Attacking Anxiety and Depression
Anxiety and depression can wreak havoc on your life. If you are experiencing worry and extreme sadness that doesn’t go away, you can relate to what I mean by havoc. Daily life becomes more difficult and if you ignore the warning signs that your body is sending you, your mental state could spiral into a crisis situation.
I have lived with anxiety and depression all my life. It started in childhood, where I experienced quite a lot of instability. This was back in the seventies, when depression wasn’t talked about and Valium was the answer to anxiety. It wasn’t until years later, in my thirties, I discovered that I wasn’t crazy and there are hundreds of thousands of other people going throught the same thing. I was at the beginning of a recovery from years of substance abuse, anger, resentment, you name it, I was a mess.
Here I will provide you a condensed list of tips on how I was able to win my battle with anxiety and depression.
The first thing I suggest you do is see a doctor and be evaluated.You may be prescribed medication and find it to be helpful. For me, I had a hard time tolerating anti-depressants and didn’t take one until a few years ago when I got divorced. I had been married for 20 years, he had an affair and my world as I knew it fell apart. I lost my home, I wouldn’t work, so I quit my job. My coping skills weren’t enough to manage my symptoms so I took Lexapro for about a year. Non-addictive medications such as Lexapro and Celexa can be helpful to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, but there are so many other aspects to getting back in control over your life that must be learned and implemented into your daily routine.
It is so important to educate yourself about anxiety and depression. How can you begin to manage something not knowing what it is. Read about it on the Internet and ask your doctor about peer support groups in your area which I highly recommend. Sharing common experiences with peers offers a safe haven for building trust so you can talk about your problems with people who have been there.
As you begin to increase your understanding about the symptoms and causes of anxiety and depression, you will learn how your background traits, personality traits, physical symptoms etc contribute to your problem. You will begin to identify what triggers your symptoms and have a plan in place to deal with it. Triggers can be people places or things that you have trouble tolerating and coping with. Many people don’t realize that they can learn empowering coping skills to use when symptoms are triggered.
For me, my biggest trigger is my own self talk. For years I didn’t even realize that my negative thinking patterns fueled my anxiety symptoms to the extreme. I firmly believe that our thoughts can make or break us. Evaluate your thoughts. Are they realistic or blown way out of proportion?
When you start to understand that much of your problem stems from negative thinking habits and that you can actually change your life by practicing positive thinking skills a whole new world begins to open up. You’ll start thinking in a new and different kind of way. Instead of every day being all gloom and doom, you’ll be thinking of ways to resolve problems instead of wasting time worrying about them,improving yourlife so you can enjoy it for a change!
Every positive step you make will only make you stronger against the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Some of these include, diet, exercise, spirituality, socializing, journaling, helping others, avoiding and coping with triggers, thinking before reacting, assertiveness, controlling your thoughts, seeing setbacks as a challenge not a means to an end, stress management skills, time management, doing nice things for yourself, the list is endless.
You’ll learn to respect and love yourself and build a desire to live a happy life. This journey is challenging but your worth it! Everyone needs support to be successful. Whether you join a support group or talk to a trusted friend, having a circle of support is vital to your success.
As I mentioned before, I quit my job after experiencing the worst time of my life. I thought I had lost everything and life my life was over. Living with chronic anxiety and depression is no different than being an alcoholic. You can be sober for years and something bad happens that triggers a relapse.
Remember this is nothing else, there is hope, you are not alone and you have the ability within yourself to turn your life around. An excellent resource I use and highly recommend is, Attacking Anxiety and Depression. This program teaches you everything I’ve discussed and a lot more. It’s great because you can use it at your own pace and it will help you gain the strength to venture out into the world with a new positive outlook.
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