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Struggling with worry thoughts.

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Struggling with worry thoughts.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

Jay Dee

My therapist told me 80% panic free and the rest coping is about average. I can do better than that so I figure you can too.

I can remember years ago waking up in a panic and saying "I'm tired of this, go away and leave me alone" and actually being tired enough to go back to sleep. That was the first indicator that I could have control. That was the first indicator that it was internal not external and that it was my thoughts not the trigger that was the problem. The trigger never went away but it never had the same affect again. I realize now that the trigger is just a trigger, what I do with it dictates how it affects me. I am the problem so it is me I need to talk to and my thoughts I need to change. And I did. And here I am. So it works. For me anyway. I also realize that you have to want this bad enough to do the work to win. I had to hit bottom pretty bad first. I never looked back and never quit believing in me. I believe in repetition, loading the memory with the same thought to counter an overloaded mind with the wrong thought. Not so much stopping that thought but burying it so I will use the one I'm putting in place. And in effect stopping it from being active.

"Those thoughts are still in a corner." That is okay because you can not erase memory, but you don't have to use them, they can stay in the corner and never be used again. They will likely try to leave the corner and you are right, thinking a positive will put them back in their corner till one day they stop trying.

I bet if you put as much effort into your quilt as you put into your cure that it is lovely. My lathe still gets a work out when I need to stop a thought and some of my best work was done in those periods.

Davit

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 219

I read a book when I was first diagnosed with generalized anxiety a decade ago. I wish I could remember the name of the book. Stop the thought was theory to stopping negative thoughts and reducing anxiety also known as "thought stopping". I have been using "stop the thought, you're better than that" since then. It worked well, up until here recently, but I also realized I had dropped the "you're better than that". It was in the book. I had been successful with that phrase up until recently.

I believe in the CBT. I want to change how I think even if it means I have to be assertive and/or partially aggressive with my thoughts. Being a passive person along with many other stresses/factors and things from my past, in my opinion, is what led me to having this disorder in the first place.

I have worked tiredly on the worry worksheets the past two days. Today, I decided I was making a quilt and my thoughts are just going to have to go to the corner and wait. Do you know what happened? Those thoughts are still in a corner. 1. Because I told them to go there or 2. I worked diligently on the worry worksheets putting them to rest. 3. The quilt is in the washer because it's done, all sewed together and there isn't a negative worry thought in my head right now. If or when one of them come back, I will find a positive to replace it or challenge it over and over until it's gone. I want my 100%. I figure right now I have 70% cured daily with some days less. I'm going to work hard for that 100%.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is the process of changing how you think and see things. Now it only works if you want it to. And you have to believe it too. If you would rather live with anxiety then you can easily do that by not believing and I can guaranty you can keep your anxiety around. And a lot of people do because they prefer to prove they can't be cured, and they are right. And they would rather be right than cured even if they are only cured 80%. (the average)

CBT is the only cure, everything else is just a coping skill.

Having to use coping skills all the time gets tiring.

Core beliefs that are often wrong, are in your mind right if you think they are right. It is true for the purpose of thought if you think it is true. If you believe it is true then it is 100% true even if it isn't.

Nothing you do physically will cure you any more than you can move something by thought. What you think while doing something physical is what works.

Davit.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 60

I can say for 20 years "I will not have any more panick attacks" that doens´t become true just because we repet it. "Something less than 100% true is not true"

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

Is that not what you want, to change thought to a more appropriate thought?

Davit

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 60

Repetition is good but only for "alternative thoughts" and "Challenge statement" that we learn on our Challenge worsheet.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

That is only partially true. If you let the air out of the ball it will sink. The brain works best with repetition. If you say don't often enough it will recognize it. changing thought patterns works that way. Say anything often enough and it becomes true, even if it isn't. That is how we got in this boat in the first place.

Davit

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 60

I forgot to tell that I think it´s not good to overwhelm an anxious thought, the better is to let go and wait for it to pass, because we know sooner or later it will pass. One example meditation give to me is that how our thoughts work: if we try to push down a ball in water, when we leave the ball, it will rise up much stronger.
Other similar example I recently read how our brains work (including who don´t have this problem we have): if I tell you " don´t think in clouds". What you are think right away? "In clouds". Our brain don´t read the word "don´t", it will skip to "think in clouds". That´s why it´s useless when we have panic attacks say to ourselves "don´t be nervous" , or like yours "stop the thought" don´t work. And when you tell "you are better than this" you are being depreciative with your self.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 60

My worst panic attack in this year, was when I became angry with my anxious thoughts, I was fighting and angry with myself like "you won´t beat me" "this time I won´t let having a panick attack", I was talking in not gentle manners. It worked for a while, I was surprised and happy. But it was not a good ideia, because after a while the anxious thoughts come back so so strong, with no control, that I learned not to do anymore again. Now, when I´m anxious, I speak to me like, "it´s ok to have a panic attack, it´s normal for me, I´m used, but I´m working on this and I know that little by little in time, I will be good.""I´m becaming for calm now" And I remember always that this programm exists and it´s working for me.

I would like to try also smiling to the mirror, it seams it would be funny to try :)

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

Jay Dee

There are facial expressions that go with emotions and they can be keys to how you feel just by looking in the mirror.

Standing in front of the mirror smiling can reduce or get rid of anxiety. If nothing else it can make you laugh.

Davit

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Struggling with worry thoughts.