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Anxiety

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minordrag

Gone But Not Forgotten
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I normally avoid the sort-of "what's your demographic?" thread.

However, I wonder if there's a connection (causal or not) with Fortean leanings and social anxiety/panic attacks.

I myself have suffered occasional panic attacks for 15 years. I read Frater Libre's post admitting to same.

What's the deal? Do just a hell of a lot of people have this affliction? Does having it lead to an interest in Forteana, or vice-versa?

To me, panic attacks intimate an imminant loss/destruction of identity. They clearly stem from a perceived lack of control. Wouldn't those of us of the Fortean persuasion likewise feel a similar lack of control, given that we willingly walk that razor wire between "reality" and oblivion?

Thoughts, rants, confessions &c. welcome.
 
Panic attacks and depression are often related (being out of control is depressing), and several people on this MB have admitted suffering from depression.

But what the link is to Fortean interests I'm not sure - it seems a bit 'chicken and egg' to me!
 
Sometimes I find myself on the verge of terror when I have to do even the simplest of things, like waiting for the mail at bank statement time, or having to go to a particularly important meeting even though I know it's no big deal.

It's odd as most of the time I'm really laid back, but some things get my heart racing all day. Silly me eh? :(
 
Hi, Minor Drag! Yes, I too am one of the anxious/depressed/mad buggers ;) on this MB, and, yes I do think that people with a predisposition (?) to this kind of thing are far more likely to be Fortean types. Those of us who are willing to open up to other realities or have those realities thrust upon us ( I've always been unavoidably psychic and so are both my parents) are bound to question the "reality" of what passes for everyday life, and this is bound to drive you a bit dotty as, inevitably, we are part of that reality and don't want to feel rootless. This sort of mental meandering put me on Valium for years as a teenager and I still take SSRIs to control depressive attacks now - I have chronic ME, and this is also a dis-ease that Forteans tend to be prone to. If you read accounts of the lives of famous occultists, Crowley, LaVey et al they were all in poor health, asthma being the most prevalent complaint. All my "magicky" friends are falling to bits but are invariably happy people and look much younger than their years (another Fortean trait!). To make up for "lost time" as a sad teenager I now hold firmly to the belief that I wouldn't want to be like the "sheeple" who think the thin crust is the whole pizza, and that the world is damn lucky to have me in it! :D Hope the length of this post hasn't tried your patience too much but I felt the topic was an important one and Minor Drag and me are virtual mates! To everybody on the MB with "mental health issues" of this kind, I wish you a happy Sunday and peace in the coming week. :)
 
Yes, I suffer from panic attacks - I was virtually house-bound at one point.
My panic attacks often centred upon a fear of "falling out of reality", either physical death or some eldritch paradigm shift into some foul otherness, or "insanity".

I have also suffered from clinical depression on a number of occasions - nothing requiring hospitalisation or anything, but enough to make it very difficult to eg. hold down a job, keep a relationship together etc.

I was prescribed medication which was extremely effective, so if anyone is suffering with panic disorder I would wholeheartedly recommend visiting the doctor. However, my doctor seemed to be content to just give me ssri's (anti-depressants) and leave it at that, which in my opinion is extremely short-sighted and I would also advise some sort of councelling (or pushing for cognitive behavioural psychology if possible) as well.

Personally I found meditation to be the most helpful treatment, as not only does it engender something of a feeling of relaxed well-being in every day life if performed regularly, but with a bit of practice a short, simple relaxation exercise can be performed anywhere and any time anxiety begins to rise, which for me at least, averts the onset of panic.
Those who are familiar with magic(k)al practice will also find the LBRP immeasurably valuable.

I think a correlation between fortean interests and anxiety/depressive disorders is a possibility, though not a causal relationship as such.
I realise it is a cliche to connect mental illness with intellegence, creativity and "thinking outside the box", but in my personal experience there does seem to be a link - speaking about people I know, not myself, you understand, although of course I do like to think of myself as fairly intelligent :D
 
FrancesFelixe - happy Sunday to you too! It's a lovely day here, too.

I would also like to say to anyone suffering from any kind of depression and anxiety who is reading this that there really is no stigma attached to the whole business and seeking medical help really can help improve quality of life, so don't be afraid to ask for it.
 
Hello, what a coincidence! I was disscussing this very topic last night on this very message board. Please, please, read my comments in IHTM, thread entitled, MIB of OZ? I'd apprechiate comments! ? :)
As for the profile, I suffer from anxiety dissorders including agoraphobia (Virtualy housebound.) and GAD. (General Anxiety Dissorder.)
 
Wintermoon said:
Hello, what a coincidence! I was disscussing this very topic last night on this very message board. Please, please, read my comments in IHTM, thread entitled, MIB of OZ? I'd apprechiate comments! ? :)
As for the profile, I suffer from anxiety dissorders including agoraphobia (Virtualy housebound.) and GAD. (General Anxiety Dissorder.)
Click to expand...

I'd like to add my bit here even though most people wont be too interested, ive sufferd anxiety and depression for a long time. and it was the help and advice of the lovely wintermoon that has helped me almost get over it. i started having panic attacks around 2 years ago due to depression i was feeling low as my business wasnt doing to well at the time and i had just got over cancer for the second time and i was at a low point, and because i had depression i was worried about what people think and then the panic attacks started, ive always been a nervous person but the past two years have been hell. but its thanks to wintermoons chats and advice ive learnt to live with it and get over it.

People have a huge problem with mental illness and it just makes things worse for sufferers. i had cancer twice and i was in a big car crash, i had the support of family and friends all through it, but when it came to being mentally ill with depression and anxiety people didnt want to know, it made things worse. people can be stupid and dont realise its just another illness.

So wintermoon fankwoo your a true friend!
 
I echo your sentiments about feeling that people don't or won't understand about psychological conditions, Mr C. (hello again!)
In itself that can be a part of the problem - on the occasions I have had to have time off work with anxiety and depression I have spent most of what was supposed to be a much-needed rest worrying that everyone must think I'm either "a f*ck up" or skiving ... it's the old paranoia about being paranoid thang.

People frequently do surprize you with their understanding and compassion though, and often empathy as a lot of people do have short periods of "mental illness" (and even being so stressed at work you hardly sleep for a week or two, or going on a massive bender for a while after the break-up of a relationship etc. are, when you think about it, pretty unhealthy and very distressing psychological episodes / behaviours) and keep it a secret for this very reason.
 
Sending a huge *HUG* to everyone here. :)
I suffered from a few panic attacks when I was at college, mainly due to the fact that I first of all had nowhere to live, then moved in with a landlady who got too fond of me (old lady wanted a friend I guess), then moved into a flat with a friend who I fell out with and was left on my own not able to pay rent etc etc...
I was put on Beta blockers by the doctor and had a counselling session, none of which helped in the least. I'm not putting anyone off seeking help from a doctor, but it just didn't work for me.
I got myself a book on relaxation techniques and controlling stress levels from the library, and started trying things out. It was just little things, like total body relaxation, aromatherapy, taking more "me" time during the day, finding joy in little things, like watching a sunset and not feeling guilty about "wasting time".
This self- help may not help everyone, but it worked for me.
If I get stressed now, I go to speak to someone, and don't "bottle things up inside". It's not a sign of weakness to admit when you can't cope with something, it's a sign of strength.
I still get anxious in some social situations, so I avoid ones that will make me that way.
I'm a happier person now than I've ever been and I've been able to cope with recent family probs with a strength I never knew I had.
MrC I've had lots of cancer probs in the family recently, so I know how it can affect everyone. Well done for being able to talk about it.
I think so many of us worry about what others think of us all the time, that we just have to say sometimes "to hell with what they think". Look after number one, no one else will do that job for you as well as you can yourself.
A very clever lady once said "Love yourself and everything else will fall in line."
(It wasn't me. ;))

*hug* :)
 
I suffered from panic attacks two years ago. I cannot explain the way the fear takes over your life. I had to force myself to do everything-shop, cook etc. I felt that my legs would collapse from under me, that I would vomit in front of everybody. I was a mess but I kept it all under because nobody at that time would have understood, I partly confided in my ex but he could not see what I had to worry about, I had a home, kids and all I wanted but it was fear of fear...............

In the end I gritted my teeth and got on with it, made myself go out and if I felt sick, I felt sick. I occasionally willed myself to faint just to see if my body would do it but it never would.........I'm ok-ish now but my heart goes out to people with anxiety, I saw a glimpse of a living hell and I hated it.

I never went to the doctors because of the stigma which is so stupid because I get so angry when people treat my sons epilepsy as a mental condition and I myself have no phobias about people with mental illness.

I'm not sure if it's a fortean characteristic I just think its a human characteristic. However, I like FF's view that forteans look younger than their years, I'm often mistaken for someone far younger.........:D,
 
Blueswidow said:
However, I like FF's view that forteans look younger than their years, I'm often mistaken for someone far younger.........:D,
Click to expand...

Me too, a friend told me I looked 20 after having my hair cut. (I'm 30)
So that's 2 of us who look younger than our age... anyone else? ;)
 
Ditto - although I always think I just don't look "together" enough to be my advancing years :(
 
You can bung me on both those lists. I look ten years or so younger than I am, and I have depression/anxiety. Also have hypochondriasis (about four very specific diseases), which can be a living nightmare, although a lot of people see hypochondriacs as a joke, or even as wicked time wasters (I think they mix us up with Munchausen's sufferers). I also had agoraphobia as a child and teenager, was hospitalised at 13 with depression and have been on prescription drugs on and off since I was 10. I've been told by more than one mental health professional that it's a disease of the intelligent :). I've never met a stupid person who has it, but maybe they're too stupid to talk about it.:p
No wonder I get on so well with all you nutters.
 
Beak, I went through a bout of health anxiety too. Have you tried healthanxiety.com? The messageboard there saved my sanity on more than one occasion.................
 
Looks like a good site thanks Blueswidow. It's amazing how the mind can actually create very real symptoms in the body. I get a pschosomatic cystitis (one of the diseases that terrifies me is kidney infections, having had two bad ones), and it's so real that I can go for several nights without sleeping because of the "symptoms". Basically the mind can create anything it damn well likes in the way of symptoms. Knowing it isn't "real" helps, but not always.
Makes me wonder about stigmata, (to go completely off thread and take the idea to extremes :p )
 
No wonder I get on so well with all you nutters
Click to expand...

Lol, thanks Beakboo. ;) :D

I can understand totaly your last post. I used to have a very severe dental phobia, a meare twinge would send me into a ferocious panic attack. Most of it (Probibly all!) was created by my mind as I've had dental checks and need nothing doing. Don't you often get fustraited though, thinking, 'If my mind is so powerfull as to make my body feel real, though unprovoked, symptoms, then why can't I use it to my advantage to take them away, or make this/that feel better?!' I find it fustraiting because it's like a 'cure' is right there in front of you but just out of reach.

**********************************************
On another note, I have 'met' more people on-line with anxiety dissorders (or who care to admit to them.) than in 'real life' but by no means huge amounts. However, this thread is very interesting (Thanks for starting it Minor Drag. :) ) in the shear number of people who have posted with their symptoms. Do you think there is a specific link with anxiety dissorders and fasination with the paranormal, or rather, do you think the fact is that more housebound or socially anxious people come on the net as a way of reaching out but not having to socialise in 'real time'?
Debate at your lesurie. :)
 
I think it's easier to talk to someone on here, as you know you won't have to face that person or have them judge you. They won't go running and tell your friends/ family what you've said and it's easy to really open up. A friend and I had a real good heart to heart the other day about being single. We have the same anxieties and I think it helps to air them with someone. I'm sure she knows me a whole lot better than some of my offline friends do. Probably a lot of offline friends have the same probs, but just don't want to talk about it.
 
You can also put ME on both lists. I'm manic-depressive and used to look 10 years less than my age. During the last four years I've been to hell and back tho, so I probably look nearer my real age now. As part of the mental health issue I've suffered agoraphobia and panic attacks and because I've spent half my life with negative thoughts, I find it hard to shake them off sometimes. So I can empathise with all of you who have problems of this kind.

Altho I work, I do sometimes get so panicky about going out that I have to order a taxi, or I'd never get there. And once I'm there I'm fine. I find that this type of panic feeds on itself, in that if you give in to it, its more likely to strike again. But I do appreciate how hard it is to keep it under control.

I'm not sure about the Fortean connection. There seems to be one, certainly, but I can't decide whether its a cause or a result.

Happy Sunday everyone. :) ;) :D

EDIT - I've said that I probably look nearer my true age now, but when I come to think of it I look younger than the BF and he's only 44 (maybe he's had a hard paper round). - EDIT
 
I've mentioned my social phobia/anxiety on this board a few times before, although oddly it's always been on threads that have since been deleted! Someone obviously knows how to increase my paranoia... :rolleyes:

I'm surprised to see how many people there are here who suffer from similar things. I almost wrote 'it's nice' then, but of course, it's not at all... :(
 
Social Anxiety

Wintermoon, the reverse of what you said is true for me. I have quite an active social life and my friends are all aware of my mental health issues - even if they don't always understand them.:rolleyes:

I feel more self-conscious about talking on-line than off. I think its cos I don't know the personalities of the people too well so I'm unsure how they'll react.:(
 
I'm not sure if I suffer from depression or not. I've never had myself checked out. I do suffer from black moods/mood swings/irrational feelings of dread and sadness and they tend to mess up my social life. I have a girlfriend at the minute (an unusual occurence for me). I'm mad (bad choice of word there considering the thread content...sorry) about her but I think I might mess it up because I go silent without realising it. She's worried, but I'd never consider therapy. In general I'm a happy person.
As regards looking younger, I'm twenty, 6', 160 lbs, with stubble, yet I'm still mistaken for a 13/14 year old sometimes (a woman complained that I was too young to be working where I am last week). Other times I'm the only one of my friends not asked for ID in pubs/clubs...must have some sort of weird, shape shifting face...
 
As a teenager I suffered from severe moodswings (more than just the normal teenage things) I also suffer from mild depression and anxiety attacks. I was once very badly beaten up in an unprovoked attack and it was years before I could leave the house after dark by myself. In recent years I have suffered from a series of fits/episodes which doctors can't find a physical cause for.

Apart from that I'm a happy, normal, well adjusted human being :)
 
Adrian Veidt said:
Apart from that I'm a happy, normal, well adjusted human being :)
Click to expand...
So what exactly are you doing here then? ;)
August, I know what you were getting at with "it's nice". It is nice and comforting to know there are others in the same situations. Too many people with psychological problems are isolated, which makes it a hundred times worse. Thank goodness for the internet.
I have friends IRL (not many, because I don't have the energy to maintain many), and most of them have experienced mental weirdness, but sometimes I think I prefer you lot, and I actually go on line instead of phoning them.
 
My turn!!

I have recently emerged from a rather out-of-the-blue bout of depression.

I went to my GP complaining of feeling tired and irritable all of the time, thinking it was diet related.

I was diagnosed with depression and put on Prozac, but after quite a bad response with the drug, decided that with some therapy and self treatment (with the approval of my Doctor) I might be better off.
I started taking a tincture of St John's Wort (Hypericum Perforatum) and this gave me the mental advantage to build myself up again, together with the counselling I was getting to identify why this whole thing happened.

The cause: an Inferiority Complex brought on by childhood issues relating to the lack of a father figure, which in turn manifested as depression through a difficulty in social interaction.

I'm all better now - more self aware and able to generate a positive outlook most of the time.

The only side effect is a decidely dodgy sense of humour, so forgive me this little quirk.

It's nice to know I'm not the only oddball here - narf! :cool:
 
Can I join this club? I have all the qualifications. :) or do I mean:(
 
Yeah, you can also stick me on the list of being both a depressive and suffering from anxiety attacks. I decided to start a college course to try and get me back on my feet. During the enrolement I had a massive panic attack and nearly passed out. I started the course today and I was fine. :D Which I'm really happy about.
 
Depression. Anxiety attacks. Social phobias.

Count me in.
 
I have suffered from bouts of depression/anxiety on-and-off since I was 12. In particular, a terror of going insane or losing my sense of self... this was not helped by experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs ! Stupid, I know.

Although I still occasionally get some of these feelings, I was greatly reassured by something which more than one psychologist/psychiatrist told me:

"People who are truly insane do not question their sanity"
 
I went thru several years where I experienced pretty severe depression, but I've never had a anxiety attack. I do know that whenever I start feeling overly anxious about things I stop and take stock, remind myself that I am a good, capable, responsible person, and that I always have a choice: be on top of the world, or let the world be on top of me.

Given that I am innately stubborn and have a lot of what I choose to call "strength of character" for lack of a more precise phrase, I generally pull out of the "I'm helpless and the world is going to stomp me flat" frame of mind. Sometimes, though, it feels like an airplane pulling out of a nosedive: engine straining, chassis feeling like it's shaking to bits....

The greatest help I ever got was a friend who would always remind me that I and I alone had ownership and responsibility for my feelings, that no one ever made me sad or mad or even happy, that it was always my choice how to react to the world and the people and events I encountered.

I am lucky though, I seem to have the Fortean trait of not looking my age. I'm forty and on a recent date with a 35 year old I was told "There's no way you are older than I am!" Don't know why but I'm glad I have that.
 
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