Overcoming Anxieties

What have you guys done to overcome your anxieties? Any tips?

I ask this because I am going away on my first trip without any family members (they usually provide me the comfort of leaving home) and I’m pretty anxious about it.

Anyway, wanted to see what you guys did to overcome some of your anxieties about leaving your comfort zone and/or overcoming any phobias.

weed and xanax

[quote]Aggv wrote:
weed and xanax [/quote]

Three fingers of whisky and a half a xanax.

Experience…

If you’re lucky, you can start to like it.

Actually I don’t really mean that. I was going to tell you that what I did was face my fears and just push through the discomfort but to tell you the truth I didn’t cure my anxieties but I learned to tolerate them. As I sit here I am a bundle of nerves from the few things I have on the go that is having me sitting in that uncomfortable yet borderline thrilling zone of butterflies and fear that hasn’t let up for a few days :slight_smile: But I do kind of like it now but I wish I could turn it off at night. I used to dread this feeling and it kept me from doing things I wanted to do.

Or you can just adopt the motto “What could go wrong?”. Traveling alone really isn’t that big a deal and there actually isn’t much that can go too terribly wrong as long as your not going drug running in South America or something like that. I bet if you did though everything else would seem a piece of cake =D because a lot it’s relative to your experience.

I’ve been through exactly what you are about to go through. Don’t listen to these jerks telling you to self-medicate with all the wrong shit. That will only make it worse and provide you with a crutch that simply won’t always be there.

It’s much more convenient and more effective in the long run to take some Benzedrine and albuterol. If things get really bad you can always go with over-the-counter medication like Sudafed, or anything else containing phenylephrine. It’s always worked for me. I usually wash it all down with a 20 oz. coffee from Starbucks, but if giving a big corporation like Starbucks your business makes you a little anxious you can always just go to a local coffee shop instead.

If you feel a little too sluggish or you think maybe you’ve overdone things a little bit, which is always a possibility when you first start out and haven’t quite figured out the proper dosages for your needs yet, you can quickly offset any significant issues with a little bit of chlorpromazine.

[quote]stefan128 wrote:
Experience…[/quote]

This right here is the best advice.

I used to have incredibly bad social anxiety. Couldn’t even look the grocery store checkout person in the eyes bad. I remember the first time I wanted to join a gym. The first time I tried to find it I ended up riding the bus for the loop and didn’t even go because I wasn’t sure where to get off and I was freaking out too much to ask. Second time I went to find the gym I went prepared. I map quested that shit. Found it, but when I got there I walked right by because I was freaking out too much. Third time took me a while to attempt, I think I walked by that time as well. Finally on the fourth go round I made it inside and got all set up. It fucking sucked. That was my life for years.

I kept trying though. Even with that horrible anxiety I kept pushing myself to go. You have to be able to rationalize through the anxiety. It sucks and is hard as fuck, but you have to realize the anxiety is bullshit and pull out your jungle machete and hack away at it. Soon you’ll realize that thick fog of anxiety is starting to thin out a bit. I still get it often, but no where near as bad. Some days are worse than others, but I keep moving forward. It’s either that or I become a shut in. And, that’s definitely no fun.

Relying on drugs is no good. It doesn’t teach you how to get through it. It just masks it. And you can’t mask it forever.

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
I’ve been through exactly what you are about to go through. Don’t listen to these jerks telling you to self-medicate with all the wrong shit. That will only make it worse and provide you with a crutch that simply won’t always be there.

It’s much more convenient and more effective in the long run to take some Benzedrine and albuterol. If things get really bad you can always go with over-the-counter medication like Sudafed, or anything else containing phenylephrine. It’s always worked for me. I usually wash it all down with a 20 oz. coffee from Starbucks, but if giving a big corporation like Starbucks your business makes you a little anxious you can always just go to a local coffee shop instead.

If you feel a little too sluggish or you think maybe you’ve overdone things a little bit, which is always a possibility when you first start out and haven’t quite figured out the proper dosages for your needs yet, you can quickly offset any significant issues with a little bit of chlorpromazine.[/quote]

This^^^^^

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
I’ve been through exactly what you are about to go through. Don’t listen to these jerks telling you to self-medicate with all the wrong shit. That will only make it worse and provide you with a crutch that simply won’t always be there.

It’s much more convenient and more effective in the long run to take some Benzedrine and albuterol. If things get really bad you can always go with over-the-counter medication like Sudafed, or anything else containing phenylephrine. It’s always worked for me. I usually wash it all down with a 20 oz. coffee from Starbucks, but if giving a big corporation like Starbucks your business makes you a little anxious you can always just go to a local coffee shop instead.

If you feel a little too sluggish or you think maybe you’ve overdone things a little bit, which is always a possibility when you first start out and haven’t quite figured out the proper dosages for your needs yet, you can quickly offset any significant issues with a little bit of chlorpromazine.[/quote]

x2

Learn to suck it up and not give a shit.

Just remind yourself there’s kids your age or your younger in Afghanistan with goat-fuckers tying to kill them every day and they’ve learnt to deal with it

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
Learn to suck it up and not give a shit.

Just remind yourself there’s kids your age or your younger in Afghanistan with goat-fuckers tying to kill them every day and they’ve learnt to deal with it[/quote]

If they had learned to deal with it, it wouldn’t be happening to them anymore. All you’re really telling him is that eventually he’ll get used to getting fucked in the ass by a goat-fucker. That’s really something to look forward to.

Self-talk is 95% of it. You really need to develop the skill of talking yourself down off the ledge.

I realize that’s not always possible or successful when you want it to be, simply because you’re not practiced enough.

In those cases, 1/2 to 1 xanax will give your nerves rest. During the past year, we’ve discovered that Z12 really hits the mark as well.

http://www.T-Nation.com/store/products/z-12

It’s official… Most American Males are the biggest wusses on the Planet now.

I’m sorry man but you must have lived a too sheltered and pampered life…I almost couldn’t
believe what the fuck I was reading and thought this was a joke, and most of you other guys
should be all be up on his shit asking him to grow a Penis or something, instead you lame
asses are just enabling him…the fuck’s wrong with you people.

Dude, you’re not being sent to the Gulag for an extended stay in Siberia,
You’re goin’ on a fuckin’ temporary trip…TEMP-O-RA-RY.
This is the T-Nation, not the E-NATION Bro. So Man up, slap yourself in the face, and grow a pair
will ya?

[quote]kothreat wrote:

[quote]stefan128 wrote:
Experience…[/quote]

This right here is the best advice.

I used to have incredibly bad social anxiety. Couldn’t even look the grocery store checkout person in the eyes bad. I remember the first time I wanted to join a gym. The first time I tried to find it I ended up riding the bus for the loop and didn’t even go because I wasn’t sure where to get off and I was freaking out too much to ask. Second time I went to find the gym I went prepared. I map quested that shit. Found it, but when I got there I walked right by because I was freaking out too much. Third time took me a while to attempt, I think I walked by that time as well. Finally on the fourth go round I made it inside and got all set up. It fucking sucked. That was my life for years.

I kept trying though. Even with that horrible anxiety I kept pushing myself to go. You have to be able to rationalize through the anxiety. It sucks and is hard as fuck, but you have to realize the anxiety is bullshit and pull out your jungle machete and hack away at it. Soon you’ll realize that thick fog of anxiety is starting to thin out a bit. I still get it often, but no where near as bad. Some days are worse than others, but I keep moving forward. It’s either that or I become a shut in. And, that’s definitely no fun.

Relying on drugs is no good. It doesn’t teach you how to get through it. It just masks it. And you can’t mask it forever. [/quote]

Great posts!

Medication is a very short term solution and will do you more harm than good in the long run.

You really need to experience your anxiety if you want to learn to cope with it. There is no other option. Just do it. Even self-talk will help only so much. You have to be willing to experience and accept your fears and commit to do the things you don’t like at first but that will help you to live the life you want.

FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real

There are 3 components:
1/ Cognition: Fearful thoughts. What are you afraid of exactly? What’s the worst thing that can happen according to you? In which situations do you get these kind of thoughts?

2/ Physiologic response/arousal: These are the bodily symptoms of fear, the the fight-flight response through which your body automatically prepares itself to react when confronted with a feared stimulus (In general this can be everything like situations, people, animals, thoughts, certain feelings,… everything that is linked to your fearfull thougts).

3/ Avoidant behavior: What do you DO to try to avoid your feared stimuli and your fear in general. This is key. This is what makes your fear last. This is what prevents you to experience new situations that can correct your fearful thoughts. This is what you have to stop doing. Before you do that, write down every thing you do to avoid your fear and the costs and benefits of each kind of this avoindant behaviors.

But in essence, indeed, just experience.

Without anxiety there isn’t any thrill either. I remember the first time I flew overseas (had multiple stops to make) by myself. I was only 12 and it was scary getting on the plane but it was thrilling to be on my own. So OP…my advice is, enjoy the time away from others.

Self-talk, self-talk, self-talk. Acknowledge that you’re freaking out, if you are, or having unwarranted feelings of impending doom, of you are, and assess the validity of the feeling. Is it rational? Usually, for me, the answer is no. That always helps. Then I either talk myself down (“what’s the worst that can happen?”) or decide I don’t HAVE to do whatever has set me off (if anything) and do a cost-benefit analysis. For me, there is almost always benefit in pushing through.

There are exceptions to the push-through thing. I have a bent for being nicer to people than they may deserve and sometimes I get dread feelings. Then I remember I don’t HAVE to hang out with my coworker just because she’s sad and lonely in addition to being nasty to me and everyone else, or I don’t HAVE to invite my unhappy cousin for the weekend even though she wants to come and keeps bringing it up. I always know I made the right choice in those cases because there’s such immediate lightening.

When I assess the feelings for rationality and come up with “yes, doom IS impending” I figure out what needs to be done and do it. Am I behind at work? I schedule in an early morning or late evening to catch up, for one example. This also tends to result in an immediate reduction in anxiety.

The only issue I really have with it, because like DebraD I see it as positive to some degree (it’s energy and a motivator as long as I can control it) is that it wakes me sometimes. There is nothing helpful to me in lying awake, fretting about unimportant details and how I’m going to organize them and get things done. But unfortunately, I do sometimes.

[quote]stefan128 wrote:
Experience…[/quote]

Yep. Nothing like manning up and just confronting shit, over and over again.

[quote]UtahLama wrote:

[quote]Aggv wrote:
weed and xanax [/quote]

Three fingers of whisky and three fingers in a woman.[/quote]

Fixed that for you

What age are you? unless you’re 10 you should be delighted to be leaving the hold of your family for a while.

As for general social anxiety, get to know jack the daniels.