Owner: The Reality of Anxiety URL:http://anxiousnomore.blogspot.com Join Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:17:23 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A personal journey through anxiety with coping strategies and motivational thoughts, as well as setbacks and a community feel. Site statistics:Click here
Blog against Abuse Day 2007-09-27 12:30:00 Today is the official Blog against
Abuse Day as you may have noticed on my little poster on my sidebar. It’s where bloggers all around the world are, you guessed it, blogging on any form of abuse in any field. There are blogs today on stopping animal abuse, elderly abuse, abuse against children, sports games, anything and everything you can think of. So when thinking about what topic I would choose that was relevant to my blog, I decided to take a stance today that is controversial in the world of anxiety. And that is whether or not to take medication. In my opinion, by depriving yourself of medication that can help you live a more ordinary life, you are abusing your self worth and your right to happiness. That’s a pretty bold statement to make and I am sure many of you are reeling right now ready to rip me a new one. So I will list all of the reasons I know of as to why people don’t take medication and my thoughts on them. If I forgot one or don’t have your reason on there
World Mental Health Day 2007-10-10 12:48:00 Today is World
Mental Health
Day as initiated the World Federation for Mental Health and has been celebrated annually since 1992. The theme for this year is "Mental health in a changing world: the impact of culture and diversity"."Mental health is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.”The culture you are surrounded in greatly determines the way in which you deal with your symptoms. However, mental health effects every country no matter where you live. According to the WHO website:Mental, neurological and behavioural disorders are common to all countries and cause immense suffering. People with these disorders are often subjected to social isolation, poor quality of life and increased mortality. These disorders are the cause of staggering economic and social costs. Hundreds of millions of
Feelings of Rejection Lingering 2007-10-09 13:29:00 photo by Ben Larson I had another dream last night about being rejected. This seems to be an ongoing theme to my dreams almost every night. Usually it is being rejected by men, being back in high school and getting rejected by boys I thought were cute for example. But last night’s dream had a twist. My best friend in the dream was Sara Jessica Parker (probably because I really got into the Sex and the City series and considered the relationship the women on that show had as my ‘ideal’ kind of friendship). But at the end of the dream, she decided she didn’t want to be my friend anymore and it really hurt. This brought me back to some real traumatic events in my youth that I was thinking about in the shower. A lot of blog post ideas come to me in the shower. I had a best friend all growing up that lived right down the street. We were the kind of friends that are inseparable, weekly sleepovers, secret clubs, dressing alike, the works. Only in eighth grade she decided to trade Read more:Feelings
A Quick Update and Other Ramblings 2007-10-06 19:49:00 If you are not reading this at The Reality of Anxiety homepage you are reading stolen content. Please click here to be redirected to the original author's page.I made it through my birthday without a panic attack. I didn't really do very much for it and maybe thats why. I kept it pretty low key. And although a part of me was sad that there was no party, no big dinner celebration where all the attention was on me and my existence, the majority of me was happy to just be panic free.So I took the route of doing what I wanted. I took a half day of vacation from work and went out to the mountains with a couple of mt friends to take pictures of the fall scenery. I had been wanting to get up there before the weather got too cold, and photography is very relaxing for me. The weather was perfect. As I have said before, I am a big believer in taking up hobbies because they are very therapeutic and I think they help you to gain confidence. I personally enjoy photography, blogging, and playing t Read more:Quick
, Update
, Quick Update
If it's Your Birthday, You Can Be More Prone to Panic 2007-10-04 12:02:00 If you are not reading this at The Reality of Anxiety homepage you are reading stolen content. Please click here to be redirected to the original author's page.photo by PinkCakeBoxSo today it’s my 25th birthday. I love my birthdays, I love the gifts and the doting comments you get. The attention is nice and I love positive attention. However there is another side of my birthday that I really hate. Every birthday that I can remember I have had a panic attack. Usually because in our society you usually celebrate someone’s birthday with a big meal. That much attention focused on me always made me sick. I can’t count how many birthdays I have been sick on. This makes sense because people that have social anxiety often don't like to be put in the spotlight. I hate the feeling of having to preform for people. And when its your birthday you are definitely in the spotlight all day long. A year ago I was out to eat for my birthday lunch with my coworkers and in the middle of the meal Read more:Birthday
, Panic
Successful Small Trip 2007-10-17 10:11:00 Some of you may have noticed that I removed my last post. I apologize for the broken link to any subscribers. I had mentioned some gripes about work and accidentally left the company name in the post. A coworker found the post by googling the company name and so I thought it would be best to remove it before my company removed me! Lets catch up. This weekend I took a trip to Vegas to watch a football game. Its tradition that we always go to the away game to Vegas and dress up like idiots for the game. Everyone stares at you and either cheers you on for being so gutsy or just stares in amazement. This time when we went I wasn’t looking forward to it because I was worried about my anxiety flaring up and ruining the trip. Needless to say the morning of I took a little Clonozepam and it helped. When I felt anxious the next morning I just did what I wanted to do and didn’t force myself to do anything. I only ate what was comfortable. And I made it through panic attack free. It w Read more:Small
National Love Your Body Day 2007-10-18 11:26:00 Today is National
Love Your Body Day. According to this website 80% of Women in the U.S. are dissatisfied with their appearance. The first day was celebrated back in Sept. 25, 1998.So this morning I got up and did the works to celebrate today. Shower, shaving, tweezing, bleaching, styling, etc. I was thinking about what I would mention and realized that I had it all backwards. I was trying to be beautiful instead of already thinking I was. I think the most important thing is to realize is that today is a day to love your body NOW, the way it already looks. Its not a day to say, “because I love my body I am going to start that diet..." It's where you appreciate what you already have and celebrate YOU!Dove has been doing a campaign for a long time on celebrating "real" beauty as opposed to what society tells us is beauty. Here are some of their videos. They are all short but have an awesome message. Dove- Campaign For Real Beauty Another video by Dove that is very in
Forgiveness: How to Make Peace with your Past and Get on with Your Life 2007-10-26 10:49:00 To search inside click here Sorry it has been so long since I’ve posted. There have been some personal issues that have been taking up much of my spare time. I am reading an amazing book that I can’t put down titled Forgiveness
: How to Make Peace
with Your Past and Get on with Your Life by Dr. Sidney B. Simon and Suzanne Simon. It discusses how forgiveness isn’t a gift that you give to someone who hurt you, but a gift you give to yourself. Many physical stressors in our lives occur due to the fact that we are holding onto grudges and other heavy baggage that weighs us down because we feel that by forgiving we are somehow giving in or letting them get away with it or that we are not validating our feelings. I haven’t finished it yet but I feel like I can relate so well with the words so I thought I would share with you a quick summary and some of my favorite entries so far. What Forgiveness is Not Forgiveness is not forgetting.Forgiveness is not cond
Anxiety of Jury Selection Should be a Reality TV Show 2007-10-22 19:30:00 photo by Eric HamiltonToday I had to go to the downtown courthouse to fulfill my civic duty and potentially serve on a jury. For me, this was a dream come true. I am a big fan of the legal world and love to see it in action. I really wanted to be on the jury. When I got to the courthouse I was about twenty minutes early and so I sat down along with everyone else and immediately I was struck with panic. I tried to take deep breaths and that helped a little. I took some Clonozepam and worried that I wouldn't have enough time for it to kick in. I watched the minutes counting down and realized that if I needed to go to the restroom to let the panic explode, I could be late for the beginning and I didn't know what that would do. I didn't want to miss anything. So I pulled out my lappy and pulled up my/this blog- The Reality of Anxiety, and clicked on the label "Self Talk." I scanned the articles and read positive affirmations and similar situations and what I did to talk myself out of my
What is RSS? How to Stay Up to Date with The Reality of Anxiety 2007-10-30 15:00:00 Explanation taken from ProbloggerWhat is RSS? Do you want to keep up to date with the latest posts on The Reality of Anxiety? I have a number of ways that you can subscribe to this site and receive updates. The main one that my readers use is my RSS feed. RSS is a technology that is being used by millions of web users around the world to keep track of their favorite websites. In the ‘old days’ of the web to keep track of updates on a website you had to ‘bookmark’ websites in your browser and manually return to them on a regular basis to see what had been added. The problems with bookmarking You as the web surfer had to do all the workIt can get complicated when you are trying to track many websites at onceYou miss information when you forget to check your bookmarksYou end up seeing the same information over and over again on sites that don’t update very often RSS Changes Everything What if you could tell a website to let you know every time t
Internal Cleansing: Confrontation and Assertiveness 2007-10-30 13:50:00 Lately my life has been filled with confrontation. This is new territory for me. Usually I run from it like the plague. I would rather bottle up any frustrations and deal with those consequences than have it out with someone. Why? Because I hate how awkward it is and I want everyone to like me, and I cave under pressure. I really struggle with defending my thoughts when going into battle. It’s easier to just keep the peace. However lately that hasn’t been an option. I have gone into battle and I hope good has come out of it. A given example is at my work. This morning I had to confront my boss about micromanaging me. I was not looking forward to it but I knew if I didn’t say anything, it would continue and I would slowly lose any power that I have over my department. I don't want to lose my job, or submit my team to being told what to do by him instead of me because its confusing for them. Plus it tells me that he doesn't trust me to do my job. Feathers have been ruffled Read more:Internal
10 Step Mental Exercise that Will Reduce Panic 2007-11-07 15:49:00 When you feel a panic attack coming on, usually everything escalates very quickly. With or without noticing it, your mind begins to race and quickly the negative thoughts overwhelm you furthering the panic. Negative thoughts usually start off with “What if…” “I should be able to ….” “I have to…” or other critical comments like “I’m so weak” or victimization “Its hopeless, why bother”. These thoughts are called Negative Self Talk. The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook by Edmund J. Bourne lists a quick explanation of what Self Talk is and how it works: "It is so automatic and subtle you don't notice it or the effect it has on your moods and feelings.It appears in telegraphic form- one short word or image ("Oh no!) contains a whole series of thoughts, memories, or associations.Anxious self-talk is typically irrational but almost always sounds like the truth.Negative self-talk perpetuates avoidance.Self-talk can initiate or aggravate a panic a Read more:Exercise
, Panic
Can You Be Declined Life Insurance Because of Anxiety? 2007-11-05 12:49:00 photo by clemente This morning I had a nurse come over to my house, take my medical history, draw blood, etc. all for the purpose of approving me for term life insurance. The man signing us up was a little concerned about my anxiety background as cause for being declined. He said that people with anxiety have a separate phone call made (which I am still waiting for) to discuss it in more detail. My question is, since anxiety isn’t life threatening, why would you be declined for life insurance? Its not like having anxiety means you are suicidal. History of cancer? Understandable. Diabetes? Definitely a red flag. But anxiety? Come on! So I am waiting to hear the verdict. If I get declined I will be very shocked. Heaven forbid anyone gets a bugbite because that might be next on the list of potential life threatening illnesses or diseases to decline insurance for! If you enjoyed this post Subscribe to The Reality of Anxiety.
Our Deepest Fear 2007-11-13 13:06:00 photo by timsamoff"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others."-Marianne WilliamsonAmerican author, lecturerIf you enjoyed this post Subscribe to The Reality of Anxiety.
Turkey Day Meltdowns 2007-11-15 12:09:00 photo by scruff35 Thanksgiving is easily my least favorite holiday for obvious reasons. It’s the one day of the year where the entire point is to eat as much food as you can in front of everyone you know. It’s a nightmare in real life. Last year I tried to do 2 different dinners, only to wind up having a panic attack at my sister’s house and having to bail out before the food was even done being cooked. I remember feeling so embarrassed and upset that day because I couldn’t understand what was wrong with me. This was when I was just learning about anxiety and panic attacks and hadn’t quite nailed it all down yet. Then to make matters worse, the next morning all the girls on my in-law side of the family had to do the early morning shopping. When they were starting to slow down and talk about going out to breakfast, suddenly I started to feel nauseous. Still not sure why I had the reaction I did but knowing it had to do with eating around others, I had to make them Read more:Turkey
, Turkey Day
Proof that Positive Affirmations Work 2007-11-21 10:32:00 photo by Thiru MuruganOne of my favorite positive affirmations that I remind myself of daily is “There’s no need to push yourself. You can take as small a step forward as you choose.” When I first started using positive affirmations, I liked this one because it calmed me down, and made me feel safe. At the time I started using it, I was aggressively trying to gain weight by taking weight gaining supplements, counting my calories, and force feeding myself when I wasn’t hungry. I wrote a post called, “My Healthy My Happy” where I decided that I was putting too much pressure on myself which was causing more anxiety. That’s when I posted a picture of a footprint in the sand on my cubicle wall right next to my monitor at work that represented the positive affirmation above. It’s something that no one else would know its meaning except for me, and I can remind myself often that I don’t have to push myself. The underlying fear of trusting this affirmation is that I Read more:Proof
, Positive
, Affirmations
Big News and Lots of Anxiety to Go With It 2007-11-26 17:16:00 Well I have just had the craziest week in my entire life. Big news… dum dah dah dum!!! (Those were trumpets and now for the drum roll) ........................................................................... I’M PREGNANT! I found out the night before Thanksgiving which means I had to face the scariest day of the year medication free and completely freaked out. I did pretty well actually. I told the family and they were so excited. Plus throwing up when your pregnant is completely acceptable so had I than it wouldn’t have been a big deal. But I didn’t. So why am I am telling all of you when I hardly know you and I am not in the “safe zone” yet? Because you already know all the most intimate secrets of my life anyway, and my anxiety has skyrocketed the last few days because of it and I need the release. I need to document my feelings and like always, maybe I can help someone who is going through the same thing. I am praying that everything goes well but I know t
Negativity is Toxic 2007-12-14 15:59:00 photo taken by code_martial Lately my work has been unbearable. Days spent crying in the bathroom, power struggling with my micromanaging boss. He seems to win every time and a little part of my freedom or even my job duties are taken away. I spend time whispering with others who are struggling about a revolution that can't happen soon enough. Its to the point where finding another job is starting to sound like a good idea, even though in my position I should just wait it out and hope for the best. My last job I was in the same boat and I left to come to this job. But I don't have the same luxuries I did then, now. Right now my emotions are through the roof and I can't control them like I used to. I get annoyed so easily and I don't hide all the anger I feel anymore. Maybe it's funny at home but it's dangerous at work. So instead of talking to my boss because I worry about saying something I would definitely regret, I just fester with the hatred. Today I feel like
Listen to Your Body 2007-12-13 10:44:00 The biggest lesson I am learning these days is to listen to my body and not my mind. For the last year I have done everything in my power to not throw up and felt like I had a setback every time it would happen. However now I am getting sick everyday because of morning sickness, and its ok because I am learning to accept that my body has needs that I have to abide by. I can tell when my body doesn't want to eat vs. when it really does want to. I haven't been losing weight which is really great. When I am tired I rest, when I am sick, I let myself be sick. It's all working out so far. But it goes beyond just pregnancy. Weight loss, weight gain, self esteem, our panic; all happen in result to what we are listening to in our heads, as opposed to listening to our bodies. If we really were in tune with our bodies, we would eat when we were hungry, and stop eating when we got full. There wouldn't be so many overweight Americans. Sure there are always exceptions, thyroid issues or Read more:Listen
Catching Up 2007-12-10 12:18:00 I apologize for the long delay in posts. I have obviously had a lot on my mind lately and most of my computer time is spent researching what the heck is going on inside of me. Since I have found out that I am pregnant I have had 2 situations where my anxiety kicked in. One time my family went out to eat after seeing a ballet. I was starving and ate so much I felt huge! Well I wasn't feeling too great afterward, but it wasn't nausea. People could see I wasn't doing too well so the trip home began. The woman sitting next to me who wasn't immediate family asked me if I was having morning sickness. For some reason this spurred the all too familiar burning sensation in the back of my neck. This happens when I feel embarrassed or ashamed, or I am about to throw up. I told her no, it was something else and then really had to try to distract myself from the pain and the anxiety that came out of no where. I was thinking that maybe it was a miscarriage, and that too had me worried.
Prevent Panic: Have a Game Plan 2008-02-20 20:55:00 photo by TurtbluI am continually amazed. I used to make a point to blog at least once a day even if I had nothing to say. Lately I have been such a flake with blogging and I think its because I have so much on my mind that I don't have as much time to worry about my anxiety. So I get on today expecting a huge drop of readers and what do I see? The readership has grown and I have a handful of comments to read through. I am so happy that this blog has continued to help others even when I haven't needed to rely on it so heavily.Quick update. I didn't go back on my medication. I was unable to get ahold of my doctor for several days because of their weird work hours. I swear doctors are the only people that can tell you to come early for an appt. and then have you sitting there for an hour just Read more:Panic
To Take or Not To Take, That is The Question 2008-01-29 14:16:00 I've hit my second trimester of pregnancy and BAM! Just like that the anxiety is back. I did really well the last few months going cold turkey off my meds. I expected things to go a lot worse. I gained 5 pounds so far which is really great. Lots of women don't gain anything because they are too sick the first trimester. So I am really proud about that.These last couple days however, I can't shake this anxious feeling. Its there when I wake up, and comes and goes throughout the day. I have no appetite because I am getting over the flu, and I wonder if that has something to do with it. I have lost a pound or two from the flu and that always feels like a setback. I can't help but wonder if I should get back on my meds now that I am passed the first trimester.Overall I just don't feel well any Read more:Question
Overcoming an Anxiety Attack 2008-01-11 14:48:00 photo by fotologicI am very proud of myself. Today I had a panic attack, but I rode it out and I overcame it. I haven’t had a panic attack, or anxiety at all for that matter, since Thanksgiving. I got invited to a luncheon with my new department and the fear took a hold right away. It was that panic that I dread which only makes it worse once you recognize its there. So I pulled up some of my previous blogs posts that I refer to often to help myself and I did my mental exercise to prepare for the lunch. I felt a little bit better before we left. Once there the panic came rushing back again and I could tell I was going to be sick, so I went to the restroom. This nausea was definitely different than pregnancy nausea. My face and neck and were flushed and burning. I sat there ready and
No Sympathy if You Don’t Try to Change 2008-01-08 15:52:00 This is a little thing I live by whether its right or wrong. Don't get me wrong, I can sympathize, empathize, show compassion, and feel bad for someone if they are in a crappy situation. I am not a heart of stone. However, if after a certain amount of time of hearing the same complaints over and over and knowing the person has done nothing to change their predicament; I lose the sympathy and just get tired of listening. I have been known to tell people after years of the same problem that unless they do something about it, I don’t want to hear about it anymore. Sometimes I have to take a look at myself and see if I am doing the same thing to others. I have been struggling with work lately and have even written a couple blog posts on it, because it really has been crappy and has been Read more:Sympathy
, Change
Great Quote Alert 2008-01-04 10:54:00 “You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.” --Brian Tracy
Read more:Great
, Quote
, Alert
New Year, Clean Slate, Fresh Look 2008-01-02 16:52:00 New Year, CleanSlate
, Fresh Look Sorry I did not write over break, my computer broke and I had no internet access. It’s nice to get in touch with the world again. Happy New Year! What an amazing feeling to know that you have a whole new year to start over. As Natasha Beddingfield says, “Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten.” I am sure you have all made New Year’s Resolutions by now and I hope you are staying positive and motivated. Just a tip, make realistic goals and not too many of them. I looked back on my 2007 Resolutions and saw that one was to “get over my stomach anxiety” and to gain weight. This made me reflect on everything I have been through this past year and helped me to realize just how much I have accomplished. I have learned so m Read more:New Year
Purchase The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook Here! 2008-03-13 13:58:00 Quick Announcement: I have a new feature to the blog. Now you can purchase the book I am always referring to, "The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook
" by Edmund J. Bourne right here from the sidebar of my blog. The picture above won't take you to it but the one on the left hand side of the blog will. Its a little slow to load right now so if you don't see it give it a few more seconds to load. Hopefully Amazon will fix that soon or I will switch to another bookstore provider. I purchased mine online and it was a very easy experience. I hardly ever buy books but this one was worth every penny. The nice thing about it is that it gives you the tools to learn and then the workspace to practice those tools. You really get a feel for who you are and what the real issues you need to work out come from Read more:Purchase
Don't Have Time For a Game Plan? Don't Back Down, But Be Yourself 2008-03-12 14:41:00 I had a situation recently where I was asked out to lunch very last minute. This is something that I don’t want to stop happening because I love to hang out with my friends and family. However because of the timing, I was unable to really prepare myself for any panic that could arise. I told myself on the drive over a few things I thought might help, but I was already a little flustered. As I was waiting to meet my friends, I could feel the anxiety come and felt immediately nauseous. It has been so long since I had felt this high of anxiety that I wasn’t sure what to do at first. I thought, “I need to get distracted.” So I went into a store and looked at jewelry that I wouldn’t mind owning. When I peeked out I saw they were there. We decided where to eat and as I was ordering t Read more:Yourself
, Back Down
Traveling With Anxiety- Trip #3 2008-03-14 13:46:00 photo by RoadsidepicturesThis weekend I am going on a trip to Las Vegas with my husband and some friends. What a fun thing to do right? However I have had some minor anticipatory anxiety worrying about it this week since the last two trips I went on was either an anxiety nightmare, or at least had some smaller setbacks.Following my true natural instincts I procrastinated all preparation for the trip until the afternoon before we leave. This is because then I wouldn't have to think about it and worry more than I need to. Not very smart after all because now I am a little overwhelmed with everything I have to do and that is stressing me out.So I thought I would take my lunch hour and go over some previous posts I have written to help me be more prepared. Hawaii I didn't prepare at all becaus Read more:Traveling
The Bodies Exhibition- Las Vegas 2008-03-18 18:07:00 I got back from my weekend in Vegas
last night. Overall I consider the trip a great success. Certainly not anxiety free, but I had no full blown panic attacks. Here is what I did to help me this time. I printed out my last post that I had prepared ahead of time and kept it in my back pocket at all times. I read it every morning before I left the hotel room. On the first day we were eating in a food court environment at Gameworks and I started to feel nauseas. I am pretty sure it was anxiety provoked. I just stopped eating. When my friends asked me what was wrong I simply said I didn’t feel well. Then when I could feel the nausea subside a little, I just stuck with the simple rice that I had to get something down. The next morning I woke up panic stricken at 5:30 am. I used to feel t Read more:Exhibition
, Las Vegas
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