Hey and welcome KH girl;
Yes, anxiety has its way with us for sure. I understand completely and really feel your pain; I've been there done that yudda yudda.
It takes a lot of guts to write on a forum for the first time, so congrat's hun. It's nice to hear from you and hope I can help.
Anxiety's caused by fear and affects us physically due to the central nervous system (CNS) being damaged or over worked by too much stress or trauma. In other words, we wear our hearts/minds on our sleeve for all to see.
If anxiety's not treated with medication, rest/sleep, therapy and behavioural changes etc, it becomes an habitual response in the brain/body. That means chemically ok.
And you're right; it's as though anxiety has a 'hold' on us. That's because it does. It's our body's way of saying; 'I can't deal with this stress for too much longer, I need a break'.
If you think about it, you've probably always had some type of feeling in your body when for instance, you're uneasy around someone. You know, like flutters in your belly or chest. This is a normal intuitive response. When your CNS's over worked, these feelings are amplified.
The best advice I can give you, is not to panic when it happens. If you do, your body will interpret this as another 'danger' signal due to an increase in adrenaline and will make anxiety worse. But I guess you already know this hey. Don't worry, it's hard at first to accept those feelings as a normal process, but you'll get there.
Please realise that what you experience is a 'physical disorder'. It's not your mental capacity alone that needs healing. One affects the other like the chicken and the egg ok. Once you understand this, it becomes easier to cope with; there are ways to lower it and even say goodbye. 🙂
Look around the anxiety section for threads that might interest you. There's links below too. Talking with others on here can be really therapeutic and you may even make friends. We're all very compassionate and caring because we've been thru it.
I hope I've helped to ease your mind hun. I'm here most days so please continue talking. It's what we do because it works! We give support to receive support...
Great to see you here;
Sez
