fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3196 ]

[ SECRET POST #3196 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3196 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Hannibal]

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03. [repeat, Black Mirror]

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[World of Warcraft, Mists of Pandaria]

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[Sailor Moon]

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[Silicon Valley]

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[Time Masters: Vanishing Point and Aladdin]

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08.

[Floraverse]

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09.

[HTGAWM]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 045 secrets from Secret Submission Post #457.
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What are yours?

I've discovered recently, a way of dealing when my anxious feelings creep up on me, regaining control of my brain. When I get the anxious feelings I just mentally command them to get out until they subside. Also I've quit letting my brain always think of the worst that could happen for everything and replace it with positive stuff.

Anybody else have any coping mechanisms for this?

When I feel the anxiety rising, and I get the usual western culture centric idea of toughing it out impulse, I learn to ignore the social peer pressure induced feelings of failure at resorting to medication and chug back those pills that help me deal. I wouldn't try and tough out physical symptoms of any other illness, why the hell does society think I should tough out symptoms of mental problems?

You know, I really don't. I mean, there are tools that I have for functioning despite anxiety, but at the end of the day there's no useful techniques I've found for lessening anxiety. I think the only thing that has really worked for me in that regard is medication, and even then it's very much cutting it down, not eliminating it.

Ok so. Reasoning with yourself logically does not help - this is one thing I've discovered during my experience with anxiety (not clinical, but still pretty bad). Pure logic can take you the wildest places. Instead, what you need is common sense. "Is this catastrophic outcome logically possible? Yeah, sure. But it's not going to happen within the next few moments, and thinking about it is damaging for me, so I'm just going to accept that it's a logical possibility but not deal with it emotionally or think about it."

Learn to shelve your Damocles' swords. You can always hang them back over yourself when necessary.

Also, I used to do quasi-meditations where I'd just sit quietly and explore my imaginary worlds. Nothing much happened there - I would just see a lot of magical creatures and maybe hang out with my friends when I felt like it and eat lots of nice food.

I hope someone out there finds this helpful. Anxiety sucks balls, and I'm so very sorry if you have to go through it.

The thing is - for me specifically - I don't feel like anxiety exists solely at the level of conscious thought. It certainly manifests itself in conscious thought, but I'm also totally capable of having a just general background level of anxiety that is still very much real. & that's something that common sense can't drive away because it's not fundamentally driven by its sense or lack thereof. A lot of the times, in my personal experience with anxiety, it's not a question of the actual content or of a specific worry - it's this background hum of WORRY WORRY WORRY DANGER DANGER DANGER. And the specific worries are just where the rational mind goes to justify that existing feeling.

I do agree that distracting oneself with that kind of imaginative mental play - quasi-meditation as you call it - can be a good way of removing your mind from the situation. But I also feel weirdly bad about that - it just feels evasive.

But also thank you for the thoughtful post.

Yeah, that's true. When I started having anxiety issues, I went into therapy and after a while, I basically ended up in a mental place where I had no "conscious" anxiety, but I would wake up every morning in cold sweat and physically shaking. Then I went on meds, and now I'm okay in this regard. (well, I'm actually starting to come off the said meds in a few days, so we'll see how I'll do without them).

I never found anything apart from meds, physical exertion&quasi-meditation stuff that actually alleviated that feeling - I mean, I think it was just something more or less biochemical; it didn't come straight from my psychological issues (childhood trauma).

I don't think you should feel bad about "evading" your anxiety?? What exactly is the alternative? Toughing up and combating it with the sheer strength of will? I'd been trying this route for six years, from 12 to 18, and it only fucked me up worse. It's not "evading", it's soothing and eliminating it as best as you can.

You're welcome <3

I've tried the mindfulness thing, centering and trying to focus on breath/pulse. That comes the closest to working. Mostly I have to simply go do something else to keep my mind busy, just jump to a totally different angle.

Yup. Reading helps me marvelously, for example.

Sometimes I begin to think in extremely minute or grand terms. Like I'll be caught in a loop of going "I can't believe that ten seconds ago I was tying the beginning of that sentence and now I'll never do it again" or "sure i'll die and my conciousness may remain and go somewhere else but what if the universe ends in five million years?"

I usually end up going "Don't think about that...think about what's happening right now." and it helps. Weird, because I had that kind of existential crisis ten or so years ago in middle school.

I just repeat something to myself until it goes away, it's usually phrase like "Just 8 miles more" or "I am a sad child" or "I want to go away". The comfort comes more from the sound of the words than the actual content.

Too bad my anxiety's gotten really bad, and my therapist would like me to start actually analyzing why I get anxiety so we could get to the bottom of it, so she has asked me to try stop blocking it out immediately. :/

Oh, this is actually a good one! I may try it out.

Sorry shit's gotten so bad for you, anon :( FWIW analysing your anxiety's origins is something which I've found very helpful and which basically got me out of a very dark place (well, that, my meds, and my friends being all shades of awesome). It's not a pleasant process, but it is often efficient.

I also do this, though my phrase is always 'I want to go home', even if I AM home. I just find it comforting to say.

I'm sorry your anxiety's gotten really bad. :/ I hope the analyzing thing works out for you.

Avoid thinking about it as much as possible if it is something I cannot change.

Try to take steps to solve the anxiety causing problem. Ie the fucking trees in the front yard. Drama on my dash (hello unfollows and blocks).

Get home and cry about it. Maybe rant on LJ. Sometimes ask for advice on FS.

Try to move forward. If it's something that won't matter in 5 days vs 5 weeks vs 5 years I will be stressed about it depending on what it affects. 5 days? Okay, ride it out. 5 years? Call my mum or dad in a panic.

I listen to guided meditation audios.

Also, sometimes when it gets bad, I turn around and say FUCK YOU DO YOUR WORST at it. It really doesn't like it when I do that.

1. Think of anxiety not as true thoughts, but as your mind's reaction to stress/uncertainty.

2. Work out whether there's something affecting your anxiety. E.g., are you hungry, tired, cold, hot, PMSing, had too much caffeine, hungover, have sore/tense muscles, are stressed about work, stressed about friends, etc. Acknowledge the effect that is having on your anxiety, and do something about it if you can.

3. If you can't stop the thoughts, distract yourself by doing something physical. Cleaning is especially good, because it's kind of psychologically cleansing, and you can think more clearly in a physically clear space.

4. If there's a particular thing that is worrying you, work out whether you can do anything about it. If you can't put it out of your mind - worrying won't change anything, so why do it? If you can, make a plan to do 1 thing to help the situation, and to plan the next thing after that, then put it out of your mind until you can do that thing.

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[ SECRET POST #3196 ]

Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety

Re: Mental tricks for dealing with anxiety