Considering hypnosis, and I talk about Easter 1998

[@beepboop9976]

I do cbt and exposure therapy and found it really helpful for me. I don’t let my anxiety stay in a heightened state, I let it go as high as I can before I have to go back to a safe place so it doesn’t turn into a panic attack. Each time I push myself a little further. I used to not be able to go in my garden without anxiety and now I can go into town and into a few shops.

[@chrstopherblighton-sande2981]

I'm so sorry that you are struggling with anxiety and OCD at the moment. I'm having my worst ever episode of anxiety/ocd at the moment due to my husband's health - he is currently back in the hospital for a check up due to a possible complication - so I'm grateful for your videos today, they are a welcome distraction. Your comment about the well of oblivion is extremely relatable. I too wish I didn't know as much as do for the same reasons as you. It also makes me struggle with well meaning people in my life who try to make me feel better, by saying things about certain risks that I know aren't true, that are based in incorrect information. It really, really upsets me. Likewise I hate it when people assume I'm not able to identify the actual risk of something, when the fact is I am, but I am just unable to feel an appropriate level of anxiety in response to it. I know something might be unlikely, but my internal alarm reacts as if it is very likely and imminent. It's horrible. I'm really interested to hear about the hypnosis. I'm eager to hear how it goes for you and how helpful it might turn out to be. Well done by the way on now being able to touch books the next day after they arrive. That's fantastic! I've improved a bit in that area too, but still find myself leaving them for several days. I shall try and use your example as a motivator to reduce the time. I can totally relate to your comments on Exposure and Response Prevention, I too find the anxiety of it overwhelming and I don't regulate my emotions well either, so the whole thing is very distressing. My therapist and I work in very small steps over a long period of time and I've found that to be the most helpful approach for me, though I can only guess how frustrating it must be for him. I would totally have freaked-out if I had been on that walk and seeing the lightning like that! I'm going over to part 2 now to see how you dealt with it.

[@welcome12ization]

My therapist has been keen to do exposure very quickly, but I feel it's a bit too soon for me. I sort of need more help with the cognitive side of things - helping me deal with uncertainty etc. Yes I've had people lecturing me on risks too, and it is very irritating.

[@gmlpc7132]

I have similar experience in that my issues with anxiety and general mental health are generally far worse as an adult than as a child. To some degree this is because adult life involves far more independence and having to face far more challenges. For some of us education was an area of relative success but adult life with all its aspects such as employment, relationships, finances and domestic responsibilities is far harder. I've had problems in all those latter areas but you make a very good point about the stock of bad memories as an adult and how it could be so liberating to take the mind back to a stage before all those things. As someone once said, maybe the important thing is not to learn but to unlearn. As life goes on the weight of negative experiences grows heavier and heavier and sometimes I wish the mind were like a computer where the "files" of bad memories or experiences could just be deleted. Of course that isn't possible but there may be ways of reducing the impact of all those experiences and memories and hopefully a therapist may have some techniques to help you down that path.

[@welcome12ization]

Yes I agree, I think unlearning can be very important because knowing too much can be oppressive. I describe my fears as being like malware or spam that I don't need because it's not helpful, it's just an overload of useless info that I wish I could delete.

[@gmlpc7132]

@@welcome12ization That computing analogy is a very good one. Sometimes it seems like our minds like an old version of a program that we can't upgrade. They can become "infected" but all too often no-one seems to know how to repair them or the suggestions they make are either impractical or just makes things worse. Improvements are out there but finding them is hard. It's certainly possible to know too much. This is certainly true in terms of life experiences but also knowledge more broadly. Over the past year I've greatly reduced my exposure to the news because I was often hearing things that worried, annoyed or frustrated me. Maybe this has made me a little less informed but also less stressed and in the end that is far more important.