Posted by insomniac6622 on December 29, 2009 at 16:45:40:

In Reply to: anxiety questions posted by electracat on December 28, 2009 at 19:40:33:

Hi electracat,

I guess I feel like responding to your post because I can relate.
Lately the cycle of fear and anxiety seem to be pressing in on me
as well. For me it started out as a few sleepless nights about a year
ago. Then it would seem to come and go. When I get in a bad cycle
its usualy because I begin to fear the anxiety itself. Its almost
like when I do sleep I convince myself there must be something else
wrong with me. How could I have experienced such miserable sensations and or feelings? How could I ever stop this from recurring? I create these "what if" scenerios and before long I end
up sabotaging all forward progress.

Alright so I want to encourage you. I beleive you said you cant
change the way you think. What if we dont have to? What if all we
have to do is accept. Accept that people go throug this all the time.
Accept that we have nothing to fear. Accept that our thoughts even
if we cant change them cant hurt us either. They make us miserable
because we attatch fear to them. We dont have to do this. This is
a choice. Take away the fear we can laugh them out of exsistence.

I get into trouble when I start thinking I have some organic ailment.
I mean if there is a biochemical physical reason for the insomnia,
associated anxiety then yes get the medical attention you need.
However, most of us have (I think yourself included) been down this road. We have tried numerous drugs with little or no success.
Yet, for myself I continue to believe this post modernist "stuff"
that says the mind is just some kind of machine. Well if it is its
a self repairing machine. I really believe that. If we stop the
traumatic thinking it will heal,we will return to our normal relaxed
state. Study after study enforces this. My own experience enforces
this. Yet, I manage to convince myself otherwise.

Again, I think the key is acceptance and trust. Accept that you
are a beautiful creation. You ARE NOT responsible for your insomnia.
Dont blame yourself for this. It happened. Just like going outside
forgetting your coat and getting a cold. It happened dont blame
yourself, dont look for some answer that doesnt exist. Dont go
to war with this. Accept, Trust, Believe you will get better and
love yourself there is nothing wrong with you.

Sometimes it helps me just to breath. Sit quietly and think of
nothing but the sound of my breath as I breath through my nose
and let my belly expand. When I experinece anxiety my breathing is
almost always affected. If I can do this for 20 minutes or so it
can have a very profoundly positive effect.

Follow Ups:

• Re: anxiety questions Selini 21:49 2/09/10 (0)

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