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I do the activites I fear but still fear the activites while I'm doing them

dabatross

dabatross

Well known member
Kind of a weird title for this post and I would appreciate anybody's feedback including doctors if they see this on the Q & A section. I've seen a lot of talk about the best ways to deal with fear and they usually deal with facing your fears by doing the activities that cause anxiety for you. For instance, Forest mentioned that he started typing even though he feared it and he started to realize after that there wasn't anything to fear because he wasn't being harmed by it. My question is a little different though: What happens if you face your fears on a daily basis but you're fearing them as you're doing them? In my case I fear the pain I experience when looking at objects up close, or looking at the computer because of eye strain. I still do these tasks every single day but as I'm doing them I fear them so it's increasing my pain levels. How do you break this cycle of fearing activites as you're doing them? It's not enough to simply do them and then all of a sudden the fear is gone (at least in my case). I just push through it and in the back of my mind the fear still exists.

I believe Dr. Zafirides said the best way to overcome your fear is to face them but what happens when you're facing them but still fearing them? Like if I'm watching a movie on TV Im doing the activity I fear but I'm still thinking in my head "oh this might cause more pain by watching this movie" or whatever the case may be. Sometimes I don't fear it as much as other times it varies based on the day. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to overcome this? It's definitely part of the problem when you're doing something and in the back of your mind you keep thinking about the pain and how what you're doing may be affecting it. I would call it symptom checking.
 
Hey Dabatross:

I wish I could help but am in the same "fear based boat". My SI joint was out of alignment for years. While it was, I tried to maintain normal activity at times. This was before TMS or the fact that ANY of the zillions of doctors, chiros, etc. could figure out what was wrong. It was out for 8 years.I've been on pain medication and can't seem to get the guts to step off. Still working my TMS steps. (Hello, I'm Beach Girl and I have TMS)

So here I sit, (uncomfortably still) afraid to do things since I remember that pain. I mean - it was very bad. The difference is: there really was a reason then, but there isn't now. Still the fear is bigger than me. I'm working on a new plan. Always scheming here. What to try next?

I think maybe just keep doing it if you've tried it. Perhaps you'll see like Forest that it's no big deal. It's either you "love" - being online. Or it isn't. And therein lies the problem. Figuring out what points bring on the symptoms and why.

Hang in there. Pretty soon you'll be writing all day long while I hike the Himalayas!

BG
 
@ dabatross, I feel you. And today is a perfect example. I woke up and my shoulders were moderately painful, but I had it firmly in head that I would do free weights today since the local Y just re-opened after a one-week hiatus for renovations. And I did. I basically said, "Fuck you" to the pain and shredded my chest, shoulders and arms. I'm having searing and sore pains in my upper body now, several hours out, to the nth degree and doubts are creeping back in. "But suppose", the doubts say, "the guy who was spotting you on the bench-press was right about, 'Don't do *this* and don't do *that* because you'll develop tendonitis." But guess what? I'm saying "Fuck you" to the doubts. "Go ahead and fucking give me the worst pain of my life. I can deal." Then I went home and hugged Bear. :)

And this was after a really bad afternoon...where we coded a guy who didn't make it for an hour and a half, almost an hour and forty-five minutes...and I did numerous cycles of chest compressions.

I say, "Fuck you" to TMS all the time. Think of it as the playground bully who taunted you because you couldn't play stickball. Well, in my case it didn't stop me from the bench press, the bicep curls, the lat pulldowns, and the deltoid flys.

Take your fear in your hands and crush it. In my case, it may be helpful because I'm doing fairly meathead activities like slinging heavy weights around while growling.

Maybe in your case you could envision yourself as Superman with his X-ray vision? Just spitballin'.
 
hey shanshu,

thats one way to deal with it pretty much just say screw it im not going to let this fear overtake my life anymore. definitely easier said than done but sometimes thats what needs to be done to get over the fear that accompanies this. lately ive been recognizing just how closely related my anxiety is to my pain levels. as my anxiety increase so does my pain and when it decreases so does my pain.. so the root cause is the anxiety. as I saw on tmshelp.com there was another poster on there who said the same thing happened:

http://tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6374&SearchTerms=anxiety
 
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