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Originally Posted by MB292
Okay, okay, okay, I have had enough. My biggest fear is declining mentally and becoming nothing but an inane, damn near vegetable, and its making me even worse. I fear that I hit my head even when I clearly do not. Like today for example. I mistakenly thought I had hit my head on the faucet, so I continuously grazed my head over it to see if I did, and now my anxiety has spiked. Lately I've been "repeating" the actions in which I think I hit my head to see if I did, and it's making me even worse. Now I fear I am too far gone to get better because of my new found habit, and I am just a jumbled mess. How do any of you handle this anxiety? I can' seem to cope. Every day I attempt to not fall back into my vacuous habit, but I do it again. Now I'm more afraid than ever. Please, someone help.
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You aren't alone in this, just yesterday I jerked kinda funny to prevent something from falling in the tub and thought that I might have hit my head, even though I didn't feel anything, and sat in the tub re-enacting to convince myself that I hadn't done anything. That's the first time I've done something like that without actually hitting my head, but when I have hit my head I've re-enacted how fast I was moving to get an idea of the speed or forces involved.
I try to get through moments like this by recognizing my anxiety for what it is, and anxious overreaction to a small stimulus, and reassure myself that if any damage was actually done, it's only to the muscles/skull. Also, and this is just my experience, but any of the headaches related to these small headbumps have eventually either totally gone away or subsided significantly, so I tell myself that even if I did some kind of damage, the symptoms are likely to be short-lived. Finally, I try to tell myself that even if I did get brain damage (as exceedingly unlikely as that is), there's nothing I can do about it now, and getting anxious only makes it worse. It's easier to tell yourself this than actually believe/enact it, but I think simply telling yourself is the first step.
I've also been on lexapro for about a month, and it seems the visceralness of anxiety has improved, but I still have some anxious thought patterns.