Physical Anxiety fear of dying

[M_A_]

I feel anxious most of the time and it's all used to be physical for me but now it's also emotional and as if I feel my brain is turning around or smh. Sometimes I'm feeling sad and even a little depressed. I've never felt like this weird unexplainable sadness before as I always being the most positive person. This really scares me, sometimes I can't even talk properly, my thoughts are raising so fast and I have slurred speech, which in fact gives me even more fear and anxiety. I just don't know how to stop feeling like this, relaxation techniques only work when I'm a little anxious but when I'm in a panicky mode nothing seems to slow me down. I even take medication and even tho I feel a bit more relaxed I still feeling on the edge like if I can't relax fully my fast thoughts and body sensations. Help, even writing this making me more anxious and weak and I don't like it...

[Croix]

Dear M_A_~

Welcome to the forum. This sounds a most unpleasant, even frightening way to be however I'd suspect it need not be permanent.

As somone who has an anxiety condition I found things much as you describe at times, even a visit ot a doctor seemed a defeat as I could not explain things slowly and clearly (which is why I ended up writing them down first).

As you are seeing a doctor already do you think it is worth having a discussion with them about this? There may be a way of reducing these feelings.

One thing I did find very helpful was a free phone app called Smiling Mind. I have ot say it took a bit of practice using it but now afterwards my mind is a lot calmer and my thoughts clearer and slower.

It contains a vast array of exercises, even for someone link me with the attention span of a goldfish. I"m sure you would find one or more to suit you.

I repeat however it is not something that has an instant fix, I practiced for a week before starting to get a reasonable benefit -and it improved more as I continued.

Although the title of this is Fear of Death you have not really said anything about it so I'm a but stuck how to respond.

Apart from medical assistance may I ask do you have anyone to give you support, particularly when you are extra anxious? Just someone to listen patiently and care makes a difference.

If you would like to come back and talk more I'd be very interested in how you are going

Croix

[therising]

Hi M_A_

I can't help but wonder whether you're suddenly waking up to a lot of new emotions. If so, completely understandable when it comes to why they feel so foreign and overwhelming in some cases. I suppose a good example could involve waking up to 'being able to feel for others'. Sounds simple but can be far from it. It's like we might have been able to feel someone's sadness or stress in basic ways in the past (leading us to a sense of compassion) but all of a sudden it can be like the volume is turned up. Feeling a basic amount of sadness may have been no major deal in the past but when you can easily feel another person's overwhelming sadness, it can lead to feeling their sense of depression, hopelessness, desperation, incredible grief and overwhelm etc. Sounds a bit strange but it's not our sadness we're suddenly feeling, it's theirs. Same goes for stress or anxiety. You can be sitting opposite someone while no one says a word but still you can feel their stress levels as if they were your own.

Feeling hyperactivity definitely sets off the nervous system. Calming that activity down to be less hyper can mean having a stack of tools in our 'managing energy' bag of tricks. Could next level tools be the call of the day? For example, basic breathing techniques may not be enough in some cases. Next level breathing techniques learned within yoga could be the call. Basically, if emotion is energy in motion, 'How to manage, better define and better understand the energy that's in motion?' can become the question or the quest.

Being a sensitive gal, I can relate to being able to feel the speed of my thoughts. A breathtaking speed in some cases which can definitely take your breath away (making it so much harder to breathe). A 'black smoke' meditation is something that I find helps me at times. If I imagine my thoughts are like a black smoke, I then imagine breathing them out (long exhausting breaths out through my mouth) until the imagined smoke gradually becomes clearer and clearer and my body starts to calm down (out of hyperactivity). Easier said than done in some cases, that's for sure. 🙂