Therapist Liaison

@sail46

Thank you for the question. A raise in blood pressure is one of the symptoms of anxiety and one that everyone actually has more control of than they know. One trick that I have taught others over the years is to try out one of those bracelet type blood pressure cuffs, or go into your local grocery store/pharmacy where they have one. Take your pulse when you start. Remember or write down the number. Then do a very simple breathing excercise. I like the simple three deep breaths. Deep breath in, hold, let go. Deep breath in, hold, let go. Deep breath in, hold, let go. Then take your blood pressure again. It will have changed. Our blood pressure and pulse can be altered by simple breathing excercises. Once you can physically see yourself changing it, that tends to shift something in your mind. Some of the helplessness evaporates, which in turn, lowers your anxiety. Learning how to breath doesn't cost anything, is easy to learn and can be done quietly so no one needs to know. (Just so everyone knows, I use this trick when I donate blood or have blood draws)

@sensitiveShade5337

I think that I would have to know more. However, the feeling of "fuzziness" is a common symptom of those who are fighting Depression have. Do you have that feeling all the time or just during a particular low period? What are you like, or were you like, when Depression was not in your life?

@thoughtfulCandy29 Hi Candy. Hope you are doing fine. Do you have something that you want to ask or share with us.

@honestBranch5884 Branch this is a great question and many here would want to know about it.

@honestBranch5884

You have a wonderful way of expressing yourself that I appreciate and I am positive that many here can relate to. I expecially love your thoughts around "rallying around" one another and producing an "empathy report" for others to rally around. You are right, fighting the stigma of mental illness certainly has a long ways to go. I remember one client sharing with me, "sometimes I wish I was in a wheel chair, it would make it easier for others to see that I struggle." While you may not get that in the general population, I do believe I have seen some tremendous strides over the past few years globally which have made acknowledging and even speaking about mental illness becoming more prevelant. As to your negative thoughts that lead to lowering of confidence, self-esteem issues and self doubt... There is an excercise that I use myself that I find helpful and have shared often over the years. But first one needs to understand therapy in a very basic sense. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most common therapy treatment used. If CBT could be broken down into its most basic level it means, "Our thoughts lead to our feelings which lead to our behaviors." Basically, we can only change our thoughts. Feelings just are, they are neither right nor wrong and are directly influenced by our feelings and our behaviors are patterns of actions that we have learned over the years when we have certain feelings. What I see many people do is spend a lot of time on feelings and behaviors and don't do enough work on their thoughts, which is where change can happen. So with negative thoughts, there are several techniques, but my favorite is Flipping It. What this means is that you need to listen to your thoughts, acknowledge them, be mindful of them and then if they are negative you need to work on changing it or Flipping It into a positive. For example; "That person hates me." Flip It. "That person may be having a bad day, but that is their issue and not mine and I am not going to let their attitude ruin my day." Does that make sense? It is difficult to do at first, but does get easier the more you actively practice it. Thank you again for sharing your wonderful words.

@sail46

Sail46, this is a great question. Anxiety is made up of a few things; the combination of chemicals in our brain acting in the same way it would during an emergency (fight or flight response-=feeling brain aka amygdala & hippocampus) and some of our own patterns from our histories. Anxiety serves a purpose, it tells us when something needs to change, so a little bit of anxiety can be a good thing. I am making the assumption that you are talking about the unhealthy kind of anxiety, the kind that doesn't seem to fit any given situation. I like to refer to to this as the difference between our thinking brain and our feeling brain. When situations come up that you know may trigger anxiety, do you have certain things that you do or think? Sometimes just being prepared for those situations can be helpful and having a handful of coping skills that work for you on hand. But I think always going back to that idea... Am I using my thinking or feeling brain right now?

@sail46

If you sign up through the free three day trial you will be connected with Sophia, a bot who will ask you some questions and match you to one of us based on fit. Or you can search through the therapist bios that are similar to listener pages and find a good fit that way as well.

@honestBranch5884

Interesting question. So what you are describing is rather "normal" with those who have either the chemical imbalance of Bipolar Disorder and in those that suffer from a lot of different mental health issues. It is one of those common symptoms that a lot of people share. One thing that you have going for you is that you are recognizing the behavior for what it is. That is good. Where the danger comes in is if it becomes meaningless or risky interactions for you. There are ways you can work on this. Your insight into seratonins relationship with this is a good one, but it goes a little deeper into patterns of behavior. You do something, it makes you feel good, you keep doing it. This happens a lot with those who struggle with addiction as well. One thing that I always recommend for those who have ebbs and flows to their moods is actually tracking it. There are now a lot of apps that can assist with this as well as good old charting. Keep track of those ebbs and flows and be aware of what behaviors are healthy and unhealthy for you. Getting attention from others is not bad in and of itself, its a matter of what it is doing for you in the long run? Is it turnin into healthy or unhealthy relationships and support over time? I once had a client that I had start charting her moods. She stated she got into a fight with her partner almost every evening at 9:00 pm. Once she started tracking and sharing she recognized that her instinct was right, she was doing this. She brought it with her to her psychiatrist who recommended taking adjusting the time (by only a half an hour) of her medication and the fighting stopped. That little adjustment was all it took to change a behavior.

@CassieColemanHepplerLICSW I like it. According to him I'm half way through the yellow level