ljc267

It's weird. I was sitting here feeling pretty good, and I started to feel uncomfortable. Then the anxiety kicked in. Not bad but it really irritated me because I haven't had any for quite a while.

I meditated and it pretty much subsided, but it still there if you know what I mean.

This probably a dumb question, but for you does it just come on for no reason. For me, anyway, it is usually due to outside stress or something.

BrendaChenowyth

Yeah, I'm just an anxious person. My attacks of anxiety always seem to be ABOUT something but it's a chicken/egg thing - am I anxious about the situation or did the anxiety come and caused me to think about that situation?

Try passionflower oil, you can get it at health food stores. It actually slows my heart rate.

ljc267

I'm not necessarily an anxious person but I tend to overthink things, which is pretty much the same thing.

kevlarsjal

Your joining date suggests you're sober since January? I think in the first weeks I just had anxiety attacks coming randomly, I think it was part of the withdrawal. But they went after a while.

Dee74

I can get anxious for the lightest of reasons, and yeah sometimes for no apparent reason at all.

If meditation works for you, that's great ljc

D

ljc267

No since Oct. 12, and you are right it was much worse in the first few months. It has since gone way way down. That's why it kind of surprised me.

ljc267

thanks Dee. Never really talked to anyone about it other then my wife so, I was just wondering about others experiences.

Plure

I've had anxiety for a long time and in retrospect used alcohol to calm it down. Each time I've stopped drinking, the initial wave of anxiety is fairly consistent for several weeks (except in 2014 when it lasted for almost three months due to heavy drinking at that time). As the weeks progress the panic part starts to fade.

After several months I am left with the anxiety I've had since being a teenager, so I had to learn to deal with it since all the years I was drinking I never did.

For me, a combination of meditation, exercise, and Lexapro (10mg daily) has done the trick. Also, my vitamin D levels were really low and the doc put me on D3 supplements which helped too.

healthychoices

Hey ljc267,

My anxiety can come for no apparent cognitive reason, I think it probably linked to the way I am breathing & / or posture. Meditation helps me let go of the anxiety, so that's great that it works for you too, in my experience the more regularly I meditate the easier it is to transcend those negative emotional states.

ljc267

Thanks everyone for your input. I really appreciate it!

I feel much better today. I guess you can chalk it up to just one of those days.

ljc267

Now that I think of it. Surprise an over thinker still thinking about it.

I didn't even consider drinking. Didn't even cross my mind. Before I would have been watching the clock for it to hit 5, so I could drink. Why 5 you might ask? Well for me if I drank after 5 I wasn't alcoholic because alcoholics drink all day. Funny how I used to negotiate with myself.

ljc267

Today I feel jittery/nervous for no reason at all. It's odd because I actually feel pretty good otherwise. This really frustrates me. I think it bothers me so much because I will feel real good for quite a few days in a row and then it comes back for the day. I am grateful that the "bad days" are much less "bad" and less frequent, but It does get me down because I am an impatient person. I have to remember that full recovery will take a lot of time.

Just needed to put my thoughts to paper so to speak.

Anna

Anxiety has always been an issue for me, too. Sometimes the reasons are so subtle that I'm not really aware of them. I know it can be frustrating. One thing that helps me is to know that I will feel better. I no longer allow it to weigh me down, but try to keep in my mind that it's relatively temporary.

ljc267

Thanks Anna I appreciate it.

You are right I do have to keep that in mind. As I'm sure you know it is tough to do sometimes.

ScottFromWI

I suffer from anxiety too LJC and it absolutely come out of nowhere for no apparent reason at times. And i do have "waves" where a few days will be worse than others. It is good to see that you have some tools to help ( meditation ) smooth it out when it flares up, that's very important.

I would say that over the years of learning different tools that the waves have definitely gotten smaller and farther between, and the "out of the blue" incidents have also lessened quite a bit. But for me it has been also very important to accept that I am just an anxious person for some reason and that my anxiety cannot ever be fully "healed" or removed from my being. Certainly I can do things that make it much more manageable and sometimes many days go by when I don't think about it at all, which never happened in the past. But I was also seeking a permanent "cure" - a technique, a pill, a procedure that would just eliminate it from my life forever...and it's helped me a lot to accept that this is not a realistic goal. Just like I can never cure my addiction - I can certainly do lots of things to live a sober life, but i'll always have addictive tendencies. Recognizing and accepting that its OK to be that way has been a tremendous help.

ljc267

Thanks Scott.

I don't think I ever heard it said that way before. I do accept that I am an alcoholic but for some reason I have never accepted I am an anxious person by nature, which I am. Even as a child I was anxious I just never looked at it that way.

Not sure if you are in this boat, but when I feel this way I always think there is something physically wrong with me.

I do need to accept the fact that there will be days when I feel this way and accepting it will make it easier to deal with.

MsCooterBrown

It just hits out of no where for me. One time I had to leave a full cart in the grocery story. Parked it and ran out. It was the flight or fight feeling. WORST ever.

ljc267

Ms, it sure can be rough on us. Like Scott said I think acceptance is important.

ScottFromWI

I absolutely felt like that. I was certain that there was something wrong with me that needed fixing. My particular anxiety was mostly health related so I also had all kinds of imagined diseases, but that's not the same thing as what you are talking about here.

Bottom line, there isn't anything wrong with me ( or you ) - anxiety is a normal part of everyone's life. Some of us just don't deal with it as well as others. And even though we do react differently, we can change how we react and prepare for it so we are ready when it happens.