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  • December 16, 2016 at 6:25 am #122856
    sophronia
    Participant

    I have been reading the articles on this site for a while though I never registered until now. Right now I just feel like I need to share my thoughts with someone… I am 29 years old and I’ve been dealing with anxiety for several years now. While I was working on my Master’s thesis last year, it became really bad for a few weeks – I had terrible stomach aches, I couldn’t sleep and I thought I was never going to stop being afraid. I managed to get past it by concentrating on my craft projects and seeing a therapist. I finished my thesis and handed it in a month ago.

    Ever since, I have been experiencing more anxiety again and the stomach aches are back, too. It just comes and goes – I feel panicky over nothing, sometimes just for for a moment, sometimes for a few days. Whenever I get nervous, I like to work on something with my hands – play the guitar, do some drawing, which usually allows me to completely focus on what I’m doing and to calm down. But I’m always afraid that some day, I won’t be able to calm myself. Earlier this year, I went months without feeling anxious and I thought I had finally left it behind and then it just hit me again.

    I feel that I am still in the process of learning how to live with my anxiety. I am scared about my future right now – I have finished studying and it’s time for me to get out there and find a job and there is this part of me which is really afraid of that. How do I deal with this? I think I am often just afraid of being afraid and I don’t know what to do against that fear.

    December 16, 2016 at 6:58 am #122858
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear sophronia:

    Fear is the most powerful emotion there is, I believe. Not only from personal experience (five decades of anxiety: this ongoing excess fear), but from my understanding of Nature. Animals are engineered, genetically, to attend to danger first, as first priority. Fear, triggered by a possibility of danger, motivates them/ us to attend to danger.

    When feeling fear, the part of the brain that is able to solve problems is activated: locating the problem and solving it will resolve the fear. So we think and over think, and for as long as we don’t locate the real problem, the real danger, that is, we keep looking for it, and not finding it, the fear is not resolved.

    When anxious, we get breaks. The brain cannot handle ongoing fear without a break. When you do something with your hands, your attention is on playing the guitar or drawing. And so the part of the brain looking for the danger (and not finding it) is dormant, for as long as you are engaged in a task. Otherwise there are other breaks, but the anxiety comes back.

    There is a way through it, only it is not instant. It takes time and work and practice of skills. It takes insight and understanding and practice.

    Please let me know your thoughts about my input and I will reply again, if you do.

    anita

    December 17, 2016 at 6:23 am #122926
    Inky
    Participant

    Hi sophronia,

    Ask yourself what’s the worst thing that would happen to you if you didn’t find employment right now. Then answer the question. (You will uncover a butt load of anxiety right about now!) Now make a worst case scenario plan.

    Example: “If I was broke/unemployed I would stay at my mom’s/boyfriend’s/couch surf/do mission volunteer work/get food from the church pantry/etc.”

    You should then feel your anxiety decrease.

    Take up meditation if you haven’t done so already. Listen to recorded visualizations. If possible go to a Meditation Center and find a teacher.

    And of course continue to stay busy with crafting/music.

    Blessings,

    Inky

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