Ferndale37
Peer Supporter
Iv made some remarkable progress since discovering Dr Sarno’s work and also the work of Dr Claire Weekes.
Iv always feared my anxiety since I was younger, worried it was hurting me, causing me to have high blood pressure, and would ultimately make me very ill.
After reading Dr Sarno’s work, I managed to confront some of my fears and was told my blood pressure was normal (when I was in hospital for a minor operation). In the same operation, I was also told my pulse rate was that of an athlete (despite being anxious at the time). So I finally managed to relax about the physical effects of anxiety on my cardiovascular system and began to accept that I’m pretty lucky that anxiety seems to cause me some uncomfortable feelings/sensations and some aches and pains (which I dealt with via Dr Sarno’s books). I sort of relaxed and was confident it could not do me any major damage.
I continued to experience anxiety but was learning to desensitise myself from it, accept it as part of me and not be scared of it as much. The only thing left to deal with was the fact I still latched onto a lot of my thoughts. I recognised them as anxiety but still took them seriously, so I decided to take a mindfulness course, which is also starting to really help me.
I’m starting to allow the thoughts and feelings and have been able to meditate and clear my mind, whilst also sitting through some pretty intense physical anxiety. This is real progress for me as Iv always been scared to feel my anxiety in the past.
I feel like I’v had a major setback however, and it was as a result of watching one of the homework videos from the mindfulness course.
The video went into depth about how emotions negatively effect your heart, even if your heart rate etc seems fine. It took me so long to get over fearing the physical symptoms of anxiety before, and it feels like this has taken me backwards.
I’m back in panic mode and fearing the symptoms again, I’m starting to ruminate and I don’t want to stay in this cycle.
It’s like I fully believed that anxiety would cause me no major harm apart from a few aches and pains, pins and needles etc, and managed to relax about it , but now I’m fearing it again and feel like I’mback to square one.
I’m a 34 year old health male but a bit if a perfectionist. My parents were anxious as a child and my dad had some health issues. I think I dread not being physically perfect which perpetuates things. I eat well, exercise every night, and other than when my anxiety flares to this level, I don’t feel incredibly stressed a lot, its more like a low level background anxiety, that increases with life stressors and then reduces again.
I just want to revert back to my previous thinking that all will be ok and that I’m relatively healthy. I want to go back to Claire Weekes stance that anxiety wont hurt us. If I don’t think like this, how will I ever be able to feel it without fear? Which I know is my key to success.
thanks
Iv always feared my anxiety since I was younger, worried it was hurting me, causing me to have high blood pressure, and would ultimately make me very ill.
After reading Dr Sarno’s work, I managed to confront some of my fears and was told my blood pressure was normal (when I was in hospital for a minor operation). In the same operation, I was also told my pulse rate was that of an athlete (despite being anxious at the time). So I finally managed to relax about the physical effects of anxiety on my cardiovascular system and began to accept that I’m pretty lucky that anxiety seems to cause me some uncomfortable feelings/sensations and some aches and pains (which I dealt with via Dr Sarno’s books). I sort of relaxed and was confident it could not do me any major damage.
I continued to experience anxiety but was learning to desensitise myself from it, accept it as part of me and not be scared of it as much. The only thing left to deal with was the fact I still latched onto a lot of my thoughts. I recognised them as anxiety but still took them seriously, so I decided to take a mindfulness course, which is also starting to really help me.
I’m starting to allow the thoughts and feelings and have been able to meditate and clear my mind, whilst also sitting through some pretty intense physical anxiety. This is real progress for me as Iv always been scared to feel my anxiety in the past.
I feel like I’v had a major setback however, and it was as a result of watching one of the homework videos from the mindfulness course.
The video went into depth about how emotions negatively effect your heart, even if your heart rate etc seems fine. It took me so long to get over fearing the physical symptoms of anxiety before, and it feels like this has taken me backwards.
I’m back in panic mode and fearing the symptoms again, I’m starting to ruminate and I don’t want to stay in this cycle.
It’s like I fully believed that anxiety would cause me no major harm apart from a few aches and pains, pins and needles etc, and managed to relax about it , but now I’m fearing it again and feel like I’mback to square one.
I’m a 34 year old health male but a bit if a perfectionist. My parents were anxious as a child and my dad had some health issues. I think I dread not being physically perfect which perpetuates things. I eat well, exercise every night, and other than when my anxiety flares to this level, I don’t feel incredibly stressed a lot, its more like a low level background anxiety, that increases with life stressors and then reduces again.
I just want to revert back to my previous thinking that all will be ok and that I’m relatively healthy. I want to go back to Claire Weekes stance that anxiety wont hurt us. If I don’t think like this, how will I ever be able to feel it without fear? Which I know is my key to success.
thanks
