[badgers]

For years I have dealt with anxiety, and half the time I don't know how to deal with it. I let it bottle up until I have panic attacks after panic attacks and that obviously isn't good. I'm wondering if anyone else deals with anxiety? What do you do to get over it?

Sorry for my spam of threads lately, but meh I'm really not.

 

[theorycraft]

i take drugs for it, it gets me high

 

[Strelok]

Yes, anxiety and depression. They keep me in my shitty lifestyle and mindset, which perpetuate the anxiety and depression.

I don't have anxiety attacks. I'm just miserable enough to barely get anything out of life, but not enough to be having a major depressive episode or whatever. Yay...

Anyway, I don't really do anything to "deal with it". I guess I should work on that.

 

[BUtheBabyUnicorn]

I have social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and low self esteem.

A good question is to figure what kind of anxiety do you have and what triggers your panic attacks.
For me, it was being wrong (thanks school for building self esteem around "giftedness" and "intelligence" :dry, confrontation, appearance, and certain things that had to do with rape culture.

What I did:
Social anxiety: Over the past six months, I've tried talking more in class, small talking (ugh, I know), and being more open to my friends. I used to get panic attacks all the time in class, to the point where I stopped talking, which just made it worse. I had no idea these were panic attacks until half a year ago.
I also decided to get over some bad memories that I had by talking to my friends, and they haven't bothered me since.

Generalized anxiety and low self esteem: Mostly journalling about my emotions and writing things down that I thought were good about myself. I did this for a month at least before I stopped. (kind of embarrassing, but...) As a rule, I wrote down 10 things about myself that were positive, with one new thing each time. I only followed the latter part of the rule some of the time, but it still helped me build myself up again.

 

[badgers]

I have social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and low self esteem.

A good question is to figure what kind of anxiety do you have and what triggers your panic attacks.
For me, it was being wrong (thanks school for building self esteem around "giftedness" and "intelligence" :dry, confrontation, appearance, and certain things that had to do with rape culture.

What I did:
Social anxiety: Over the past six months, I've tried talking more in class, small talking (ugh, I know), and being more open to my friends. I used to get panic attacks all the time in class, to the point where I stopped talking, which just made it worse. I had no idea these were panic attacks until half a year ago.
I also decided to get over some bad memories that I had by talking to my friends, and they haven't bothered me since.

Generalized anxiety and low self esteem: Mostly journalling about my emotions and writing things down that I thought were good about myself. I did this for a month at least before I stopped. (kind of embarrassing, but...) As a rule, I wrote down 10 things about myself that were positive, with one new thing each time. I only followed the latter part of the rule some of the time, but it still helped me build myself up again.

Mind if I message you? Maybe you could help.

 

[RoSoDude]

Definitely. My personality is in some ways defined by it. I'm not sure I quite have a disorder or anything (though at times I have wondered... just never had it assessed whatsoever), but I definitely do view life as a series of comfort zones that I am constantly afraid of stepping out of. Typically anxiety just gives me strong inhibitions and a level of paralysis in my behavior, but I have had panic attacks on occasion... not pleasant. It's not a hugely regular thing. Comes and goes. I've only ever had a few really severe ones, but I deal with small panic attacks from time to time, where it just bubbles up and I become increasingly neurotic and afraid of time passing and whatever crap I'm avoiding (that doesn't actually matter) coming to pass.

Sorry for my spam of threads lately, but meh I'm really not.

^the truest form of INTP apology. "It may sound like we care. But actually screw you."

 

[wabi sabi]

Most anxious thoughts are exaggerated thoughts and are often irrational. Try challenging your anxiety-triggering thoughts and know that you don't have to buy into what they're saying. Try to step away from the assumption that all of your thoughts are you, but instead observe your thoughts at their process level. Treat them as secretions of your brain rather than buying into their content. I also believe that in general INTPs are better suited than most to handle self-CBT-- it's like an intense form of metacognition. I'm sure there are better resources out there but here is a starting point (http://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/cbtstep1.htm).

Treating anxiety as a thing to learn about and improve upon made it sort of manageable for me, although I can't turn it off with a switch or anything like that.

 

[Quiet Riot]

Yeah, I wasted a good portion of my life because of it.

I still have it, I don't think it ever fully goes away. But I was able to decrease it by, I'd say 85%. So my advice to you is to first pinpoint the cause of it. It's never as easy as "that one time when I embarrassed myself in 5th grade". For me at least, there were many factors that worked together to create a web of anxiety. Simply understanding your problem as fully as you can helps tremendously. Second thing is to recognize mental/behavioral patterns while you're anxious. After doing this, I knew how to differentiate between ridiculous negative thoughts and normal ones. The last thing was reducing behavior that furthered my anxiety, such as avoiding something because it makes me nervous. Basically, you have to constantly step out of your comfort zone until you feel like you can more or less handle it like any other person could.

Seriously though, it took me 6 months to do this. And the steps above weren't done in order at all, they're not even something I followed, they just sort came out to be that way as I worked with myself. I chose to present them to you like this because now I can put them together for easy understanding. And keep in mind that it might not apply to you because we're different. Just thought I'd share anyway.

 

[sly]

What is causing these anxiety attacks OP? Judging from those that make threads like these, in the 2 years that I have been here, there seems to be a correlation between anxiety and people that:
1)Not doing any form of work at all
2)Excessively masturbate combined with point 1
3)Atheists seem to have these existential depressions and anxiety attacks
4)Mistyped NFs who happen to have a moodswing
5)INTPs with a medical abuse history


To be honest, I don't see anxious INTPs that often. Figure out the cause OP.

 

[that]

I've had rather bad anxiety before, but it's usually been caused by health issues. Now that I have my body in a state of orderliness(or at least for the most part) I'm finding that I'm not anxious at all hardly, except at regular times(starting a new job for instance, or talking to a cute girl).
Another cause for my lack of anxiety could be my increased levels of not giving a fuck. I honestly don't care enough most of the time to be anxious, if something happens then it happens. I'm a fat-ass, but I'm not anxious about it cause I really don't care about what other people think of me, and it's not affecting my health so I don't care(I don't over-eat, but my metabolism is really slow).

I know it's easier said than done, but perhaps you should try to practice not giving a shit more so that you can cultivate it as a personality trait. People will try to tell you that it's not a good trait to have, but they're just jealous. :kitteh:

 

[William808]

I've dealt with anxiety since I was in my early teens. I think some people have an innate tendency to worry. For example, if there is nothing particular to think about, worry will normally result. And when you combine this worry with excessive thinking (which most of us do) it is a real recipe to create anxiety.

With me, it's as if I have to have something to be anxious about. That might sound as if I want it, but that's not so.

No matter what form it is, how it came about, or how you have felt, feel, or will feel about your anxiety, the most affective method to reduce it is to give it less time. The less time you give it the less energy it has to survive. This is not always easy, often not even possible, but if you work at moving on - engaging with others, getting out there, ignoring and ultimately forgetting physiological symptoms.

Your anxiety survives on the amount of attention you give it. Any amount of rumination (and we don't even notice the rumination we do, as it's almost second nature. That's why it's important to lose yourself in things, to break the rumination cycle) will stir up anxiety, and make it more difficult to navigate.

I'm not so sure that reading about it, or researching it, will result in a cure for anxiety. It might help understanding, but once that understanding is understood, then get out there, don't care what people think, don't care how you appear, don't care at all, just lose yourself in what's happening, pay no heed whatsoever to physiological symptoms, be spontaneous.

Anxiety gives us a feeling like it will never leave. But it is a strange creature, because some time later you will find it gone, and realize how weak a thing is was, in the face of your own self-propulsion. But if it comes back, in one form or another, always remember that it will stay alive for as long as you feed it with attention. Refocus your attention on other things in your life. Then the anxiety (maybe not straight away, but soon enough afterwards) will die.

 

[badgers]

I've dealt with anxiety since I was in my early teens. I think some people have an innate tendency to worry. For example, if there is nothing particular to think about, worry will normally result. And when you combine this worry with excessive thinking (which most of us do) it is a real recipe to create anxiety.

With me, it's as if I have to have something to be anxious about. That might sound as if I want it, but that's not so.

No matter what form it is, how it came about, or how you have felt, feel, or will feel about your anxiety, the most affective method to reduce it is to give it less time. The less time you give it the less energy it has to survive. This is not always easy, often not even possible, but if you work at moving on - engaging with others, getting out there, ignoring and ultimately forgetting physiological symptoms.

Your anxiety survives on the amount of attention you give it. Any amount of rumination (and we don't even notice the rumination we do, as it's almost second nature. That's why it's important to lose yourself in things, to break the rumination cycle) will stir up anxiety, and make it more difficult to navigate.

I'm not so sure that reading about it, or researching it, will result in a cure for anxiety. It might help understanding, but once that understanding is understood, then get out there, don't care what people think, don't care how you appear, don't care at all, just lose yourself in what's happening, pay no heed whatsoever to physiological symptoms, be spontaneous.

Anxiety gives us a feeling like it will never leave. But it is a strange creature, because some time later you will find it gone, and realize how weak a thing is was, in the face of your own self-propulsion. But if it comes back, in one form or another, always remember that it will stay alive for as long as you feed it with attention. Refocus your attention on other things in your life. Then the anxiety (maybe not straight away, but soon enough afterwards) will die.

Oh god the accuracy in the top paragraph.

I think part of the problem is, I just think way too much. And I'm prone to being bored, so I worry.

 

[LadyO.W.BernieBro]

I've had rather bad anxiety before, but it's usually been caused by health issues. Now that I have my body in a state of orderliness(or at least for the most part) I'm finding that I'm not anxious at all hardly, except at regular times(starting a new job for instance, or talking to a cute girl).
Another cause for my lack of anxiety could be my increased levels of not giving a fuck. I honestly don't care enough most of the time to be anxious, if something happens then it happens. I'm a fat-ass, but I'm not anxious about it cause I really don't care about what other people think of me, and it's not affecting my health so I don't care(I don't over-eat, but my metabolism is really slow).

I know it's easier said than done, but perhaps you should try to practice not giving a shit more so that you can cultivate it as a personality trait. People will try to tell you that it's not a good trait to have, but they're just jealous. :kitteh:

Something like this. l can't explain why the generalized anxiety l supposedly have doesn't affect me that much.

l don't have social anxiety, which l think creates a huge snowball effect. l truly and honestly do not give a fuck

l think the most annoying person l know with anxiety is an ESFP, she's incredibly difficult to be around and on a buttload of medication that only makes her dysfunctional and still annoying as *** >_>

Then, an ISTJ. She makes life hard for everyone else because her anxiety makes her so rigid that she projects it outward.

l guess l think mine is just more internal.

 

[sehvral]

I get some social anxiety. Particularly in crowds or large groups. I mostly deal with it by either avoiding those situations, or leaving when I hit my limit. I used to force myself to stick around at parties/events too long to make the host happy. Now, I just let them know in advance that "hey, I'm probably gonna leave early". The few hosts I like enough to actually attend their events all know that I don't do well in groups, so it isn't a big surprise when I take off 2 hours before everyone else. I also have no problem anymore leaving to go for a walk for 20 minutes to settle myself before heading back.

Of course, I'm utterly useless when any sort of flirting comes up. Interact with someone I'm interested in? I'd have to be drunk as hell. Wait...I don't drink. Well, shit

 

[BUtheBabyUnicorn]

l think the most annoying person l know with anxiety is an ESFP, she's incredibly difficult to be around and on a buttload of medication that only makes her dysfunctional and still annoying as *** >_>

Then, an ISTJ. She makes life hard for everyone else because her anxiety makes her so rigid that she projects it outward.

l guess l think mine is just more internal.

Medicating mental disorders is honestly one of the scariest things that our society does right now in my opinion.
My ISTJ mother does the same thing when she's stressed. It's possibly the most annoying thing I've encountered so far because she plans things inside her head and expects us to know them, ugh.

I tend to beat myself up when I have anxiety, which is probably the worse part of it. Not anyone else, just me. I think that projecting some of my worries more outward was what helped to get rid of them. Just talking to someone about them would relieve them a little.

 

[LadyO.W.BernieBro]

Medicating mental disorders is honestly one of the scariest things that our society does right now in my opinion.
My ISTJ mother does the same thing when she's stressed. It's possibly the most annoying thing I've encountered so far because she plans things inside her head and expects us to know them, ugh.

I tend to beat myself up when I have anxiety, which is probably the worse part of it. Not anyone else, just me. I think that projecting some of my worries more outward was what helped to get rid of them. Just talking to someone about them would relieve them a little.

Yeah, l didn't really get what l was supposed to ''do'' when l was told l had GAD because to me it didn't seem that bad, but l was offered the host of medications.

Which for whatever reason with people who have anxiety, is a lot of medication. l knew a girl even younger than me (20) who was on 3 or 4 heavy medications and couldn't really function, she eventually went off and accepted being high-strung. l've never tried them.

Oh, definitely nothing wrong with talking, she just verbally attacks people and has not once apologized for it

 

[Ventricity]

exercise, socialise. start gradually. those are the best ways of treating anxiety. anxiety can only be helped if you are exposed to the things that you are anxious about. humans have a natural ability to adapt to things we fear, but only if we are exposed to them and learn how to master them. most people have anxieties and fears of some kinds and it is natural. it's natural to feel anxiety in many situations, don't forget that.

 

[Arjan]

I started using paroxetin. Fe explosions were becoming regular and I couldn't cope with life in general. I feel at ease now.

 

[Texero F]

I drink and get at least buzzed if not half way shit faced before I go to a party it does wonders for my social anxiety . At least in my case I've been better able to control my anxiety through age...

 

[Echoe]

For some reason after I began cleaning up my diet, that was when a lot of the anxiety I had just started waning away. Tensing my muscles for 10 seconds each about twice a day made a noticeable difference in my mood patterns. Breathing from my belly (deeper, slower breaths) by habit has helped. Hypnosis has helped (it's one of my favorite things -- I know it may sound weird at first). Seeing a counselor when I went to university has helped a lot with the little tricks she's taught me for the negative thought patterns I've had. Facing my fears helps a lot towards desensitizing, yup. Being around more positive, easy going people helps.


Hope that helps.