
Anxiety: Nothing to Do but Embrace the Dread - wikiburner
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/13/nothing-to-do-but-embrace-the-dread/
======
softbuilder
Personal history for anyone suffering from serious anxiety:

Anxiety destroyed my 20s. It kept me home-bound. I rarely went out and would
have attacks at the grocery store all of the time. Early on I hoped that
things would come to a head and that I would eventually be immune to it, and
stronger for it. But that never happened. I was afraid to seek help because I
assumed they'd put me on meds that would dull my thinking. Looking back, that
probably would have been fine. At every turn anxiety held me back. A stupider
but freer me would have been welcome.

After a lot of self-analysis and experimentation I discovered that about 70%
of the problem was the Pepsi I was slugging down every day. For my body, sugar
and caffeine together are like crack. I switched to diet and dropped about
half of my daily anxiety in a few months. I eventually cut the caffeine out
altogether. Daily anxiety almost entirely dropped, with occasional spikes for
stressful situations. A friend told me to look into choline. I'm not a
supplements guy, but it turns out eggs have plenty so I started eating eggs
every morning. I also started running which has had a huge impact on my mood.
After a while I rarely had anxiety. In fact most of the anxiety was from
worrying that I was going to have an anxiety attack. I'm not cured - I don't
like certain situations and those can still bring out an attack. The good news
is that it's now at a point where I can fight back and "be brave", which I
always though would fix it but never did. That actually works most of the time
now. That was just impossible in the past.

I used to think that caffeine was making me smarter. It was definitely giving
me bursts of ideas, but ultimately it didn't give me anything I wasn't going
to have already. I was abusing a drug, not thoughtfully taking a medication.

I basically had to become enraged at how my life was going in order to do
something about it.

The bottom line is to never stop trying to solve it. Try the meds, exercise,
diet, meditation, electroshock, whatever. Try everything until you figure it
out.

~~~
Torgo
The only thing on that list that I have not tried is the electroshock :-(

~~~
PavlovsCat
Don't give up anyway! It's may be weak to say this, but it's the best I've
got. Also, consider that "whatever" includes a whole lot of things.. it
includes everything _but_ giving up :)

edit: I don't remember where I have this idea from, and it may be stupid, but
it kinda stuck with me: if you can't find out how to solve a problem, try to
find a way to make it worse, as that can give you hints how to overcome it. I
have no idea how this could be applied to anxiety, not in general and of
course not to yours; or wether that's a good idea even (surely might not be
without friends or professional care around). But since you said you're all
out of clues I thought I'd mention it anyway, even if it's just to bring
people "out of the woodworks" which will tell me why exactly this is a bad
idea (I really have the feeling it might be). I'll simply trust you'll not go
off and do something dangerous with it; but maybe you can reverse engineer it
a little that way.

~~~
dktbs
this might not be what you are describing, but it sounds like exposure
therapy:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_therapy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_therapy)

------
wdewind
Yikes.

>Toss aside the bath water of anxiety and you will also be tossing aside
excitement, motivation, vigilance, ambition, exuberance and inspiration, to
name just several of the inevitable sacrifices. Get rid of anxiety? Even if
you could — and you can’t — why would you want to?

I would be extremely cautious with this train of thought. It is very
dangerous, and by no means true.

~~~
javajosh
I'd upvote this comment more if I could.

I've recently suffered from acute anxiety, and it was not pleasant. But I
figured out what was causing it, changed my diet and exercise patterns, and
it's not happening anymore. The rest of the good things in that list remain in
place.

That said, the author is probably not intentionally misleading his audience;
his personal experience points to the connection between those good attributes
and anxiety, and he assumes that if you lose one you lose them all. It's an
honest mistake, but a mistake nonetheless.

------
robg
If anyone is looking to build technologies to help quantify, then diagnose and
treat anxiety, stress, and depression, we're hiring at Neumitra. I'm a
neuroscientist by training and a severe family history of mental illness led
me down this path.

hello@neumitra.com

------
gohrt
Or you can get high:
[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hallucinoge...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hallucinogens-
could-ease-existential-terror)

I've found that the best way to handle anxiety to stop talking about it all
the time, and just fill your mind with _living_. When HN gets in a spate of
depression/anxiety discussions, it drags my mental health down.

It's almost enough to get me in support of the concept of Trigger Warnings.

~~~
hosh
"When HN gets in a spate of depression/anxiety discussions, it drags my mental
health down."

Psychedelic experiences and meditation are closely interrelated.

Filling your mind with one thing instead of the other is a temporary solution.
It's another form of avoidance.

Anxiety arises from an underlying emotional issue that someone is avoiding.

In the psychedelic and meditative states, it is entirely possible to feel
oneness and love for all that is. That's fine. For insight meditators, this is
a peak experience that is itself transitory. We'd call this the first
"flowering". There is still much work to reach the "fruit".

Think about it. You're given the gift of unity consciousness, of love and
light. But, the tendency after that is then select only _some_ of the
experience as good, and to reject the rest as bad. The gift of the bliss and
love is to teach you what it is like to be unconditionally accepting of all
that is.

And unconditionally accepting includes the experiences of anxiety, depression,
misery ... It's only when you accept the _experiencing_ that you can become a
complete person.

So HN gets in a spate of depression and anxiety discussion. "It drags my
mental health down." The practice at this point is to disassociate the
apparent cause and effect and focus on what you are experiencing at the
moment. "I feel that my focus is breaking apart." "I feel my mood going down."
And you go deeper, observing the sensations that make that up: where exactly,
in your body, are you feeling it? What color is it? What texture? What
temperature? Any sounds, smell, or taste? Then you note it and let it go, go
back to focus on living and breathing.

Over time, you gain the ability to mindfully observe anxiety or any other
sensation as they pass through your awareness, yet you are not moved. It is in
this way, the mystics would call "finding your center". It no longer matters
that HN gets in a spate of depression and anxiety discussions. You are OK with
that.

~~~
antinitro
This is an incredibly well written reply; it sums up the basics of mindfulness
in a very short space. Have you written any more on the subject?

~~~
hosh
Huh, thanks.

Much of the language and frame I use comes from Daniel Ingram's "Mastering the
Core Teachings of the Buddha". You can check that out if you want more. If
you've got some meditative experience, that has some good stuff. If you're
coming in from entheogens, that is a great book to read after a couple
breakthrough experiences. One note though: Ingram is considered controversial
by a number of people for some reason.

As for my own stuff, I have written a cheatsheet at some point:
[http://www.quora.com/Meditation/Whats-a-nice-little-cheat-
sh...](http://www.quora.com/Meditation/Whats-a-nice-little-cheat-sheet-on-
mindfulness-meditation/answer/Ho-Sheng-Hsiao)

... though I will be updating it soon from the things I've been learning from
practicing pranayama and yoga.

------
swayvil
For me, meditation beats anxiety. I meditate every day, more or less. I can
skip a couple of days of meditation but then anxiety starts rising. Soon it's
sitting on me 24-7. I get more and more upset and I start thinking crazy
thoughts. So I meditate and the anxiety goes away.

I do samatha and vipassana.

------
aantix
From my own explorations, I've come to the conclusion that my anxious mind was
a product from my parents. My dad is a fly off the handle, every small thing
is a disaster. My mother is a chronic worrier.

It wasn't until I moved to CA where I had a chance to remove myself from it
did it start to make sense.

Our emotional responses are learned and engrained from our earliest years. I
see it in my parents when I go to visit but now that I'm aware of it I try to
stay calm and grounded.

~~~
wisty
Actually, there's a lot to do with genetics and brain chemistry. Whether or
not your fight-or-flight reaction (your amygdalae) kicks in has a lot to do
with nature. Nurture is also important - meditation can help you regulate it.

------
kevinold
This book has not only helped me with back, neck, and shoulder pain but
anxiety too.

[http://www.amazon.com/The-Divided-Mind-
ebook/dp/B000SEHJOI/r...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Divided-Mind-
ebook/dp/B000SEHJOI/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-
text&ie=UTF8&qid=1373942557&sr=1-2&keywords=divided+minds)

Turns out simple breathing exercises can lower most of my anxiety.

[http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART00521/three-breathing-
exercis...](http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART00521/three-breathing-
exercises.html)

------
tunesmith
I tend to think that anxiety is neither emotion nor reason. Rather, it's an
indication that one or both of them is not being engaged in properly.

~~~
hosh
Anxiety is an emotion. It's an experience. It isn't reason, though one might
come up with any number of reasons, rationalizations, and justifications to
attempt to describe the experience.

------
oyvindeh
I've found it helpful to learn not to fuel thought trains. ACT (Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy)[1] is helpful for that: It's basically about developing an
understanding that thoughts and feelings are not real, and that they are not
dangerous. A thought is the voice in your head, feelings are sensations in the
body. Nothing more. It also has techniques that makes it easier to detect
them.

By the way: Gut flora may play a role in anxiety[2], at least for some. It
seems to play a role in many different mental, as well as physical, illnesses.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/The-Happiness-Trap-Struggling-
Living/d...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Happiness-Trap-Struggling-
Living/dp/1590305841/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373970942&sr=8-1&keywords=happiness+trap)

[2] [http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/09/gut-
feeling.aspx](http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/09/gut-feeling.aspx)

------
senorcastro
Anxiety is a naturally occurring process that has been essential to human
survival. Some individuals have managed to place a completely different
judgement on anxiety and we call those people thrill seekers while other
individuals feel paralyzed with fear. Where one sees dread the other sees a
potential for a state of euphoria. Conquering anxiety is not at all to do with
removing it but with managing our perception of the experience. Embracing
anxiety is not so much with accepting dread but to understand this naturally
occurring system of defense and ultimately desensitizing ourselves to the
dread associated with the experience.

~~~
Skywing
Perhaps. Although, that is easier said than done.

~~~
hosh
Meditate. Breath. No one said this was easy.

------
dschiptsov
In some sense anxiety is an inability to one region of the brain to tame
activities of the other(s). There could be a whole set of possible causation,
but the idea is quite simple - a brain is a muscle, so it could be "changed"
via exercises. This is the reason why meditation works is a grossly
oversimplified, naive wording. So, yes, the way of out of chronic anxiety and
anxiety disorders in general is not in medication or running away, but in
contrary, go toward it and getting to know it by knowing oneself. This is how
people survive on the war - by conquering extreme fear and anxiety.

------
matdrewin
I wasn't a normally anxious person before but 2 distinct traumatic events that
happened in the last 2 years has now made me super anxious. The weird thing
about anxiety is that it's like both sides of your brain are fighting for
control of your body.

------
benjaminwootton
There's a fantastic book that may help with anxiety: Claire Weekes - Self Help
For Your Nerves.

It teaches you how it's just a physiological response that feeds off itself.

Understanding this can help you to break the cycle.

------
ChrisAntaki
Feel the fear, and do it anyways.

~~~
Skywing
Unfortunately, during a panic attack, that may not seem like an option at the
time. And, if you force yourself to do whatever it is you're trying to do at
the moment, a panic attack could result in fainting or something, which may
not be desirable. Anxiety, and "the fear", are both normal, but an attack is
something hard to describe and triggers the flight response usually, for me.

~~~
hosh
Yep. Anxiety is literally the flight response, an avoidance.

It's less about doing and more about actually resting your awareness on the
anxiety, and on what it is you are avoiding. The actual "doing" can come
later; it is hard to do anything without presence of mind.

