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Re: I think I have another anxiety disorder :-(

Posted by llrrrpp on August 28, 2006, at 19:41:55

In reply to Re: I think I have another anxiety disorder :-(, posted by Dinah on August 28, 2006, at 16:44:51

Deneb*,
I've been going through a lot of this myself. Only with me, it's not about my health, but rather about the state of the world. You see, I have been obsessively clicking on cnn-com and nytimes-com since I picked up this habit in the month of 9/01.

And since I do much of my work on the computer, while connected to the internet, I have been feeding my anxiety with--you got it-- more anxiety-producing news.

I finally talked about this with my T 2 weeks ago. I have since cut out much of the clicking behavior. Heck. I'm going to remove the links from my toolbar. T said that the news is dominated today by a media industry that really takes advantage of our fear-addiction.

And since I've been doing this, and avoiding other sources of anxiety (haven't posted on the admin board in over a week now, for example) I've been getting much more work done.

Here's the problem with soothing anxiety through information seeking: The world is full of unknowns. Medical science will never be able to cure 100%. There will always be unknowns in life. If you try to soothe your anxiety by finding out more information, you will likely only blow on a hot fire. You will discover more possible rare conditions that you *may* have. And more tests will be run, with that margin of error, and the false positives, and you can really see how this becomes a quick slide into poverty, depression, and sickness...

BUT- Deneb*, you can see many of your own obsessions for what they are- cognitive illusions. So, you need a better way of coping with anxiety- ideally a method that won't lead to more anxiety!

You may be finding out a lot of information about sickness, but why not spend your days learning origami, or studying German Expressionist Art, or planning your next big adventure? Heck, learn ballroom dancing! You've got a big brain- fill it up with happy learning, not thoughts of what vitamin deficiencies cause dementia in 40 years.

Eat your vegetables, take your meds, get exercise, and make friends. You'll be in good shape.

best wishes to you :)
:o)
-ll



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