Originally Posted by jtoronto

Hey Ben, sorry to hear about this incident. It must be very upsetting.

However, I think it's crucial to recognize the type of cognitive distortions that you might be making.

When you say "This is likely the end of my life", I hear very clear catastrophizing.

I think we have had similar experiences in regards to incredible amounts of stress and anxiety that have accompanied our recoveries.

I absolutely understand how bad and scary the darkness can be. I have had a number of setbacks and aggravations and am currently dealing with very bad chronic pain to go along with the stress.

I have made psychological strengthening my number one priority - and although it is not at all easy - I've been making a lot of progress.

For me the key things that have helped my mind so far have been:
- OCD specific therapy - CBT/exposure response prevention
- SSRI medication
- mindfulness and meditation
- the ketogenic diet has been great for me personally along with good nutritional supplements
- exercise/strength training

It's gotten to the point where now it's the chronic pain that is the biggest thing to get over. I haven't completely overcome the mental stuff, but I'm in such a better place, even though dealing with chronic pain is incredibly stressful and taxing in and of itself.

I don't know if this will help you, but for me it became clear that the only way to get better and get out of chronic pain would be to get over all the avoidance behaviours, mental checking/worrying, catastrophizing etc.

I decided that since all the stress/anxiety is ironically stopping me from getting better, I have to cultivate the attitude of "it's not worth trying to protect myself anymore because trying to protect myself is actually hurting myself. I have to risk whatever will happen and get back to moving and thinking as naturally as possible."

Of course, just saying that doesn't make it easy. But through the methods above that I listed, (especially the combination of exposure response prevention and medication) it is happening for me.

I had a person on the street come barreling into me from behind the other day, causing a whiplash like motion (my chronic pain is in my upper back, neck and head). In the past, this would have led to non-stop catastrophizing and worry which would lead to avoidance behaviors which would exacerbate the PTSD issues like muscle clenching and guarding, which in turn are probably big contributing factors to the chronic pain.

It's really not an easy mindset to cultivate, especially when you have an anxiety disorder, but making the decision that I am going to optimize for health in terms of diet, nutrition, exercise and thinking and then that I will risk whatever I have to risk in order to move and think more naturally, has been key for me.