Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Idaho
PCS make anxiety worse and makes anxiety easily triggered. Anxiety is a PCS symptom. It is due to the PCS brain struggling to ignore anxiety triggering stimuli. Much of the anxiety triggering stimuli is over-stimulation of visual, auditory and tactile senses. We need to learn to avoid these stimulations. We also need to learn to manage thought patterns.
One of the most important skills to learn is this; We need to accept where we are with our symptoms. We can not change them. We can only make them worse. When we learn to work with and manage our symptoms, our stress and anxiety levels will decrease. This usually helps us heal.
For some people, I think this forum is detrimental. It creates too much opportunity to constantly try to figure every little symptom out. That is an impossible task and causes anxiety.
Yes, you feel lousy. Yes, you want your old life back. No, nobody can tell you when that will happen. Nobody can tell you how much you will recover........ and on and on.
Those who do the best have learned to work with their symptoms rather than fight against them. Many of us have lived with these symptoms for years or even decades. There is life with prolonged PCS. It is much better when anxiety is controlled. It is miserable when anxiety rules our every minute.
|
Some really excellent points here, Mark.
Before my TBI, I was VERY together emotionally, so the anxiety was a real shock.
I started to deal better with it when, I accepted that it was a symptom of my injury and, as Mark said, stopped pushing against it. I sort of treated it like giving birth: labour goes much better if you go with your pain, rather than fight back against it. (Sorry that I can't think of an analogy the guys will get.)
Basically, realizing that it only added to the anxiety, I stopped feeling guilty about my "weakness." I accepted that, no matter what, it was going to happen sometimes. That said, with the help of a psychologist, I set about finding ways to eliminate triggers.
Some of my big triggers are: being rushed, being over scheduled, crowds, loud noises, aggressive/confrontational people, decision making, etc...
To cope, I have simplified my life. For example, I have a very limited closet, eliminating the problem of deciding what to wear. I do my best to avoid nasty, negative people. (I wish I'd done that more BEFORE I got hurt.) I don't fill my days with "must do" commitments. If I feel good I go, if I don't, I don't - big deal.
There is no way in life to avoid all the important aspects/decisions. However, eliminating the trivial, gives you the energy to concentrate on the important ones.
I know it sounds cliché, but I really did have to learn to stop sweating the small stuff. Seriously, a lot of the things we worry about, can be pretty inconsequential. For example, the world isn't going to end because I can't go to the neighbourhood fundraiser. Is my house as clean as it used to be? NO!!!
So what? If that offends anybody, they're too superficial to be a valuable asset to my life.
I've also learned to try to live one day at a time. If I think about all the possible future scenarios, I get overwhelmed. Yes, we can't know about our finances, relationships and health in the decades ahead. But really, nobody can. Life is a journey with ups and downs, where one never knows what's around the next bend. We can do our best, but I believe we have to accept that their are things beyond our control.
There was nothing I could do about my accident - but I am in command of how I chose to respond to it. I am not omnipotent - but I'm not powerless, either.
Looking back, many of the things I feared in the early days, didn't come to pass. Worrying about them wasn't necessary - and didn't help one bit.
Get some professional help, be kinder to yourself and the anxiety will abate.