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Re: Horrible anxiety relapse (still reeling) » linkadge

Posted by undopaminergic on November 29, 2019, at 10:44:39

In reply to Horrible anxiety relapse (still reeling), posted by linkadge on November 17, 2019, at 18:14:15

For (short-term) drug treatment, you might try opioids. In my experience, for anxiety (or fears or nervousness), this class of medications beats the sh*t out of benzos. (The asterisk was added by the system, not me!)

That said, a better way (at least in the long term) to treat anxiety is psychodynamic (as opposed to "pharmacodynamic"). What works for me is to focus on the anxiety, trying to feel it as completely as I can, savour it, and even imagine that it is worse than what you're feeling. As a result of this exercise, the anxiety will subside faster than otherwise. No guarantee it works for you, but it's my best trick. I haven't felt anxiety for months.

How does this trick work? I think it has to do with "gating" mechanisms in the brain. Only one (or a few) thing can find its way through the gate, into your attention/awareness, at any given moment. When you have consciously registered a particular feeling (eg. anxiety or pee-neediness) fully, which you do fastest by noticing it and feeling it as fully as you can, the brain will consider the attentional item to be processed to its satisfaction, and allow some other item to come through the gate, and (for the time being) locking out the processed item (ie. anxiety) from the attentional gate.

Seems to me, that is how self-harming (eg. cutting yourself intentionally) works. When you harm yourself, the sensation of the harm will take over your attention, pushing the anxiety out. Some forms of self-harm will also lead to the production of endorphins -- remember that I recommended opies (synthetic endorphins) for short-term anti-anxiety treatment!

I never intentionally cut myself, but when my apathy has been unbearable, I have sometimes coped by beating myself in the temples with my fists. The more pain this produces, the better it works!

Cheers,
undopaminergic


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