Hi Deb
I not sure if it's therapy, and I wouldn't know if you can stop the negative thoughts all together.
But when I questioned about how come others do not get like we do when we have a trigger, and she said that there brains probably automatically challenge those negative thoughts.
I think we've all at sometime been negative or thought negatively, so over time without even realising in we've overrided the bodies natural challenging response's, so effectively we've trained ourselves to respond the way we do to certain things.
Trying to think of a example,
Right you get a missed beat, you then start to think "oh I'm going to have a heart attack, I'm going to die, I'm going to have to go to hospital" you then panic (Bearing in mind this all can happen in a matter of seconds) So if you tell yourself this over and over eventually your body is going to see the missed beat a a threat and your survival instinct is going to kick in, hence panic and anxiety. So next time you get that missed beat, stop yourself there take note of whats going on in your head (not easy) bearing in mind at this time you've had heart tests and blood tests all showing benign palps and are negative and your armed with the knowledge you've received from RLR, others on the forum and any other info you have picked up on the way, this is your protection if you like your armour to these thoughts, so you can now challenge them, you tell yourself you've had these before and your fine, your vagus nerve has inappropriatly sent in a extra beat and you know your heart is structurally fine. then leave it at that and put all your energy into thinking of something you really really like. Now written it sounds quite straight forward or that'll never work. It's far from easy in fact it's quite tiring, and as for it'll never work - you didn't learn your 9 times tables through not practising did you!
Anxiety itself is completely natural, lets go back to us being cave people, we'd have to hunt for food and we were hunted, so we're faced with a sabre tooth tiger, drooling as he's pretty hungry, your armed with your make shift spear, (which your quite proud off as you made it yourself) so it's kill or be killed, you can either run or fight (Flight or fight responce) so your body does what it is suppose to removes waste, moves the oxygen to the most need places so you can fight or run, adreneline starts pumping and you leg it! not really you stay and have yourself a feast and perhaps a new coat for the winter (Before I go on I do not agree with animals being killed for their fur etc, this is what happened in those days for survival) If at that point the cave person thought oh my god I feel really funny, oh no my hearts palpitating and I think I may die then yes he or she was right they were eaten by the Sabre tooth.
Now a days our sabre tooths are in different forms, finances, and just general pressures from the modern day, what we really need to do is realise that these are not real threats just our fears, Your finances won't eat you, so your late for an important meeting, it happens you apologise and get on, your stuck in traffic, it'll eventually go, none of these wil eat you or harm you physically, so we need to train ourselves how to react or think in a more calmed and rational way. Still again not easy!
Then again through being anxious we've upset our whole nervous system, depending on how bad we interpreted the situation depends on how bad we reacted, we've upset our digestive system big time, our bowels have just emptied their entire contents in a matter of minutes rather than at it's natural pace, In my case trys to bless it, so just end up full of wind, but even if you do you still get wind (nerbous indigestion) your stomach acid bubbles, whatever is in your stomach has just churned and churned, then what happens to our vagus nerve? Any ideas! Then you panic yourself all over again. Like I said not always straight away, more when your system is starting to calm down. this could be up to a week later. Worring does the same thing just on a slower scale. So you can imagine the vicous circle you keep yourself with a anxiety disorder and keeping yourself in a anxious state. If you have digestive problems anyway you'll sometimes get these even if you are not particulary anxious but just eating and drinking wrong. So thats why it's important to eat and drink the right things for you.
Being anxious or stressed over a long period can also play a big part in getting some of these digestive problems such as IBS. So once again big circle.
I do not think we're ever not have a negative thought again, because we most probably will, but we will have taught ourselves how to challenge effectively.
For those with digestive problems and those whose hormones play a part, as our anxious state is heightened nearer the time of our periods, and for those enduring their menopause. Our hormones also can play a part in irritating our bowels, I find I need to go toilet more regulary than normal a week or so before my period. So we must accept that and at least we know why we're feeling a bit more uptight than usual or were getting more palpitations than usual.
Sorry if I've babbled on and hope it makes sense.
Kath x