Triangle Choke

Throughout my life I've always been a very anxious person, through my childhood and unto now. I avoid confrontation, I worry alot about how others perceive me and I get the impression that some people around me feel I'm a pushover.

I've never looked into it, but I had a look online last night for symptoms of anxiety and I was shocked to see I meet atleast 12 of them. I'm gonna go to the docs and get checked out, just curious to know if anyone here suffers from it, how they cope and manage and if there are any tips.

I don't really wanna start throwing pills down my neck but I really need to do something. Also how much does marijuana effect it and should I be considering stopping smoking?


Thanks for listening.

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-I'm 2Dope, I sport tight Wranglers, dont say a word or I'll kick you in the neck bitch.-

Lloydy

I dont think its a coincidence that a lot of people on here suffer from anxiety and the one thing they have in common is they all smoke weed.

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Keep the red flag flying high

SageTree

Hey Brother,

It's hard to say if your smoking is helping or hurting. Pretty much only you can know the difference. For myself, sometimes I feel that it helps clear a murky and busy mind, while other times it creates one. It's personal. Follow your best judgement.

I don't see MJ use as a 'long term' effect though, although again, it's personal and we 'train' our minds, knowingly, but mostly unknowingly, enforcing certain behaviors for whatever reasons.

I don't think that you have to take pills if you don't want to.

You can go to a GP, but would suggest asking for a referral to also talk to a counselor.
The pills will take the edge off, I'm sure, but it's like putting a band-aid on something and not fully treating the wound.
And if there is genuinely a permanent imbalance of some sort, then I'd consider it no different that a blood pressure pill or some other necessary med.
However, with counseling the pills may take the edge off long enough to help you learn some good coping strategies, and alleviating the need for the meds in the long run.
In other words, counseling will be exploring a root cause of these feelings, and how you can approach it more safely to get a handle on it.

My Wife has had panic and anxiety attacks in her past and was medicated and in counseling as well. However she hasn't suffered an attack, been medicated or in counseling for years and years. That is to say something has changed or the strategies have helped her navigate, gain confidence and get on surer ground.

Myself, I have taken paxil for 6th months at one point of my life, with out counseling and it took the edge off enough that I was able to get off them by myself, although I don't really think I full worked out the cause until I went to counseling many years later for a different issue. Extreme anger and guilt, which led me back to Depression. However this time I used no med and did just counseling.

Learning how to identify the anger etc... or in your case anxiety, really helped me be able to 'see' it coming literally. And at the time I had just started experimenting with mindfulness meditation and this further helped me be able to then 'choose' in a way what I was going to TRY to do that with energy. It was a signal for me, rather than the action.

I only went to counseling 4-5 times before what was talked about really took hold.

That isn't to say I still don't work on my anger/guilt/depression or still sink into it once in a while. The difference is that I'm more able to pick myself up out of it or at least use the moments to investigate how this came up for me, off my radar, then learn from it, using the examining tools I have learned.

You said that you looked and had the symptoms of Anxiety.

*I'm curious what you called or knew this as before?
*Do you feel that you constantly fit all 12 or just sometimes?
(When DON'T you experiencing the feelings you have that trouble you?)
*Are you working to 'fit' yourself in them or Do the questions seem to half ask the same thing as another question?
*What was the assessment tool?
*Do you feel helped or hindered in being able to label it?


Try not to think of yourself and being Anxiety, but rather consider that you've had a relationship with this thing Anxiety, or however you choose to label it, and that it's not working out too well for you. What you're doing in facing this is going for relationship counseling/treatment with this Thing-Anxiety and you're going to try to get to know it better and get the kinks out. You may find out that it's a relationship you've been stuck in for too long and it will be like taking off an coat and never putting it back on again. But, it very may well be something that is always apart of your life, but what you'll get from knowing it better is knowing how to handle and manage better when you cross paths with It.

Lots of Love Brother.
You can always PM if you want to take it to a more Private place?


SageTree

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The Rev

I suffer from anxiety, and I take celexa for it, at the moment. Helps. I find my biggest problem with anxiety is worrying incessantly about shit. I could be on the Olympic worrying team.



The Rev

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Triangle Choke

Thank you Sage, I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of your post.

I've never really thought Anxiety, i've often wondered if I was depressed but never really had the balls to do anything about it. I have always had pretty low self confidence from being an ugly child to an acne covered teen (thankfully the acne has gone now though). I'm a walking mess really.

Because of my unwillingness to be confrontational and often stick up for myself, others around me who like to be confrontational (there seems to be a few people like this in my circle of friends) seem to try and draw me into a situation just do have me react and look stupid (adreneline pumping, clenched fists, red cheeks, no answer back... the fight or fly theory). Like they get a kick out of it. I'd like to point out that these people are not im my immeadiate circle of friends, but as youre all aware, your friends will sometimes be friends with people that you don't actually like. These are the times when I feel this way. I try and me more assesertive with new people I meet, and perhaps people I'm not too familiar with, but old habits die hard when im around my existing friends, because they are used to me acting this way, and anything else wouldnt be normal to them.

I think then the anxiety comes about because im anticipating that the above situation is going to happen. and when it then does I feel like I am powerless.


I'd say I feel the symptoms most of the time, but there is alot of the time im actually happy.
I didn't take an assessment, I just looked through a few NHS pages relating to it.

These are what came out

Physical
•dizziness
•drowsiness and tiredness
•pins and needles
•irregular heartbeat (palpitations)
•muscle aches and tension
•dry mouth
•excessive sweating
•shortness of breath
•stomach ache
•nausea
•diarrhoea
•headache
•excessive thirst
•frequent urinating
•painful or missed periods
•difficulty falling or staying asleep (insomnia)

Psychological
•restlessness
•a sense of dread
•feeling constantly 'on edge'
•difficulty concentrating
•irritability
•impatience
•being easily distracted

The only ones that arent true of me out the the entire above are diarrhoea, vomiting, periods pains (obv) and excessive sweating.

I'm gonna ring the doctors tomorrow if I can get an appointment, I'll see where I go from here.

Thanks so much

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-I'm 2Dope, I sport tight Wranglers, dont say a word or I'll kick you in the neck bitch.-

SageTree

Thanks for sharing that with us TC.

Water the good seeds in your being as often as you can.
Recognize and note when you feel good and confident.
See what is happening, where you are, things have have help that moment become.

And if I can slowly see the factors in when you don't as well.
One day at a time is a good place to start, or one good interaction at a time, if you will.


Anxiety manifests itself in many ways and often can swing back and forth with feelings of depression, so keep in mind what I said about experiencing a 'going through something' rather than 'being something' as well. Don't get 'locked in' to 'who you are'. You don't need to have anxiety or depression over having one or both
Know what I mean?

With the volition to move forward and a little solid feeling ground, it's a lot easy to see where you're standing when a challenging behaviour arises.
Just going to the Doctor will likely help a lot.

All the best at the Doc tomorrow.
Keep what I said in mind which ever paths you take to work on this.
Sometimes just talking things out and giving your experience words and cognition resolves a lot of things.

Consider what you'd tell someone other than yourself, who is having these experiences.

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Mafoo

i would say that sometimes weed smoking exaccerabates anxious feelings, and sometimes it alleviates them, for me.

i become a bit more self concious when stoned in a social setting, but now that i recognize that its easier to conciously try and be more social.

good luck OP, anxiety sucks

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PLUR
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return

headsrnice

I agree. There's times that smoking does help a lot with those feelings but at times it can make me overthink the stresses going on inside my head. I have to agree that there isn't one specific thing that can eliminate stress. It's a combination of many things.

When I first sought out counseling for my anxiety it had already gotten so bad that it was affecting every aspect of my life. My doctor put me on an anti - depressant because the thought of having those unmanagable thoughts and feelings really made me feel depressed after a while. That along with therapy really helped.

For every person it will be different. I hope that you can find some inner peace whichever route you decide to take.

ganlan

,,,yeah ,I think so!

SageTree

good times man

nice way of slipping in a concern in the thread

Sounds like you could hit up the 'hug me' thread, stickied at the top of the page

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SageTree

Glad to hear it man.

Hugs are good remedies for the grumpies.

You can get an e-hug from me anytime dude !!!!!!!

Sometimes I NEED to watch this video... and it helps




Roach-o

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