Hello All

Thought I'd share some more of my classes with you, yesterday it was all about our thoughts.

"We all have a running commentry of thoughts or 'Self Talk' going on in our heads.  We carry on a rich, inner dialogue of words and pictures that determine much of what we feel and do.  This inner dialogue also determines our responses to stressful situations.  Often, it is not the event itself but what we tell ourselves or imagine about that event that creates the fear and anxiety."

e.g Missed beat/Palpitation = Thought - Heart Attack

There is a anxiety circle

Trigger (stressful event, Palpitation, anything) - Negative Thought - Physical Arousal/behaviour - triggers more anxiety.

Recognising Anxious Thoughts

"The first step in controlling anxiety is to learn and recognise your anxious thoughts.  Sometimes it is easy to notice thoughts that spark off anxiety, but at other times it can be difficult.  There are a number of reasons for this:-

1. They may flash through your mind so quickly that you are not aware of them.  All you notice is that you are suddenly afraid.

2. They may become 'automatic' so that they just appear without any effort on your part - they are like bad habits. You may not be totally aware of them because they are so familiar.

3. They may not be verbal thoughts, they can be visual images.
For instance you mayhave a picture of yourself involved in a incident and you may see yourself just losing control.
They may be rather strange or bizarre, like images in dreams
4 It is often difficult to recall anxious thoughts when you are no longer feeling anxious

For all these reasons, the best way to learn to recognise anxious thoughts and images is to write them down at the time.  Keep a daily record of situations where you feel anxious or tense and as soon as you can, write them down.  If you find it difficult, ask yourself - " What did you think was the worst that could happen in that situation?"

Why are Negative thoughts unhelpful?

Negative thoughts are inhelpful and increase the feelings of anxiety because they always overestimate the amount of actual danger or threat occuring in the situation.  This is inaccurate and irrational, and can be seen to stem from one or more 'thinking errors' "

For example, I get a missed or strange beat, somedays I just ignore it others I will think "Oh my god, what if that happens again? what if happens over and over? what do I do? who will look after the children whilst I'm being taken to the hospital?"  See so from there I panic and worry and my heart starts to race and I get all the anxious symptoms that go with it (see list on another post Anxiety Symptoms), it's not easy to recognise your thoughts, but next time you are feeling panicky stop and take note of what YOU are telling YOURSELF, you'd be really surprised, I know I was.  It wasn't until I stopped and took notice of my thoughts that I realised I can actually talk MYSELF into a anxiety moment.
For us who suffer mainly with the palpitations, by being anxious we are churning our stomachs, our bowels want to evacuate any waste so we are disturbing our digestive systems, creating more acid and more wind, our nervous systems go into hyperspeed and adreline is running through our veins, not a good combo for our vagus nerve! Normally we do not see the direct responce from that until a day or few and they normally last a week or 2, so when we've finally calmed from the event, we feel okish then come the shock waves and we start getting weird and wonderful (not) beats.
Sometimes we do not have to have a big event to make us anxious anything even something really minor.  

Keeping a diary is a good idea, as it will be a good way of recognising your thoughts.

It does make sense and I hope I have put it across in a way that it makes sense.  Until you recognise waht negative thoughts you are having it is practically impossible to challenge them! As you do not know what your challenging.

So basically more positive thinking people!  I'm not preaching just sharing information.

I have IBS constipation dominant, so this doesn't help with some of my symptoms, but if I can help calm it all down a bit, it's worth a try, it doesn't cost anything and it has no side effects!!!!

Kath x

Hi

Must be difficult working in a hospital.

I've passed some onto my son, as much as I really tried not too.

It is hard to accept, I'm 75% there, still have to bad days/weeks.

Thanks  

Kath x

Thanks RLR,

It's not been easy, but I'm determined that I want my life to be different, so without jinxing myself I hope I can do just that.

Like I've said many times it's thanks to you and people on the forum for all the support and advice, it goes a long way

Kath x

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

Hi

Basically, well thats how I see it anyway. I think it will take time to see results but because we've done this to ourselves over the course of quite a few years it'll probably take time to turn it around.

I've often thought of going back to college and doing psychology, I find it so interesting.

Kath x

Hi

Thats something I've considered too, There is always a advert in our local paper for training to be a counceller or psychiatrist.  Problem at the moment is the ages of my children, when my youngest starts school full time I'll be looking more into it as I'll have more time.

Good luck with your exams

Kath x

I think you are so right Saab.  I think that i've always been a bit of a worrier, never affected my life though, not as i noticed anyway.  But since i had my operation two years ago, WHAM, and here i am now!!!!

Hi Saab and Angiebaby

I know what you are talking about, and I've had and still do have it where anxiety sweeps over me and I can not rationalise, but to be fair it doesn't happen as often.  (no to jinx myself).  My course is a anxiety management, alot of it I kind of knew anyway it was just being told how to put it into pratise the negative thoughts thing was a new thing, I've always worried not to the extent I do now, and always thought that thinking negatively can avoid me getting disappointed.

I have 3 ceserain sections, 1st 2 emergency, my son passed motion in side of me at 38 weeks and was told to get to the hospital quick, his heart rate was fine but he wouldn't move so I was rushed to theatre, my daughter I tried to go naturally she was so big and I was so uncomfortable I couldn't even lay down as I was sick so had to sleep sitting up as she was right up under my ribs, Was kept in hospital even though I wasn't dialating and eventually did, but her heart rate wasn't the rate it should be for the amount of centimetres I was dialated they called my hubby when I was 4cm and broke my waters put some nodes on her head to get a better reading of her heart, my hubby was there 5 mins and her heart stopped started went from 150 to 70 to 120 then to 50 and was irratic, the midwife pressed the big red button on the wall so alarms everywhere, she started shaving me I was so frightened next thing she's shouting down the corridor "SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME, CALL THE CRASH TEAM" next I'm being RUN down the corridor signing forms in theatre with all these machines and hundreds of people next I was asleep, I really thought I was going to wake to bad news but fortunately I didn't.  Then my 3rd section had to be planned as I wasn't allowed to go naturally and the aneastatist didn't give me enough, he did the ice test and I could still move my feet and legs and feel cold on my lower ribs and he told them to start (with my son I was paralysed didn't feel a thing) I said I can still feel but he ignored me He then went on to drop the screen on my face and then I felt no pain but every cut every snip of the scissors every pull tug, and when they started to pull her out I felt pain across my lower ribs I said I had pain he said "AM I SURE"!!!! I said yes he ignored me and I had to keep saying to myhusband Kev please... tell him I feel pain, My heart rate and bp was so high that I had to force myself to calm down and eventually ended up on gas and air, as it wasn't worth knocking me out! I still felt every stitch it was what I imagine being tortured is like just without the pain!  I then had sleep paralyse for a few weeks after due to the shock.  I'd started getting the missed beats (or noticing them) after my 1st daughter, I had my apendix out whilst 3 months pregnant with my son and my cousin died at the age of 32 whilst I was pregnant with my last.

My youngest daughter is now 2 1/2.  If you practise it should work, I'm not there completely but I do not want to look back on my life and think I've wasted it on being anxious and I'm not helping my long term health by keeping myself in this state, doctors say I'm fine, one day I may not be and I've spent all this time worrying over being fine.  Yes I still get really anxious and still think what if the've got it all wrong.  But this does me no good.  

It's so difficult, try to take a hour out, I hardly get chance to but every now and then it helps.

We can all do this, some it may take longer and I'm not saying your be ok in a week or month or even a year but you will start to feel a bit better and be able to control it better instead of it controlling you!  Even people who do not suffer with anxiety or palpitations have bad days and so will we and our bodies will react as they know most familiar.

I react emotionally to things I've only just started to notice, so I need to change that about myself.

Thanks

Kath x