Hi Bols and welcome to our community forums
It's awesome you've found your way here and can share your story. I do know exactly how you feel as I too have PTSD, anxiety and depression. Most of the time it is managed and I cope really well, but there are times - it knocks me over and I feel like I'm floundering. Yep, a week of work was the go!! Only way to move forward.
This happened recently (out of the blue) and this time it's taken weeks to get back to an even keel. Some of the very important lessons I've learnt of the years are:
- it's not weakness. Let me put it this way. Have a think about why you think anxiety is weak. What is there about anxiety that is weak? Fear is a good thing to have. We all need it. Just for some of us fear and our body responses go overboard and it can be difficult to bring back to more tolerable level (e.g. where your heart isn't pounding, sleep comes easily)
- anxiety affects the physical body in many many different ways. Pains in the chest, sweating, running to the toilet. All these things are physical responses to fear. I've found that I have to isolate the belief that goes with the fear, i.e. what is it I'm fearing, why am I fearing it, what is the belief behind it and how can I look at this differently. It all helps. Though sometimes (like my recent experience), other things get in the way of looking at ourselves and what has happened.
- the stigma around anxiety and depression are decreasing overtime (thank goodness). There's still a way to go, but we'll get there. Our CEO put out a media release recently to the Age on Anxiety. Do a google search for it if you are interested.
Feel free to do searches and join in discussions on how others manage their anxiety. You can do this through the search field at the top of the webpage. One very good thread is - Tips for Managing Anxiety.
Hope some of this helps Bols. Keep reaching out, if and when you want to.
Kind regards
PamelaR
