Destroying Deep Rooted Anxiety

[Growf]

How do you get to the core of anxiety. I feel like it's very deep in my subconscious. The symptoms of anxiety are (thankfully so) treatable by for example an SSRI. I am currently on one for 1.5 years and it does wonders to the symptoms. If you have seen me at my worst (without meds) you might actually believe it's a magic pill. 

But I am fully aware that this pill does nothing to the actual anxiety disorder itself, which is deeply rooted in my subconscious. I was wondering how do you tackle an anxiety disorder? I've tried meditating, but after a week it got me so anxious that I became suicidal and had to be put on medications in the first place. Ofcourse this was 100% the opposite of what I expected what meditation would do to me. 

People who are currently battling or even over came anxiety disorders, how are you doing it or how did you do it? 

[BjarkeT]

https://www.actualized.org/articles/the-art-of-solving-problems-permanently

it won't be easy but those are some extremely useful techniques 

i recomend reading the road less traveled by scott m peck it has some really useful information  

Edited October 8, 2017 by BjarkeT

[JustinS]

7 hours ago, Growf said:

I've tried meditating, but after a week it got me so anxious that I became suicidal and had to be put on medications in the first place. Ofcourse this was 100% the opposite of what I expected what meditation would do to me. 

Have you tried meditation while on your medications? Keep up the daily sitting and I wouldn't expect too much not until at least 3 months of daily practice. Til then you might have the inner strength of awareness to just observe your symptoms when you're slowly dropping your meds. 

[Growf]

I haven't. Kind of scared of meditation ofcourse. I was in a bad place back then.

[Elisabeth]

I have anxiety, maybe not as severe as you do, but it's been very present in my life for years, and after some work, it's better than it used to be. 

Medication+meditation sounds like a good idea. 

However, before you proceed to meditate, maybe you should relax. One should sit in a "relaxed" manner, at least to begin with, but some people have no idea how to relax their muscles, or not enough body awareness to even feel the tension. If you've never done that, start with guided relaxation. 

Yoga has done wonders for me in this regard. I went to weekly lectures for about 2-3 years. They had guided relaxation so I learned it, also some of the breathing exercises are designed to calm you down, and of course, the practice is all about body awareness. Body awareness is extremely helpful for anxiety. It hasn't solved my problem, but I'm much more capable of relaxing if I catch anxiety setting on. 

Any kind of working with your body is actually helpful. Sports is recommended (I don't like that one ), but I encountered this kind improvisation dance where you just dance to music in whatever manner your body wishes to move.  (I think some Osho meditations work in the same way.) Helps to express emotions and lessen the grip of anxiety. I would add some of this dynamic stuff to your mix, or any kind of technique which is designed to release emotions. 

Unfortunately, no one can pick the best technique for you, and so the answer is "you'll have to try a lot of stuff and pick what works best". 

Edited October 9, 2017 by Elisabeth

[heisenburger]

@Growf you can try byron katies the work. To uncover your subconcious thoughts ask what am I most ashamed of. Than use the work on it.

http://thework.com/en/do-work

[Epiphany_Inspired]

I've had other forum members post stuff like this for me, when I was discussing similar topics....not sure if it will help but realizing when the fear is not rational helps me a lot:

FEAR - False Expectations Appearing Real

FEAR - Future Events Appear Rational

FEAR - Frantic Effort to Avoid Reality

FEAR - Forgetting Everything About Reality

FEAR - False Expectations About Reality

FEAR - Failure Expected And Received

FEAR - Forget Everything and Run or Face Everything And Recover/Rise

FEAR - Functional, Evolutionary Action Required!!!

 

[pluto]

A magic mushroom Unlike the pill its actually Magic

[nick96]

@Growf

I had very strong anxiety for years . 

Anxiety is a consequence of your neurosis. You are out of touch with your true self rooted in being and your thoughts are compulsive. Since your sense of self comes from your mind , automatically you connect your own worth and value to external things you may or may not accomplish. The fear of not accomplishing things is what causes the anxiety. 

To reduce or completely let go of anxiety you have to stop deriving your sense of self from your mind and become rooted in being, getting back in touch with the sensations in your body, unidenifying yourself from your thoughts and emotions. 

The greater your anxiety is , the greater the possibility there is that you are denying a lot your emotions. 

Practically what you can do is :

• starting working on yourself ( analyze your behaviours and do journaling )
• Practice "radical honesty" every day 
• mindfulness meditation every day ( you have to put your attention on the sensations in your body and accept them unconditionally )
• physical activities and therapies such as yoga, bioenergetics, Holotropic breathwork, Rebirthing breathwork
• If you are willing to work hard go on a meditation retreat , like a Vipassana retreat or on a sesshin in a zen Sangha . 

Be sure that of you decide to do some of the things I listed you carefully speak about your psychological condition and the pills you are taking to the people that organize the activities. 

You can also read the book called " the power of now " by Eckhart Tolle to better understand theoretically the root cause of your anxiety. 

For me , the anxiety ended permanently after I had been to a Vipassana retreat in the end of March of this year.