Hi ya folks
I haven't been around much lately but have kept an eye on this forum.
I have social anxiety and at times in my life it has been excruciating.
I did something called the Hoffman Process a couple of years ago and then I did a sort of top up about a month ago.
My take on this is that it's all the psychological techniques that are known all wrapped up and thrown at you in a big bash to get you to "feel" the impact. It gives you a good paradigm of how and why we react like we do and an excellent understanding that we are separate from our anxiety reactions. These are learned patterns and we can relearn other patterns.
One thing I have now started doing is a technique called "recycling" this is where you do a bit of relaxing and calming down and then you visualise what this feels like and then you visualise yourself in an anxiety "trigger" situation and visualise yourself handling it calmly. The idea is to get you brain to get so used to this that the trigger situation then triggers the calming feeling.
I have started doing this practically every bloody day whether I feel in the mood or not.
Another thing I have started doing is public speaking at an organisation called Toast Masters. I have forced myself through 3 speeches and several times felt like I was going to collapse in a trembling mass of anxiety or have a heart attack.
However, the people at TM are very understanding and the surprising thing is that I carried on and did OK.
I see both of these techniques as sort of exposure therapy. If I had a phobia about spiders I would need to keep exposing myself to more and more spiders. As it is I need to expose myself to people.
So, is it working?
It's early days really but I think that it may be. I am actually optimistic that these techniques can work.
I have had problems for over a decade. I have been depressed before and I have been so anxiety ridden that I have had to rely on Beta Blockers. I doubt I will ever be completely free of anxiety but I am now optimistic about the future and that in itself is bloody amazing.
(...I'll report back on progress.)
My message here for people who are depressed or anxious is: Things can get better. There are techniques that can work. Don't give up. Keep at it.
..oh and a friend has just started to practice NLP in Clapham so if anyone is interested in this then I'll leave the details with Noisy.
I don't get much chance to join the meet ups but if I do....um.....I will.
Best wishes to everyone.
