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Anxiety counselling progress
HI, I've had three counselling sessions now with a very helpful lady who has given me a 'toolkit' of some techniques to use, I have anxiety because I get symptoms that could be heart related such as chest, shoulder and arm tightness and I really do have an irregular heartbeat sometimes which doesnt help. The 'tools' are:-
To challenge irrational thinking (using ABC thought log)
KNowledge of fight or flight response (adrenaline)
Over sensitive 'alarm' in my mind
Relaxation and breathing techniques
To study Eric Bernes transactional analysis and ego states, and to aim for the 'Adult' state.
My question is, this is all very well. I actually think it has helped a bit too. But when I got out of the bath last night I got really a quite bad ache in my left shoulder, my chest eventually got tight too. No amount of practise of all I have been taught seemed to help. I also was having bouts of ventricular bigeminy ('missed' beats).
I did not panic outwardly, did not mention any of this to my wife for whom I have cause enough stress and eventually things did ease a bit, but I was exhausted and in bed by 9pm.
Has anyone got any advice on how I can cope better?
Absolutely none of the advice and training I have received alters the fact that deep down I just am worried I have a heart problem that has been missed. (I have had extensive tests, all normal but have not had an angiogram and am well aware that other tests can have false negatives)
To challenge irrational thinking (using ABC thought log)
KNowledge of fight or flight response (adrenaline)
Over sensitive 'alarm' in my mind
Relaxation and breathing techniques
To study Eric Bernes transactional analysis and ego states, and to aim for the 'Adult' state.
My question is, this is all very well. I actually think it has helped a bit too. But when I got out of the bath last night I got really a quite bad ache in my left shoulder, my chest eventually got tight too. No amount of practise of all I have been taught seemed to help. I also was having bouts of ventricular bigeminy ('missed' beats).
I did not panic outwardly, did not mention any of this to my wife for whom I have cause enough stress and eventually things did ease a bit, but I was exhausted and in bed by 9pm.
Has anyone got any advice on how I can cope better?
Absolutely none of the advice and training I have received alters the fact that deep down I just am worried I have a heart problem that has been missed. (I have had extensive tests, all normal but have not had an angiogram and am well aware that other tests can have false negatives)
Absolutely the best technique I have found, for so many things I cant even begin to say, EFT.. Emotional Freedon Technique. Th Dr e is a lot if things available on line, it can be self taught and th err e are also some brilliant practitioners. EFT is a blend of Acupressure and Psychology , is fast and really really works
I have some Claire Weeks stuff haven't used it in a long time. I need to order that book Jen, i've seen you use it before. Also for the readers, Eckhart Tolle and the book Taming Your Gremlin are very very good I agree that meditation is probably the one thing that has helped as much as anything for me too
It's all good! I will definitely check into that book. Amazon has made a fortune off of me! LOL.
Thank you so much for that response! The book you mentioned will be ordered this afternoon. I like to intellectualize things too!
Mr counsellor reccommended a book 'Peace from nervous suffering' by Dr Claire Weekes, Ive not finished reading it yet but it is helpful and she makes points that really remind me of myself!
Its written in 1970's so you need to bear with some of the old fashioned language and attitudes a bit, its worth a look.
Good health!
Clive
Mr counsellor reccommended a book 'Peace from nervous suffering' by Dr Claire Weekes, Ive not finished reading it yet but it is helpful and she makes points that really remind me of myself!
Its written in 1970's so you need to bear with some of the old fashioned language and attitudes a bit, its worth a look.
Good health!
Clive
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Wow, thank you so much for sharing the tools you have been using! I have never heard of some them and am anxious to google for more info! LOL! In any case, I am so sorry that you are having to go through all of this. In my own personal experience, it was about adjusting my expectations of what the tools could do for me. Did they help? A little. Did it make the anxiety/panic symptoms stop? No. It became more about what could help the times I was having a PA be more bearable. It didn't/doesn't make them stop instantly, it didn't/doesn't make them completely manageable. But, what it does do is give me something I can do to fight it. It does give me a bit of a sense of control that I am able to at least do something, and it does help sometimes. So, with that said, I would also like to point out the very real fact that this whole process takes time. Lots of time. When I first was in therapy, I too kept a journal of my panic attacks. It wasn't until about 3 or 4 months down the road that I was able to reap some of the benefits from it ~which were being able to see a pattern so I could deal with that ahead of time before panic started, finding areas that set me off, learning emotions that I wasn't dealing with but I thought I was. And then being able to take that a step further and recognize an emotion before it turned to PA and deal with it appropriately. It stinks, but the whole thing takes time. You just have to have faith that it will get better, AND IT DOES get better, my friend. You have to work harder at this than probably anything you've worked at in your whole life, and you have to work on it every day. Now, about your worries with your heart. A lot of us here have health anxiety. A lot. We all know exactly how you feel! Keep going for the tests that your doctor recommends. Its so hard, but you have to learn to trust the test results. I'll let you know if I ever achieve that! :) In the meantime, there is a really really good book out there called "The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook" by Edward Bourne that was recommended by my psychiatrist. It is awesome, lots of good techniques in there, lots. And plenty, plenty of information about this disorder ~which I love since I tend to intellectualize things! In any case, I'm also a huge proponent of mindfulness meditation (I love Jon Kabat-Zinn). I was quite skeptical of meditation at first, but it has turned out to be the most helpful tool I've found. One other thing my psychiatrist recommended I do, is get some modeling clay and make figures of my anxiety, panic, phobias, and emotions. I didn't think that would do anything for me either, but it did. After I made them, I brought them in and we talked about them. Then I brought them home and put them on a little shelf out of sight of most people but where I could see them all the time. For some reason, it just helped to make them more concrete, not so abstract and something I could physically talk to (OK, I knw that makes me sound crazy) but it was kinda like a vodoo doll for anxiety. Man did I cuss that little clay figure more than once! Anyway, sorry for the novel! I will pray you have peace today. Jen