Brent bro, wish you lived nearby because i could talk for hours on this as i suffered from heavy anxiety for many years and i think i have good advice to offer.
i'll try to outline some basics for you...
i can say that likely more then 50% of this is all triggered by your own mental conditioning and somehow becoming overly sensitive to things, or simply not being on the right path in life. but you might not get that part worked out unless you deal with some more simple things first.
the first thing i did that helped me was serious exercise, you have to break a sweat at least every other day. jits is great for this. exercise helps for so many reasons but one is the chemicals it releases in your brain, two is dumping all that excess anxiety energy. so hopefully you can at least get to class before you have any problems, i went in during anxiety attacks a few times but once you get to free rolling i find your mind can't focus on all the bs that is bothering you.
two is diet. try to stop all caffeine and most sugar. these will give you excess energy you don't need right now, and the wrong kind where it's up and down too fast. try to eat good food with plenty of fresh veggies, if you don't like veggies try chinese food, they do amazing things with vegetables. a balanced diet might address any nutritional issues you have that could be contributing to your stress, also a mild multivitamin doesn't hurt either, same with some omega 3 pills (try vitacos.com way cheap).
2 Quick tips for avoiding meds (good call there, i only ever took .5 to 1mg Ativan(lorezepam) in extreme emergencies to keep me out of the e-room). 1. Breathing: it sounds silly but try this next time you have an attack coming on..
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART00521...exercises.html (look at #2)
2. get some "easy now" tea by traditional medicinals (whole foods should have it), this shit is great, way better then any other calming herbal tea for anxiety, it will take the edge off.
if you are up for it learning to meditate is a great thing, even if you use some assistance like "pzizz" (a great app mostly for napping but good for meditation too) or an mp3 of calming gongs, waves whatever. just sit for 15 minutes somewhere safe and let your thoughts go by like clouds, don't try to stop them or hold on. let it come, let it go as my Taoist teacher used to say (the philosophy of Taoism might be useful to you as well).
also some of the programs out there might help you some, there are a bunch of books and audio books that are interesting but some are a waste of time. "the linden method" is pretty good but basically what you need to CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) you can do on yourself. if you go see a shrink, get one that knows CBT.
without addressing the mental issue of my life path these other things eased my anxiety down to about a 3 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the worst), once i got there i was able to see the other things that were the root cause of the anxiety and i addressed them. i feel great now and rarely slip past a 2 on my worst days, haven't had an attack in years, and i don't even need to do all of that stuff anymore although i feel better overall when i do.
all of the things i recommend have been studied to work, i will not tell you to take some homeopathic bs pill because i tried all of that shit and it's a placebo at best.
and yes no GF till you get your shit on track buddy
good luck and if you have specific questions i'll help whenever i have time
i'll try to outline some basics for you...
i can say that likely more then 50% of this is all triggered by your own mental conditioning and somehow becoming overly sensitive to things, or simply not being on the right path in life. but you might not get that part worked out unless you deal with some more simple things first.
the first thing i did that helped me was serious exercise, you have to break a sweat at least every other day. jits is great for this. exercise helps for so many reasons but one is the chemicals it releases in your brain, two is dumping all that excess anxiety energy. so hopefully you can at least get to class before you have any problems, i went in during anxiety attacks a few times but once you get to free rolling i find your mind can't focus on all the bs that is bothering you.
two is diet. try to stop all caffeine and most sugar. these will give you excess energy you don't need right now, and the wrong kind where it's up and down too fast. try to eat good food with plenty of fresh veggies, if you don't like veggies try chinese food, they do amazing things with vegetables. a balanced diet might address any nutritional issues you have that could be contributing to your stress, also a mild multivitamin doesn't hurt either, same with some omega 3 pills (try vitacos.com way cheap).
2 Quick tips for avoiding meds (good call there, i only ever took .5 to 1mg Ativan(lorezepam) in extreme emergencies to keep me out of the e-room). 1. Breathing: it sounds silly but try this next time you have an attack coming on..
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART00521...exercises.html (look at #2)
2. get some "easy now" tea by traditional medicinals (whole foods should have it), this shit is great, way better then any other calming herbal tea for anxiety, it will take the edge off.
if you are up for it learning to meditate is a great thing, even if you use some assistance like "pzizz" (a great app mostly for napping but good for meditation too) or an mp3 of calming gongs, waves whatever. just sit for 15 minutes somewhere safe and let your thoughts go by like clouds, don't try to stop them or hold on. let it come, let it go as my Taoist teacher used to say (the philosophy of Taoism might be useful to you as well).
also some of the programs out there might help you some, there are a bunch of books and audio books that are interesting but some are a waste of time. "the linden method" is pretty good but basically what you need to CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) you can do on yourself. if you go see a shrink, get one that knows CBT.
without addressing the mental issue of my life path these other things eased my anxiety down to about a 3 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the worst), once i got there i was able to see the other things that were the root cause of the anxiety and i addressed them. i feel great now and rarely slip past a 2 on my worst days, haven't had an attack in years, and i don't even need to do all of that stuff anymore although i feel better overall when i do.
all of the things i recommend have been studied to work, i will not tell you to take some homeopathic bs pill because i tried all of that shit and it's a placebo at best.
and yes no GF till you get your shit on track buddy
good luck and if you have specific questions i'll help whenever i have time
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Originally Posted by Cookie Monster
