Today's guest post is brought to by an Anxiety Guru reader named Emily. She has lived with anxiety for some time now and wanted to share a few tips on how to challenge your anxiety. Do you have a story or tips that you'd like to share with the Anxiety Guru Community? Contact me today and find out how you can help others in need of information and advice. This is not just the lyrics to a Styx song. A lot of us with anxiety will find ourselves isolated and lonely at some point. Being isolated and lonely is something normal that anyone can
Fibromyalgia and Anxiety
Today's guest post is brought to you by an Anxiety Guru reader named Sue. She has suffered from fibromyalgia and anxiety for over 9 years and was kind enough to share her experience in the hopes of helping someone else. Do you have a story that you want to share with the Anxiety Guru community? Contact me today and find out how you can help others that need information and guidance. Good day everyone, and I hope you are doing well. My posting is about my ongoing issues with Fibromyalgia and the anxiety that it creates. For those of you
Why An Anxious Mind Can Make You Vulnerable to Suggestibility
Have you ever wondered why you become so afraid when you have an anxious thought? It could be a thought about a potential panic attack, fear of embarrassing yourself, fear of going crazy or if you're in a depressive mode perhaps fear of hurting yourself or someone else. Most times you might yell internally and pronounce to yourself that you would never take action on that nasty thought. So why all the associated fear? In a word, suggestibility . Like a hypnotherapist, anxiety has the ability to manipulate your emotions and your thought
Are You a Cyberchondriac?
Definitions In their quest for peace of mind and reassurance anxiety sufferers will often seek answers and details about their condition wherever they can find them. Answers that inevitably have to do with their chronic symptoms, whether it be headaches, muscle twitch, dizziness, panic, chest pain or any other symptom in the never ending list of anxiety manifestations. And of all the tools that help facilitate the search for further understanding of anxiety disorders the internet is perhaps the most used, influential, and potentially
The Power Of Compassion
To feel persistent fear is to be miserable, to feel sad because of fear is painful, to feel alone is what anxiety can make you. But it isn't simply the fear, sadness or isolation that bends our will and weakens our resolve. No, it's more than this. It is the final culmination of all that we hate about anxiety - the final turn inward, the path away from the outside, away from what we all understand as normal and inside our minds in search of a way out. What then can we implement to counter this inward, self reflective, even self-absorbed
Why We Always Seek Reassurance
photo credit: basibanget Most people seek reassurance at some point or another. The vast majority of all people did this kind of thing on a regular basis as children. And when you have an anxiety disorder it's almost like we are kids again in the sense that the desire to seek reassurance can be almost automatic. But why is this the case? Well, the primary and most obvious reason is because anxiety disorder(s) create a tremendous amount of uncertainty. When we have a spike in anxious feelings or thoughts we become afraid, worried, and
How To Tell The Difference Between Anxiety And Depression
photo credit: stevendepolo photo credit: Torley Unlike the common cold or the flu anxiety disorders follow a much slower progression. It could all start with panic attacks, then hypochondria, racing thoughts, palpitations and then, well then depression becomes a real possibility. After years of being anxious a person can and often will develop depression and I want to detail how one can tell the difference between anxiety and depression. Let's start by taking a look at the symptoms for both anxiety disorders and
Beware Of Depression
Most people that have an anxiety disorder spend lots of time preoccupied with anxiety (fear) symptoms like palpitations, chest pain, malaise, or any number of horrible feelings. However, as an anxiety sufferer winds their way through the maze of constant worry and panic, depression could be sneaking up on them or in many cases already present. Anxiety disorders over the long haul rarely appear by themselves. The comorbidity rate for anxiety disorders, that is anxiety add-ons like depression and obsession, is high. It's a screwed up
The Top 100 Things You Should Know About Anxiety Disorders
Over the course of a decade you can learn a lot about anything. You can become an expert at car repair, kitchen remodeling, hair styling, or in my case you can learn all about anxiety. Since 1999 I have been battling anxiety non-stop and as a result I've learned a thing or two about this topic (I've recovered since then). Many of my thoughts on this issue are short thoughts or blurbs that I've collected over the years and for no particular reason I wanted to jot them down. I can't possibly recall everything but here is a good chunk of