Hi guys! I want to share my experience because maybe this can help someone else. I apologize for typos
I have anxiety, and this mental illness has joined me since I was 5 years old. It is not easy to manage with a lot of things such as asking for help, overthinking, and pessimism, these are feelings that anxious people can relate with. I feel like I'm worthless or things will never get better, and for me, that thoughts create a place that I called "the hole". That place is where my worse nightmares are real; I'm not able to notice good things, and the bad ones embrace me tie and they don't want to let me go.
If you have experience that situation, remember this, you are not alone. It is important to talk about how are you feeling. My psychologist said something important about the anxiety "there are three emotions that control this illness: fear, sadness, and anger."
Though it doesn't seem like that, fear is a physiological reaction that has evolved with us. The sympathetic nervous system is in charge of releasing adrenaline, a little neurotransmitter allows us to be ready in risky situations, and is linked to survival. Our ancestors perceived fear as a signal of something dangerous is going to happen, it means that fear has no reason to appear when we are in a safe place. That's a little be tricky when you add anxiety to the recipe. Fear is the main emotion that I have experience for almost my entire life and the quarantine has made it worse.
On the other hand, we have sadness. Okay, we are familiar with sadness, but maybe you had asked yourself "why am I sad if there's no reason for that". First, we need sadness, it can sound like cheap philosophy but that's true. We can't appreciate happiness if sadness does not exist, we need to cry sometimes because it helps us to heal. The thing is that we can't abuse of sadness. It means that you can feel sad for a broken heart o the passing of a loved one, but it can't last forever. We will eventually heal and enjoy our life.
My psychologist highlighted that these emotions are important in our life: fear focuses on your survival which is great if the situation requires it, and sadness helps to heal. But we need to know when they are useful and when they are not; emotions are not rational, but we are and we can control them. Since she told me that, I've been trying to identify when I'm abusing of these emotions, and this action helps get out of my hole
What about anger? I've been thinking about what anger brings to my life and none of those things are positive. Anger does not bring something positive into our lives and we must learn to deal with it in other ways. In many episodes, I have felt so much anger that it has made me feel sick, and that wasn't right. I know that sometimes it is inevitable not to get upset but remember that it hurts you.
I try to take a deep breath and repeat to myself "Anger does not bring good things" until I calm down. I know that anxiety can be different for each person, but these emotions are the base of it and we can learn to control them. I hope this can be useful for any of you. Thank you for reading me.
If you are in a dark place and you don't know who to talk to, you can chat with me.
Have a nice day. Sorry for grammar mistakes, I'm still learning.