#anxietyattack

[anonymouslymc]

Anxiously suppressed

[alexphantm]

If you have anxiety

Don't be afraid to ask a stranger for help. Today just as my class started, I got really hot and felt like I might pass out and started to panic. I hadn't brought anything to drink so I couldn't even take my xanex. I had cash on me and I asked the student next to me if he knew where a vending machine was and if he would mind buying me a water as I felt like I may pass out. He was super kind and got me my water- took me most of the class to calm down but he also came back to me while I waited to turn in a paper and wanted to make sure I was okay. Thank you kind stranger for the help- I don't know if he really knows just how much that helped.

[thedigitaliscollective]

I don’t know what’s wrong with us. Sometimes we’ll just have stints where shit is just horrible, where we can’t take care of ourselves very well so then our sleep goes to hell, then because no sleep our mental health follows swiftly behind, now everything just sucks. Sometimes we can go to work with our partner for weeks and there’s no problem, no early clocking out, hardly no breaks, no issues. Then there’s like a whole freaking week, i kid you the eff not…where we go to work with her or we’ll try and the chaos our brain is up to is just so unbearable that we are having several panic attacks a night. We get through one…that lasts several hours, now here comes number two and number three is so bad we feel like we are having a stroke like we must be about to die or in the process of it because shit is off the wall unbelievably terrible, everything is triggering us, nothing feels good nothing can comfort us, our partner is pleading with them to let them help us, just tell them something and we’ve got nothing we’re crying typing this that’s how awful this is. We are sprawled out in the back seat because that’s how we work with her (our chronic pain is too awful to sit in the seat next to them so we have to lay out in the backseat) with a smile plastered across our face because we’re convinced that if we fake it, feign some type of joy we’ll make it, that it’ll make this go away. I’m so scared when this happens we just don’t know what to do. Does this ever happen to you? Do you panic this hard? I know I sound crazy. What are your panic attacks like maybe we can help eachother..

[darthsnakeeyes3]

Life. . . #anxiety #anxietyattack #anxietyawareness #panicattack #lifeofadventure #liferightnow #therapy #therapysession #lifequotes #lovelife #stuckinbed #bedridden #thefuture #mylife #mylifebelike #socialanxiety #socialmedia #college #work https://www.instagram.com/p/CSDqxPdj4Ru/?utm_medium=tumblr

[heatherschultz]

Sleep issues ☑️ On Edge ☑️ Avoidance ☑️ Over planning ☑️ Negativity ☑️ Lack of focus ☑️ The only one I’d say I’m not doing right now is anger. But I have been experiencing some severe anxiety lately. When I know I need to do something important that means a lot to me, and I continually delay it out of fear, as I have been, this happens. The anxiety intensifies and worsens. Usually when I just rip the bandaid off the face it, it’s a release and I wind up feeling a million times better. But until then it’s like self inflicted torture. I’ve done this even with simple things like going to the dentist. It’s de habilitating and I can’t seem to accomplish anything. Anyway, I’m not sure if I’ll ever get past this. But if you’re experiencing some crazy anxiety too right now, I just want you to know you’re not alone. I understand and am right there with you. 💙 🔮Join the Shadow N Shine Family on YouTube! ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/c/heatherschultz/ 💖Follow my adventures here! ➡️ https://shadownshine.com ✨Whatever you do…. do it with sparkle!✨ #anxiety #anxietyrelief #anxiousattachment #anxietyawareness #anxietyattack #anxietysupport #anxietyiceberg #anxietyrecovery #anxietyproblems #anxietywarrior #anxietyattacks #anxietyisreal #anxietyhelp #anxietymanagement #anxietyfighter #anxietysucks #anxietyanddepression #anxietymemesofinsta #anxietylife #anxietysurvivor #anxietyissues #anxietyhealing #anxietysymptoms #anxietygirl #anxietyprobs #anxietyisabitch #anxietystruggles #anxietysufferer #anxietywarriors #mentalhealth https://www.instagram.com/p/CTIipwDlKU6/?utm_medium=tumblr

[dordmagazine]

What The F Are Intrusive Thoughts?

Lesson brought to you by the fact that most of us are having intrusive thoughts right now, no one talks about it, it's considered taboo + scary, and tbh the psychology community does a bad job of normalizing this common evolutionary behavior.

What The F Is an Intrusive Thought?

Imagine this, you're going about your day, and suddenly you’re hit with a thought that’s bizarre, shocking, uncomfortable, triggering, or overall anxious. No reason for it, it just pops up. 

Could be the voice in your head saying the worst thing you can imagine is happening 

Could be a gut feeling followed by intense anxiety and thought spirals 

Could be thoughts of doing something shocking and out of character for you (usually sexual, violent, or suicidal)

Could be in terms of a relationship (thinking you’re not good enough, they’re not good enough, suddenly fearful of commitment despite having intense feelings for that person)

Intrusive thoughts are actually perfectly normal. Literally everyone has them, not just those with mental illnesses. Intrusive thoughts don't necessarily mean you have a mental condition you need treatment for. Intrusive thoughts are not messages, red flags, signals or warnings, despite how they feel. Even for my intuitive people, your intrusive thought doesn’t mean the situation is actually going on. It's just a thought with zero meaning behind it.

Intrusive thoughts feel so threatening because anxious thinking takes over, and the thought appears to have some intense power that it actually doesn't have.

Common intrusive thoughts we don't call "intrusive thoughts", but they really are: 

Thinking our partner doesn't want us 

Thinking our partner will leave or is cheating 

Fearing everyone at the office hates us 

Convincing ourselves we'll fail 

Thinking we'll go broke

Being afraid that fictional things will happen (ex being fearful that you’ll live the plot of a book you just read)

For some reason we don't associate this type of anxious thinking with intrusive thoughts, but they're classic intrusive thoughts. Other thoughts include thinking about having sex with someone you'd never sleep with, getting in fights, getting raped or abused.

It’s important to note, if you are having intrusive thoughts of getting raped or abused, or doing the actions, that does not mean you want to rape or abuse or get raped and abused. For people who conduct these behaviors, these are not intrusive thoughts. They don’t think much about them and move on. These thoughts cause great stress for you because they go against your values and you’d never do them.

For Example:

People who have intrusive thoughts about cheating, usually value commitment, relationships, and family.

People who have intrusive thoughts about hurting an animal, love animals and would never harm one intentionally.

People who have intrusive thoughts about their religion, are usually extremely faithful and take their faith seriously.

Intrusive thoughts are intrusive because they go against your values. You are not subconsciously represented by your intrusive thoughts.

The Science

Here’s the facts, we get intrusive thoughts for a few reasons.

First one, our brains get bored and try to entertain themselves. I wish I was kidding. We’re taught the brain is a complex thing, but it’s really a toddler. In fact the part of the brain associated with intrusive thoughts, the Amygdala, is the youngest part of the brain. It’s kinda still learning how to brain. 

When we get bored or over stimulated, the Amygdala comes up with situations, so the body can send up doses of chemicals and hormones. Our brain likes to imagine things, it’s just sometimes daydreams turn into nightmares. 

Most common reason our brain has Intrusive thoughts, is because it’s evolved to keep us safe. So it constantly scans the environment for danger, running through all the possible cases. While doing this, it generates thoughts that you are unaware of. When it hits one that causes you fear, it becomes a conscious thought.

When fear hits the body, within seconds fight or flight turns on and the Amygdala is turned screaming. It wants you to come up with a plan to stay safe if the event ever happened.

Once you do, the screaming stops. If you ignore it, sometimes the screaming gets louder. We see this a lot with patients who have OCD, the thoughts get louder or keep coming back harder when we try to ignore them.

In a way our Amygdala is saying “Can’t you see we’re in danger?”

The problem is there is rarely ever any actual danger. The Amygdala is the brains faulty security system. It’s triggered by wind the next County over.

The brain does this so that you are alerted to the potential threat and can then problem-solve your way out of it. Our brain honestly thinks it's helping us. But as I mention everytime I talk about anxiety, we're not outrunning bears anymore. We don’t need overly sensitive Amygdalas.

That’s why OCD treatment uses exposure therapy designed to reprogram how we perceive thoughts in the mind. Treatment involves pushing yourself to do what scares you and ignoring the need to control everything. Overtime the brain adjusts to your responses and you have less obsessive intrusive thoughts.

Follow Your Gut

I’m a natural intuitive. So for me to follow my intuition I had to make peace with my intrusive thoughts.

Remember, our brain doesn't know the difference between real threats or imaginary ones. The brain thinks "I thought of it, it's real". Think of it like a toddler holding an imaginary tea party. We know the cup is empty, but the kid honestly thinks imagination made tea.

I see a lot with people who are practicing their intuition or learning to trust their gut fall into the trap of feeding their intuitive thoughts. Out of nowhere they get an intrusive thought that their blessing, prayers, or manifestation isn't coming. And they freak out because they think it's divine guidance.

My dears, your intrusive thought isn't divine guidance. It's your bodies glitchy security system. Your gut, the universe, or god, didn't telling you that your person will never love you, that the job isn't coming, or that you'd never get rich or have a family.

The thing with intrusive thoughts is they often keep coming up, which tricks us into thinking that it actually means something or it's divine guidance. But the reason these thoughts come us is because we never told our brains it's not actually a danger or threat.

How To Make Them Stop

First things first, if you have intrusive thoughts find a Therapist who focuses primarily on OCD. Many Therapists claim to have worked with OCD patients but lack the education or experience to support your healing journey. 

The thing with traditional talk therapy is it can usually make OCD and Anxiety worse. If you are seeking out professional help, which I always recommend, find a Therapist who is trained in Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP). If you’re on the edge of deciding to see a therapist, there are incredible patient guided workbooks designed to help stop intrusive thoughts.

Some of our favorites are:

The ACT Workbook for OCD: Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Exposure Skills to Live Well with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder by Marisa T. Mazza PsyD

Brain Based Therapy for OCD: A Workbook for Clinicians and Clients by John B. Arden

Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts: A CBT-Based Guide to Getting Over Frightening, Obsessive, or Disturbing Thoughts by Sally M. Winston PsyD and Martin N. Seif PhD

Brain Lock, Twentieth Anniversary Edition: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior by Jeffrey M. Schwartz

How To Be There For Someone With Intrusive Thoughts

Intrusive thoughts can effect our relationships in every way. It’s hard to see your loved one go through suffering you can’t understand.

I always explain intrusive thoughts like this:

An intrusive thought is like we watched a documentary on Bigfoot. Before it, I knew Bigfoot wasn’t real and the documentary only assured me that Bigfoot is made up. But every night I’ll be terrified that Bigfoot is outside of my window and will hurt me when I’m sleeping. So I lay awake and plan or sit in fear. Eventually, the fear will bleed into my daytime life and I’ll become scared that Bigfoot is behind me or will hurt my loved ones. And in the documentary it said people used to keep garlic in their pocket to ward off Bigfoot. So I start carrying around garlic and hiding it in my loved ones belongings. This entire time I know Bigfoot isn’t real. I know my behavior is irrational. But my body is still scared. Even if everything inside of me says Bigfoot isn’t real and even if it’s proven by Scientists. I’m still afraid.

If the person you love struggles with intrusive thoughts it helps to view everything from their perspective. You don’t need to feed into the compulsions, in fact you usually shouldn’t.

Someone suffering with Intrusive thoughts or OCD needs the people around them to be compassionate, understanding, and kind. When someone exhibits an obsessive behavior tied to intrusive thoughts ask them, “Is that an intrusive thought?” usually that’s enough to stop them the thought, even temporarily.

Another thing you can do is ask the sufferer to explain to you what they’re feeling and why they think that way. And don’t judge them for it. Simply nod and smile. People who have intrusive thoughts or OCD need to feel like they aren’t broken because of the way their brain is programed.

Remember, all their brain is doing is trying to stay safe. Treatment involves reframing thoughts and reprograming their brain. The goal isn’t to stop our Amygdala from being aware, it’s to make it less sensitive and less afraid.

Our brain needs to alert us of a flood, it doesn’t need to alert us of 5mph wind.

The important thing to remember with intrusive thoughts is to think of your brain like a toddler. It's pointing everything it thinks and sees out, making sure you see it too. All it wants you to do is say, "yes, I know. But that's not important right now." or "I think you're not seeing it correctly, it's actually this."

Having these thoughts are normal and although distressing they say nothing about your character. 

Follow us as we work to end the stigma around mental illness and keep an eye out for our full magazine set to release early January 2021.

Disclaimer: No one at DORD is a medical professional, meaning we provide education from our first hand experience (and our Editor In Chief’s Psychology Degree). If your intrusive thoughts cause you great discomfort, contact a license professional. If you think you're going to hurt yourself or someone else, contact a professional. If you'd like to know how to get in touch with a professional, shoot us a DM and we’ll gladly help connect you with the appropriate resources.

[toad-counselling-ltd]

Do you think you can recognise signs of Anxiety in yourself or in others? We all suffer with anxiety issues, but these are normalised levels, meeting someone for the first time, job interviews, sitting a test, trying something for the first time. These few examples are what can be categorised as Fleeting Anxieties, this is where our anxiety levels are normal for who we are, we get anxious during that moment or before it and then it passes. For those that Suffer with anxiety issues, it is much more different, the feelings are more intense, they last so much longer and can begin interfering with our normal functions where they are then replaced by varying anxiety levels. We end up being controlled by the anxiety which leaves us avoiding everything including the simplest of everyday tasks, we struggle to sleep, procrastinate for long periods and most likely suffer with anxiety and or panic attacks and so much more. Look for the signs, do you see them in others? Do you see them in yourself? #anxiety #focus #worry #panic #anxietyattack #panicattack #therapy #talking #counselling #psychotherapy (at Toad Counselling Ltd) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLv03YlDJ25/?igshid=1jck8x9p38xdb

[themadornithologist]

I'm so tired of living in this spiteful flesh prison. 😞 #ptsd #imadethat #trigeminalneuralgia #rheumatoidarthritis #crohnsdisease #trigeminalneuralgia #chronicillnesswarrior #chronicpain #selfcarematters #ptsdawareness #anxietyhelp #anxietyattack #chronicallyillstudent #restnow #mentalhealthadvocate #migraine #menieresdisease #Paintudes #quoteofday #notalldisabilitiesarevisible #spoonies #prisoner #butyoudontlooksick #fibrowarrior #hearingimpaired #strongaf #wordsofencouragement #erythromelalgia www.hannahcrazyhawk.com (at Eugene, Oregon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CNyE_2DlACj/?igshid=12j8xd37jscg6