Razzle's Reading corner - for newbs to Panic and Anxiety
Jan 2, 2017 16:52:48 GMT -5
blackrabbit, frisklock, and 1 more like this
Post by Razzle on Jan 2, 2017 16:52:48 GMT -5
Hey all, I was going to make a mega thread but figured some things deserved thread of their own.
In this thread, I'd like to talk about Panic, Anxiety as well as their close friends Phobia and agoraphobia and different reading materials that can help you navigate them.
Storytime!
My own story: I mention this LOADS on the main IES boards, but for some pretext I'd like to introduce you to my own anxieties. I'll keep this bit in purple.
Mine started way back in third grade in this guise of me simply missing my mom and wanting to be home. (My emet started way earlier, but I would like to talk more about my overall generalized anxiety in this thread.) We all figured it was my schedule that threw me off and cause anxiety so my parents and school faculty found a solution and all was fixed. I was, for the most part, fine up until I was 26 when my anxieties resurfaced and created what would be my own personal hell.
In December 2015 I acquired a small bladder infection. Nothing I haven't had before. They gave me meds and on my way I went. But of course not without obsessively googling my meds and side effects as well as the very bacteria that caused my infection. Because you see- after my emet started at age 3 after a gnarly case of norovirus that took out my entire family of 5, I developed along with it health anxiety. Small infections, illness, and blood scared me a lot as a child and I was disgusted by others' spit, even my own parents'. Even to this day, I seldom share my things with others.
My health anxiety and emet have both always been around but they wax and wane to my situations. They didn't spiral out of control until that fateful December when I was then diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder...and panic.
I was afraid of everything. I thought my meds would make me sick, I thought I'd get c-diff and have d* so bad I would find myself in the hospital. I had been so freaked out at how I got the infection (Like I said, had them before...really, they are nothing major at all) and the meds had iffy reviews. So I did not take them. I demanded my Dr give me meds I had experience with.
She was shocked I went nearly a week without medication. She did prescribe me what I wanted, but it had to be a stronger dose. Now I was worried about THAT too. I only had 250mg before, now 500? For a longer period?? Whatever, I'll just take them.
Then I worried more. What if the doctor was right? What if it went to my kidneys? I felt ghost pains...aka "Somatic symptom disorder". I felt what I thought I had. I stopped eating and damn-near FEARED food for about 3 months, dropped 10 lbs and went to the doctors for dizzness, nausea. I had EKGs done, had anti-nausea pills given to me. I was CONSTANTLY nauseous. I was always tired. It got so bad I had what is known as "disassociation" or "depersonalization" This happens when your brain cannot cope with stress any longer and puts you in a light-headed and dream like state. Panic attacks happened every day.
I had hart palpitations, headache, lightheadedness, nausea, GERD, IBS, D*, I cried nearly every day longing to "feel normal" again. I was hot, then I was cold. I panicked in restaurants and felt tense, shaky, nauseated when leaving my house for ANY reason.
It totally robbed me of Christmas 2015. Want to know what I did that year on Christmas eve? Cried in my room rocking back and fourth thinking I had a virus and was going to v* any moment. I also hardly ate Christmas dinner. It. was. Awful.
And I was scared...and I had to drive to and from work 40 min each way every day. I was not happy with where I was in life. I missed college. I missed being a kid. I missed who I was and how worry was hardly a "thing" .. And I felt like my body was failing at the same time.
This seems all over the place and blown out of proportion because it totally was. Welcome to anxiety. It does bad, bad things to you. It gives you dark thoughts, it takes away your freedom and it feeds your phobias and fears. It is crucial to get help via therapists, anti-anxiety meds or antidepressents as monitored by your healthcare providers.
Today with the support of my loved ones, my parents and my boyfriend as well as several close friends, therapy and going to the gym, I am glad to report that I am WAY better off and even without the help of medication. I have bad days though, and still have to monitor my anxiety and phobia. Although this is an emet forum, any phobia is closely linked if not caused by Anxiety and I would like to share with you some of the things that really helped me through mine.
Anxiety can cause some terrible symptoms and even bring about new issues. Some of these include but are not limited to:
-Nausea
-Watery mouth
-Chills
-Hot flashes
-Stomach cramps/ache/upset
-Heart palpitations
-Tremors/shakiness
-Dry mouth
-Dizziness
-IBS symptoms/Diarrhea
-Acidic stomach
-Sweatiness
-Tightness in chest
-Difficulty breathing
-Difficulty swallowing
-Feeling a "lump" in your throat
-Needing to gag
-Headache
-Body Ache
-numbness/tingling in outer extremities or face
-Sleeplessness
-Loss of appetite
-Many, many more...
Anxiety is your brain finding a threat such as v*, and either trying to "fight" or run/"flight". You really can't do either, so your nervous system goes into overdrive and pulls blood away from organs such as your stomach, hands, feet, in order to protect vitals like your heart and lungs. Your body tenses causing you to feel achey or tight, the surge of adrenaline kills your appetite and causes n*. Emet, our phobia, is special in that it feeds our anxiety, and out anxiety feeds our emet. Just look at those symptoms: Nausea, stomach upset, Diarrhea, chills, no appetite? These are symptoms of anxiety that we confuse with viruses. All it takes is one small thought...maybe you're tired from work. Maybe you just aren't hungry. You start to overthink, you get anxious, these symptoms crop up, you are now convinced you have a virus and will be sick. You panic more and your symptoms get worse, you say to yourself "This is it! It's real this time!" You even had "D*"
But you know what? Hours pass. Maybe you come on here. Maybe you got so exhausted you slept. Maybe you have a child that needed tending to, or you had to work. You got distracted....and you didn't get sick, did you?
Does this sound familiar? I have been in this community for years and I have seen this scenario play out all the time. I have lived it many times myself and possibly will more. Panic posts happen, they are nothing to be ashamed of...but we also have to address that a big issue is the anxiety that comes along with our phobia.
Here are a few websites I go to when I am panicking, or as a helpful resource:
Calm Clinic
Anxiety Centre
Reddit's Anxiety Subreddit
If anyone else has any good sites or reading materials they have used or would like to share, feel free to post them below!!
Onto what books really got me through rough times:
The first one helped me the most. It is written by Dr. Claire Weekes, an Australian GP and research scientist and one of the first to implement Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The book, "Hope and Help for your Nerves" was highly recommended to me, and I am so glad I had it! It is affordable and small so you can keep it with you when you need it. Here are a few passages I think will help you guys immensely:
A great interactive workbook that can also help that I have been using really helps you dive into the heart of anxieties and phobias and, yes, has a portion for emets as well
The Anxiety Workbook, 6th Edition
A few honorable mentions:
Hardcore Self-Help...aka Fuck Anxiety is a great, funny, down-to Earth and colorful read on tips and tricks on dealing with anxiety. Very thin, short to-the-point book for those who aren't into wordiness.
Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks
Keep this list going if you would like to add more in the comments! Also for those who self harm or are looking to do so, or have suicidal thoughts please I urge you to TALK TO SOMEONE!! Anxiety, Depression, Agoraphobia, Panic, Emetophobia are ALL CURABLE CONDITIONS. You can get help! Please feel free to reach out to someone here ASAP or a loved one, or call the Suicide prevention hotline (USA) at 1-800-273-8255
Canadian: TheLifeLine
UK: Samaritans
You can also text "HELLO" and “GO” to 741741, the Crisis prevention hotline. It is available 24/7 and is all confidential.
In this thread, I'd like to talk about Panic, Anxiety as well as their close friends Phobia and agoraphobia and different reading materials that can help you navigate them.
Storytime!
My own story: I mention this LOADS on the main IES boards, but for some pretext I'd like to introduce you to my own anxieties. I'll keep this bit in purple.
Mine started way back in third grade in this guise of me simply missing my mom and wanting to be home. (My emet started way earlier, but I would like to talk more about my overall generalized anxiety in this thread.) We all figured it was my schedule that threw me off and cause anxiety so my parents and school faculty found a solution and all was fixed. I was, for the most part, fine up until I was 26 when my anxieties resurfaced and created what would be my own personal hell.
In December 2015 I acquired a small bladder infection. Nothing I haven't had before. They gave me meds and on my way I went. But of course not without obsessively googling my meds and side effects as well as the very bacteria that caused my infection. Because you see- after my emet started at age 3 after a gnarly case of norovirus that took out my entire family of 5, I developed along with it health anxiety. Small infections, illness, and blood scared me a lot as a child and I was disgusted by others' spit, even my own parents'. Even to this day, I seldom share my things with others.
My health anxiety and emet have both always been around but they wax and wane to my situations. They didn't spiral out of control until that fateful December when I was then diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder...and panic.
I was afraid of everything. I thought my meds would make me sick, I thought I'd get c-diff and have d* so bad I would find myself in the hospital. I had been so freaked out at how I got the infection (Like I said, had them before...really, they are nothing major at all) and the meds had iffy reviews. So I did not take them. I demanded my Dr give me meds I had experience with.
She was shocked I went nearly a week without medication. She did prescribe me what I wanted, but it had to be a stronger dose. Now I was worried about THAT too. I only had 250mg before, now 500? For a longer period?? Whatever, I'll just take them.
Then I worried more. What if the doctor was right? What if it went to my kidneys? I felt ghost pains...aka "Somatic symptom disorder". I felt what I thought I had. I stopped eating and damn-near FEARED food for about 3 months, dropped 10 lbs and went to the doctors for dizzness, nausea. I had EKGs done, had anti-nausea pills given to me. I was CONSTANTLY nauseous. I was always tired. It got so bad I had what is known as "disassociation" or "depersonalization" This happens when your brain cannot cope with stress any longer and puts you in a light-headed and dream like state. Panic attacks happened every day.
I had hart palpitations, headache, lightheadedness, nausea, GERD, IBS, D*, I cried nearly every day longing to "feel normal" again. I was hot, then I was cold. I panicked in restaurants and felt tense, shaky, nauseated when leaving my house for ANY reason.
It totally robbed me of Christmas 2015. Want to know what I did that year on Christmas eve? Cried in my room rocking back and fourth thinking I had a virus and was going to v* any moment. I also hardly ate Christmas dinner. It. was. Awful.
And I was scared...and I had to drive to and from work 40 min each way every day. I was not happy with where I was in life. I missed college. I missed being a kid. I missed who I was and how worry was hardly a "thing" .. And I felt like my body was failing at the same time.
This seems all over the place and blown out of proportion because it totally was. Welcome to anxiety. It does bad, bad things to you. It gives you dark thoughts, it takes away your freedom and it feeds your phobias and fears. It is crucial to get help via therapists, anti-anxiety meds or antidepressents as monitored by your healthcare providers.
Today with the support of my loved ones, my parents and my boyfriend as well as several close friends, therapy and going to the gym, I am glad to report that I am WAY better off and even without the help of medication. I have bad days though, and still have to monitor my anxiety and phobia. Although this is an emet forum, any phobia is closely linked if not caused by Anxiety and I would like to share with you some of the things that really helped me through mine.
Anxiety can cause some terrible symptoms and even bring about new issues. Some of these include but are not limited to:
-Nausea
-Watery mouth
-Chills
-Hot flashes
-Stomach cramps/ache/upset
-Heart palpitations
-Tremors/shakiness
-Dry mouth
-Dizziness
-IBS symptoms/Diarrhea
-Acidic stomach
-Sweatiness
-Tightness in chest
-Difficulty breathing
-Difficulty swallowing
-Feeling a "lump" in your throat
-Needing to gag
-Headache
-Body Ache
-numbness/tingling in outer extremities or face
-Sleeplessness
-Loss of appetite
-Many, many more...
Anxiety is your brain finding a threat such as v*, and either trying to "fight" or run/"flight". You really can't do either, so your nervous system goes into overdrive and pulls blood away from organs such as your stomach, hands, feet, in order to protect vitals like your heart and lungs. Your body tenses causing you to feel achey or tight, the surge of adrenaline kills your appetite and causes n*. Emet, our phobia, is special in that it feeds our anxiety, and out anxiety feeds our emet. Just look at those symptoms: Nausea, stomach upset, Diarrhea, chills, no appetite? These are symptoms of anxiety that we confuse with viruses. All it takes is one small thought...maybe you're tired from work. Maybe you just aren't hungry. You start to overthink, you get anxious, these symptoms crop up, you are now convinced you have a virus and will be sick. You panic more and your symptoms get worse, you say to yourself "This is it! It's real this time!" You even had "D*"
But you know what? Hours pass. Maybe you come on here. Maybe you got so exhausted you slept. Maybe you have a child that needed tending to, or you had to work. You got distracted....and you didn't get sick, did you?
Does this sound familiar? I have been in this community for years and I have seen this scenario play out all the time. I have lived it many times myself and possibly will more. Panic posts happen, they are nothing to be ashamed of...but we also have to address that a big issue is the anxiety that comes along with our phobia.
Here are a few websites I go to when I am panicking, or as a helpful resource:
Calm Clinic
Anxiety Centre
Reddit's Anxiety Subreddit
If anyone else has any good sites or reading materials they have used or would like to share, feel free to post them below!!
Onto what books really got me through rough times:
The first one helped me the most. It is written by Dr. Claire Weekes, an Australian GP and research scientist and one of the first to implement Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The book, "Hope and Help for your Nerves" was highly recommended to me, and I am so glad I had it! It is affordable and small so you can keep it with you when you need it. Here are a few passages I think will help you guys immensely:
NAUSEA:
Eating may be a problem. You have probably lost weight and felt nauseated at the sight of food. Do not make the mistake of thinking
that because you feel nauseated and are under stress, your food is doing you little good and that therefore you need not eat much.
Even when eaten in these conditions food will nourish you, although it may take longer than normal to digest. Malnutrition and anemia
can bring symptoms like yours, so you must eat enough.
If you have eaten poorly for weeks, your stomach may be unable at first to hold a normal-sized meal. If so, take small meals
frequently. Drink plenty of milk. Also, take a daily dose of vitamins, but only the amount prescribed by a doctor. Too many
vitamins can be as dangerous as too few.
Eating may be a problem. You have probably lost weight and felt nauseated at the sight of food. Do not make the mistake of thinking
that because you feel nauseated and are under stress, your food is doing you little good and that therefore you need not eat much.
Even when eaten in these conditions food will nourish you, although it may take longer than normal to digest. Malnutrition and anemia
can bring symptoms like yours, so you must eat enough.
If you have eaten poorly for weeks, your stomach may be unable at first to hold a normal-sized meal. If so, take small meals
frequently. Drink plenty of milk. Also, take a daily dose of vitamins, but only the amount prescribed by a doctor. Too many
vitamins can be as dangerous as too few.
DIFFICULTY IN SWALLOWING:
The "lump in he throat" feeling may be the most troublesome at mealtime. The sufferer is sure he cannot swallow solid food,
or at least finds this difficult
"I'll never get it down!" I keep biscuits in my office especially for such a patient. Biscuits are dry, and at the sight of
one the patient usually recoils. When I ask him to chew one, he says, "I couldn't swallow a biscuit, I'd never get it down!"
I remind him that I asked him to chew, not swallow. Reluctantly he bites and chews. After awhile I say, "now remember, I want you only
to chew. Don't swallow." But already he has swallowed some of it. As soon as the moistened, softened biscuit reaches the back of his tongue,
his swallowing reflexes take over and at least some of the biscuit is on its way.
You need not worry about trying to swallow; simply keep chewing. The swallowing will look after itself as the food is carried backward.
And it will eventually find its way backward in spite of your nervous resistance.If you keep chewing, the food will eventually disappear.
The "lump in he throat" feeling may be the most troublesome at mealtime. The sufferer is sure he cannot swallow solid food,
or at least finds this difficult
"I'll never get it down!" I keep biscuits in my office especially for such a patient. Biscuits are dry, and at the sight of
one the patient usually recoils. When I ask him to chew one, he says, "I couldn't swallow a biscuit, I'd never get it down!"
I remind him that I asked him to chew, not swallow. Reluctantly he bites and chews. After awhile I say, "now remember, I want you only
to chew. Don't swallow." But already he has swallowed some of it. As soon as the moistened, softened biscuit reaches the back of his tongue,
his swallowing reflexes take over and at least some of the biscuit is on its way.
You need not worry about trying to swallow; simply keep chewing. The swallowing will look after itself as the food is carried backward.
And it will eventually find its way backward in spite of your nervous resistance.If you keep chewing, the food will eventually disappear.
FEAR OF VOMITING:
Many nervously ill people are haunted by the fear of vomiting in public, but I have not yet met one who actually has done this.
Many have gagged gently to themselves or have hurriedly left the hall to gag in the lane outside, but vomit food - no.
This is remarkable when we realize that short of putting his finger down his throat, the nervous person could hardly stimulate his
his stomach, abdominal, and throat muscles more than he does by his tense, anxious control of them. It is not as easy for a healthy stomach to vomit food as one imagines.
If the nervously ill person were to let go and give up the struggle to try not to vomit, his muscles would gradually relax and vomiting
would be even less likely. If he does not vomit while tensely on guard, he certainly will not do so when he relaxes and lowers
that guard, and how much more comfortable he will be.
Many nervously ill people are haunted by the fear of vomiting in public, but I have not yet met one who actually has done this.
Many have gagged gently to themselves or have hurriedly left the hall to gag in the lane outside, but vomit food - no.
This is remarkable when we realize that short of putting his finger down his throat, the nervous person could hardly stimulate his
his stomach, abdominal, and throat muscles more than he does by his tense, anxious control of them. It is not as easy for a healthy stomach to vomit food as one imagines.
If the nervously ill person were to let go and give up the struggle to try not to vomit, his muscles would gradually relax and vomiting
would be even less likely. If he does not vomit while tensely on guard, he certainly will not do so when he relaxes and lowers
that guard, and how much more comfortable he will be.
A great interactive workbook that can also help that I have been using really helps you dive into the heart of anxieties and phobias and, yes, has a portion for emets as well
The Anxiety Workbook, 6th Edition
A few honorable mentions:
Hardcore Self-Help...aka Fuck Anxiety is a great, funny, down-to Earth and colorful read on tips and tricks on dealing with anxiety. Very thin, short to-the-point book for those who aren't into wordiness.
Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks
Keep this list going if you would like to add more in the comments! Also for those who self harm or are looking to do so, or have suicidal thoughts please I urge you to TALK TO SOMEONE!! Anxiety, Depression, Agoraphobia, Panic, Emetophobia are ALL CURABLE CONDITIONS. You can get help! Please feel free to reach out to someone here ASAP or a loved one, or call the Suicide prevention hotline (USA) at 1-800-273-8255
Canadian: TheLifeLine
UK: Samaritans
You can also text "HELLO" and “GO” to 741741, the Crisis prevention hotline. It is available 24/7 and is all confidential.
