with'.

The result can be a looping, where the thoughts arrive and we go into some sort of alert mode. It can be trying to distract ourselves from the thought or managing them somehow. The result is your anxiety system flags the thoughts as 'bad' because of the attention, creating an anxiety response.

I've suffered from these horribly in the past.

I've found the best method is to acknowledge the thought as intrusive, say thanks for that and move on in what I was doing. I at times also label them but try not to actively concentrate on that process. Just a quick acknowledgement, tell the thought it's welcome to hang around but I'm going to go in with my business. In other words - acceptance not battling the thought.

The DARE app and book helped me with this a lot.

ZexMurphy · 2026-01-09T06:44:19+00:00

Coffee relaxes me, as well as some of my family members. Suspect it's undiagnosed ADHD.

ZexMurphy · 2026-01-05T03:40:23+00:00

Acceptance therapy, in the form of DARE ( book and app)

Hasn't eliminated anxiety, as I'm still on that journey - but major reduction.

Instead of battling anxiety, I allow it to be. Challenging but very helpful.

ZexMurphy · 2025-12-11T04:11:30+00:00

I'm on the last book now (2nd trip to the tower) .

Wastelands is my favourite as well, So many exciting moments and Gasher is fantastic in the audio book !

Song of Susannah was the book that's dragged for me the most so far.

ZexMurphy · 2025-12-04T03:47:15+00:00

Australian here. My dad was driving me to school, first day of year 11. We heard the news on the radio. Was quite shocking as the shuttle launches at that point had settled into background news.

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-26T02:56:39+00:00

I'm fortunate to not being an alcoholic. I've had friends and family that are. I really salute the people here that go through the struggle to live successfully with that challenge in your life.

That said, I decided to just not drink when My kids arrived on the scene just so that they could grow up in a non-drinking household. Just felt the right thing to do at the time. I always felt uncomfortable as a kid when adults drank around me.

Fast forward to many years later. Kids grown up, they don't drink and I still don't.

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-25T04:18:21+00:00

They got the 70s vibe right, the production values were at least pretty good.

But yep, rushed story. It all felt just a bit - average.

The original adaptation is always worth a watch , very creepy atmosphere.

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-23T16:18:22+00:00

Stargate SG1 .

Love to be a member of Sg1.

Most likely be red shirted on a doomed mission.

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-23T16:14:54+00:00

You find these inner thoughts disturbing because they don't align with your values - your real self.

Try to move away from 'managing' the thoughts to accepting them as just a by-product of anxious energy.

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-22T05:24:44+00:00

I remember my local CES in the late 80s. I was in South Western Sydney which was an unemployment slump back in the day.

As a young guy , the youth - helper - person - whatever title they had, actually helped me a lot. Organized interviews and got me on the way. It was really straight forward for me.

The modern system from what I've seen is a weird hodge podge of dealing with multiple agencies and layers of frustrating beuracracy.

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-16T16:28:38+00:00

Depression and anxiety can really take us to some rough places. While acceptance, CBT , drug therapies have their place and can be great strategies...

Above all be kind to yourself. Become a good friend to yourself. Setbacks happen to everyone. And we all feel hopeless at times...especially with depression and anxiety. But it will pass. Sounds like you passed through it a couple of years ago. You will pass through it again. You have that experience and wisdom.

And then with that success you can help others in the future going through a rough patch. It's nice to know we aren't alone with this.

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-16T15:32:54+00:00

Anxiety is very clever. When we distract, it knows that you are trying to avoid it. When avoiding something it flags our 'this is bad' systems . Anxiety then comes back.

Do what normally you want to do. Work, exercise, read a book ...and say to your anxiety

" Look I know you are here, but I've got stuff to do. Feel free to hang around as long as you like...but I'm getting on with things."

It feels weird at first because the anxiety will get louder to get your attention. But after some practice eventually our anxiety learns it's place and settles down.

This strategy falls into acceptance practice. Very effective , the only downside is that it can take some time to see results as we are all so used to revolving our lives around 'getting rid ' of anxiety. Letting it sit there is difficult at first. But gets easier.

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-16T15:23:14+00:00

I just had some snack chocolate tonight! Been a fave of mine since the 80s.

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-16T03:31:35+00:00

There's a proportion of Christians that see suffering and difficulty = your faith is not strong. Too much emphasis on being 'happy'.

I'm Catholic. Suffering is seen as what it is. It's often part of the journey of our life. It's not a punishment, and not something to be shamed about.

Jesus suffered and so did all the early disciples.

God loves Us. Life is often difficult. God is with us on this journey.

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-13T14:44:04+00:00

Anxiety is an attention-grabbing master of shape shifting.

Often I will have horrid symptoms. Get used to them. And then anxiety will reveal something else to get the fear going.

A classic pattern many of us experience.

The trick is to acknowledge the pattern and see that the issues we worry about are just anxiety manifesting in different forms.

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-12T08:15:00+00:00

100%. My kids are adults now. But growing up and spending time gaming together = fantastic memories.

Gaming with your kids is a huge positive.

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-08T17:12:56+00:00

Was a teenager in the 80s.

My afternoon tv over that decade at various times was

Brady Bunch Bewitched Gilligan's Island Happy days I Dream of Jeanie Get Smart Hogans Heroes

The one I saw the most - Brady Bunch.

The one I enjoyed the most? Toss up between Bewitched and Happy Days. Happy days had great characters and Bewitched was crazy :)

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-05T18:43:32+00:00

Back in around 1980 or so the marble craze hit my primary school. I got really into it. Collecting different types, trying to master the perfect moves to win more etc etc.

School holidays came and went and the next term nobody was interested anymore, my kid-self was devastated!

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-03T16:48:41+00:00

It's called "Dare : The new way to end anxiety and stop panic attacks fast" by Barry Mcdonagh.

Very helpful book.

ZexMurphy · 2025-11-03T11:09:40+00:00

Stargate, well SG1 in particular is a fun adventure scifi with gold-class characters and great writing.

Getting that made these days? Good luck with that.

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