M1 : Lesson 7.5: Anxiety
Additional Level 1 Q&A Class on “Anxiety and Panic” To Learn More Helpful Reminders Here.
Transcript
Next, we’ll discuss chronic anxiety and panic attack. Attacks. Chronic anxiety and panic attacks can be a debilitating condition to live with, and I know firsthand how much suffering this can cause is I had severe panic and anxiety disorder for about 20 years, and I’m fully recovered from that, which seems like an impossible feat that I had for many years. I was actually severely addicted to benzodiazepine medic medications. I tried all sorts of other medications that I had a massive intolerance to.
And all that time that I was wrestling with deep anxiety, And so now to give you hope, it’s been many years since I’ve had a true panic attack. I absolutely got through the benzodiazepine withdrawal, which definitely was a journey. And I’ve seen many others completely eliminate this debilitating condition from their life. But that path to freedom does require a very counterintuitive approach. Reversing chronic anxiety, Anxiety and panic occur when there’s a chronic overreaction of the threat mechanisms of the amygdala, and the body.
And it’s often a sympathetic nervous system dominant state or chronic fight or flight. Over time, we often start limiting our life and our activities to a great extent just to try to keep these uncomfortable experiences at bay Only define we have eventually imprisoned ourselves trying to stay safe and feel better. That’s no way to live. And the good news is that you can do so much to reverse these issues even without medications. As I mentioned above, I have personally healed completely from severe anxiety and panic disorder.
And even though I went through that difficult benzodiazepine and other medication withdrawal, I still found my way through. Fortunately, I found the toolkit of limbic retraining, brain retraining, and other nervous system practices that were highly effective for managing anxiety. In addition, I also did breath work, which I’ll talk about in module 6. Reversing chronic anxiety issues requires a consistent effort of repatting your responses to the anxiety symptoms and sensations and finding the courage to commit to living life even with the symptoms present. Over time, you can absolutely rewire this issue and live a life without the debilitating sensations.
Like I said, breathing practices were especially helpful for me. I recommend looking into the butteco breathing techniques if you wrestle with anxiety, especially since that was the one that was a particular help to me. In addition to my suggestion on the breathing, the brain rewiring practices to calm down your limbic system are foundational part of reorganizing the way your brain is processing this information that’s causing anxiety. In the last lesson of module 1, you’re going to learn a pattern interrupt process that helps to break the brain’s addiction to anxiety and worry. You see, anxiety has an addictive component to it in the way the brain is seeking to find control, uncertainty.
And through neuroplasticity practices, we teach the brain to learn to embrace the uncertainty of what might happen in the future by also teaching the brain to expect good things in the future. And most importantly, learning how to be somatically present in the body is the deepest skill that I’ve completed in the process of teaching my brain how to easily move in and out of states of activation without getting stuck in anxiety or panic. With anxiety from a trauma perspective, there’s often a deep, unmet hurt, stuck unconsciously in the body that we must learn to become present with and accept. And I’m gonna present some basic processes to you of how to learn how to be present with what you’re feeling when you’re uncomfortable in the semantics module of the program. Overall, there’s a deep decision to commit to living your life regardless of how you feel while you’re doing so.
4:11This commitment to live is another level of embodiment of your primal trust that eventually has a very positive impact in helping you find freedom from anxiety.