sunnysideup69 Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 Hello survivors, A friend sent me this yesterday and I was really touched. Hope it is of use to someone else, too. WE ARE WARRIORS OF ANXIETY by Jeff Foster Sometimes anxiety lives as a gentle rumble in the background of our daily lives. But sometimes, the floodgates of our experience are flung wide open, and raw anxiety surges in the body like a tidal wave. Maybe we are going through a tough time in our lives, a crisis, a change, the end of a relationship, an illness, the sickness or death of a loved one, or the falling-away of an old dream or "safety net", and scary thoughts trigger an anxiety response in the body. Maybe our anxiety comes out of nowhere. Maybe we are touching into a past trauma, and old painful feelings are threatening to emerge into conscious awareness. Maybe we are simply imagining things that aren’t really true, invoking things that aren't really there. Maybe something just needs to be processed in us, dealt with, felt to completion, brought into love, integrated into a bigger picture of self. Yes, sometimes anxiety comes, unwanted and unexpected, into the foreground of conscious experience, instantly bringing a pounding heart, a racing mind, heat and sweat and tingly limbs, nausea and tightness in the belly and chest and throat, and a feeling of the ground falling out from under us. We feel like we want to run, to crawl out of our own skin, to escape to safety, to find solid ground again... Anxiety can be mild, or it can be really intense and scary and powerful like this. When anxiety comes in such a tidal wave, it can really feel like “Something is going horribly wrong!”. Our thoughts may tell us that we are about to die, or pass out, or have a heart attack or stroke, or go completely mad, or lose ourselves in some terrifying void. The anxiety itself can feel unsafe. We can become anxious about our anxiety! The truth is, these symptoms of anxiety are completely safe. Pounding hearts are safe. Muscle tightness is safe. That ‘sinking feeling’ in the belly is safe. Racing thoughts are safe. Heat and sweat and that dizzy, groundless, disconnected feeling is totally safe. It might not feel safe in the moment, it might not feel pleasant, but it’s totally safe. It is just a passing storm of sensation and thought. It’s the body deep in protection mode. It’s nature at its most brilliant and ancient and fierce. It doesn’t mean that something “bad” is happening or is "about to" happen. We learn to ‘lean in’ to the storm of our anxiety, to let the body do what it’s doing. To recognize that we are experiencing anxiety in the present moment, to name the visitor, to bring mindful awareness to it, and to compassionately touch into it, with courage and slowness and breath. We begin to allow the heart to race and pound, and we allow the shakiness and trembling and the heat, and we allow the tight belly and the tingles and that doom-laden sinking feeling. We allow the moment as it is, messy and intense and uncomfortable and alive, as it is. We tell ourselves, “Yes, I am experiencing anxiety right now, it is really really intense, but it is totally safe, it is the nervous system rushing to protect the organism, and nothing more than that, and it will pass, and I can hold it all…” We learn to step into that bigger part of ourselves, that ever-present Being in the midst of the somatic storm. We learn to stop fighting the anxiety, to stop shaming it, to stop calling it bad or wrong or dangerous (and if these thoughts come, we recognize them as anxious thoughts too!). We learn to stop running from our anxiety, stop trying to get to some “safer place”. We learn that the safest place is actually right here, where we are, at the very heart of our anxiety! We learn to bow to anxiety’s awesome power and intelligence, and to ride the wave of anxiety as it arises, reaches its peak, and crashes back to its source. We become warriors of anxiety! We get brave enough to touch into our fragility and vulnerability, to meet this most sacred and ancient of somatic visitors, which is only trying to protect us, keep us safe, and remind us of our true power. January 2008 to April 2015 Citalopram 20mg to 5mg, reducing in 50 per cent leaps. Jumped off at 5mg March 2016 used MDMA triggered setback April 2016 Citalopram 10mg October 2016 cut to 5mg, May 2017 cut to 2.5mg May 2018 used MDMA triggered setback June 2018 Citalopram 2.5mg up to 10mg, then back to 5mg July/ August 2018 7.5mg, then 10mg June 2019 updosed to 20mg Citalopram August 2019 cold switch to Venlafaxine 75mg XR Supplements; 1100mg fish oil daily; also 100mg Magnesium Glycinate. Tried Vagifem 10mcg from mid May 2021 to mid June 2021; caused depression, so stopped. Link to comment
Mole25 Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 Thank you Sunnyside - this is a great comment. Mole November 2016 Panic Attacks, severe nausea December 2016 short stay in hospital Citalopram 20 mg January 2017 tapering Citalopram due to side effects: hallucinations, no sleep Psychologist refuses to help me January - August 2017 Using water method, reducing by approx. 10% 2-3 weeks At 1 mg Citalopram Withdrawal symptoms including dizzyness, neck pains, diarrohea. Supplements: Fish Oil Omega, Vitamins, Ashwagandha and now Magnesium Link to comment
sunnysideup69 Posted October 26, 2019 Author Share Posted October 26, 2019 14 hours ago, Mole25 said: Thank you Sunnyside - this is a great comment. Mole You're welcome, Mole ❤️ January 2008 to April 2015 Citalopram 20mg to 5mg, reducing in 50 per cent leaps. Jumped off at 5mg March 2016 used MDMA triggered setback April 2016 Citalopram 10mg October 2016 cut to 5mg, May 2017 cut to 2.5mg May 2018 used MDMA triggered setback June 2018 Citalopram 2.5mg up to 10mg, then back to 5mg July/ August 2018 7.5mg, then 10mg June 2019 updosed to 20mg Citalopram August 2019 cold switch to Venlafaxine 75mg XR Supplements; 1100mg fish oil daily; also 100mg Magnesium Glycinate. Tried Vagifem 10mcg from mid May 2021 to mid June 2021; caused depression, so stopped. Link to comment
Lynnardgirl Posted November 6, 2019 Share Posted November 6, 2019 This is great Love it Thank you 1997 regular Effexor 150 mg2016-2017 up dosage to 225 tried several times to taper no luck fast taper Back on panic attacks anxiety Insomnia 2017 doing ok after a year but then insomia doctor put me onTrazodone was on Trazodone for 6 months or longer did a fast taper getting panic attacks 2018 Doctor switched me to Effexor XR an reduced my dose to 225 - down to 150 felt worse went back on regular Effexor Venlafaxine 2018 taper again, To fast tapered down to 112.5 from 150 take half twice a day 56.25 Link to comment
sunnysideup69 Posted November 7, 2019 Author Share Posted November 7, 2019 11 hours ago, Lynnardgirl said: This is great Love it Thank you You're welcome xxx January 2008 to April 2015 Citalopram 20mg to 5mg, reducing in 50 per cent leaps. Jumped off at 5mg March 2016 used MDMA triggered setback April 2016 Citalopram 10mg October 2016 cut to 5mg, May 2017 cut to 2.5mg May 2018 used MDMA triggered setback June 2018 Citalopram 2.5mg up to 10mg, then back to 5mg July/ August 2018 7.5mg, then 10mg June 2019 updosed to 20mg Citalopram August 2019 cold switch to Venlafaxine 75mg XR Supplements; 1100mg fish oil daily; also 100mg Magnesium Glycinate. Tried Vagifem 10mcg from mid May 2021 to mid June 2021; caused depression, so stopped. Link to comment
Saturn Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 OMG ! that was profound. Just what my soul needs. we can’t tackle anxiety with just a”slow taper”. We need our philosophical and spiritual self as well. Thank you so much for opening up that door for me. 1 Link to comment
sunnysideup69 Posted January 27, 2020 Author Share Posted January 27, 2020 13 hours ago, Saturn said: OMG we can’t tackle anxiety with just a”slow taper”. We need our philosophical and spiritual self as well. Yep...my view, also. It's a great piece, isn't it? January 2008 to April 2015 Citalopram 20mg to 5mg, reducing in 50 per cent leaps. Jumped off at 5mg March 2016 used MDMA triggered setback April 2016 Citalopram 10mg October 2016 cut to 5mg, May 2017 cut to 2.5mg May 2018 used MDMA triggered setback June 2018 Citalopram 2.5mg up to 10mg, then back to 5mg July/ August 2018 7.5mg, then 10mg June 2019 updosed to 20mg Citalopram August 2019 cold switch to Venlafaxine 75mg XR Supplements; 1100mg fish oil daily; also 100mg Magnesium Glycinate. Tried Vagifem 10mcg from mid May 2021 to mid June 2021; caused depression, so stopped. Link to comment
Saturn Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 We need more of them. (So good for the soul) 1 Link to comment
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