MY BOUT WITH ANXIETY
Hey guys what’s going on! It’s your friend Danny Cole here to talk to you a little bit about anxiety.
How many people do you know that have anxiety or have ever experienced anxiety? Have you yourself ever experienced anxiety? If you are like me then you know someone and you also know the horror of experiencing in.
Did you know anxiety is the most common mental disorder in the United States. In fact, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (AADA) 40 million million Americans over the age of 18 are affected by anxiety.
In my late 20’s, out of nowhere, anxiety hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn’t know what was going on at first. All I knew was I didn’t like leaving the house. I had this looming fear of “dying,” surrounding me like the dirt cloud over Pig Pen from the Charlie Brown cartoon. Even checking the mailbox was a dreaded task.
I remember going to the mall with my girlfriend at the time, and she was looking at some makeup inside of Macy’s and the anxiety monster hit me. I felt on edge, scared, my heart started racing, and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to get out of there, but I didn’t want to move. She was getting a little aggravated with me because this was not the first time we had to leave a place because I felt this way.
We left there and I thought I as having a heart attack or something, so I had her take me to an Immediate Care facility. They did a routine checkup and told me that everything looked fine. But I knew it wasn’t. After a brief conversation the nurse told me that it was probably a bout of anxiety.
Anxiety? I thought to myself. Could this really be what was causing this horrible feeling inside of and around me? I did a ton of research and talked to others and found out that I was not alone. A large majority of the people have anxiety or had it at some point in their life. A lot of my friends had it and I didn’t even know.
For me, the anxiety lasted about 3-6 months. It may not sound like a long time, but when it was a constant day in day out feeling of fear, and robbing me from living my life, 3-6 months felt like an eternity. I remember just feeling like I wish I would die so I didn’t have to feel this way anymore.
What I did to beat anxiety.
From the research I did and from the people I spoke with and what I noticed with me was a constant negative thought pattern. Once I started having anxiety I thought about it all the time. I would think to myself, “Man, when is it going to happen again?” Or, “I hope I don’t have anxiety today.” I kept my mind and body on edge constantly. And by doing so it triggered more anxiety. It is like, for instance, telling yourself, “Don’t think of a pink elephant.” When you tell yourself not to do something you have to do it first so you will know what not to do. Make sense?
Now, don’t get me wrong, there are different levels and severity of anxiety and I am just letting you know what worked for me. And my hope is that it will help some of you reading this now.
I set out and began on my journey to become a master of my mindset. One thing I have learned in all the years of studying psychology, NLP, and personal-development is that your thoughts determine your outcome.
You see, what you think about will determine what you feel, what you fell will determine the actions you take (or do no take), and those actions will determine your outcome. Does this make sense?
So what I did was I conditioned my mind daily. A few of the things I did was, I read positive articles. Repeated positive affirmations in my head and aloud. Only watched uplifting shows on television. And practiced meditation. Meditation is powerful. If you have never tried meditating you are missing out. This is something I practice on a daily basis now.
Think about this for a moment, if you can. An athlete doesn’t work out one time and then just miraculously become the fittest person in the world. No. What do they do? They condition themselves daily.
What that means is they eliminate the negative patterns that are preventing them from achieving their goal and implement the positive patterns that will help them achieve their goal. This could mean they eliminate bad eating habits, thought habits, and procrastinating. And, implementing a healthy eating regime, goal outcome thinking, and taking action now.
For me, the anxiety didn’t just “poof” and vanish into thin air overnight, but what it did do was gradually decrease over time. And before I knew it, it was gone. Everyone once in a while the ugly anxiety monster will try and rear its head but I relax, take a deep breath, and focus my mind on something else. Something positive.
I hope this helps you or someone you know experiencing anxiety.
You are Stronger Than Failure,
Danny Cole