Dealing with catastrophic thinking

[[Ch...]]

Hey all, I’m 49 months into recovery and immensely improved, but I still experience elevated anxiety. This is particularly challenging because the world’s problems easily send me into worst-case-scenarios.
 

How do y’all cope with the problems out there, which are objectively kinda tough, while keeping in mind that benzo injury can make it all feel much much worse?

Edited July 7 by [Ch...]

[[Ma...]]

Well, with Biden’s debate etc, my catastrophic thinking presently knows no bounds @[Ch...]!

You know the drill: distract, float above, allow…

I’ve been reading Baylissa’s blog about mindfulness without judgement. It’s a reminder to stay fully present in this moment and, for me, not ‘time travel’ beyond this very moment.

Remind yourself of the beauty all around you from the blue sky, a cool breeze, the comfort of a brief moment of calm.

[[WU...]]

50 minutes ago, [[C...] said:

the problems out there

There are no problems "out there", it all happens in our heads. Try reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle to start with.

Oh and helps if you switch off all "news", they make most of it up anyway!

[[kn...]]

I’m 73. Took Benzos for 30 years and am still tapering.  I’m no great fountain of wisdom, but here are some observations during my lifetime. When I was a kid, we used to have air raid drills at school. Everyone was building fallout shelters in their back yards and laying up food stores for the nuclear holocaust. I came of age during the height of the Vietnam war. The draft was ongoing. When they had a lottery to decide our fate, I had to stay in college to avoid going to war. Friends who didn’t came home in boxes or were so screwed up, their lives were over.  Civil rights were always a problem and police had unquestioned power. I’m a WASP, but my car was stopped and searched just because they could. LGBTQ folks lived ‘underground’ and women had no rights whatsoever. The 60’s-mid 70’s provided some sense of progressive awareness, but you, no doubt, know what’s going on with political factions. I live in the US and things do not look like anything has evolved in human thinking or cognitive abilities. It’s quite likely that that aspect of evolution has reached its peak. We’ve come from pond slime into something with a brain and nervous system, but human wisdom, attitudes, and compassion have, no doubt reached their peak.  My friends in conservative and fundamental faiths yearn for an apocalypse, but the human race will most likely do it to themselves and the natural world will take care itself. Doom and gloom? Not really.  Some ways of thought know that everything is in a state suffering and demise. Things come into being, appear for a time and then are gone; only to reappear again in another way and another time.  Be in the present. Look at the true, good, and beautiful.  That’s what will win out into infinity. 

[[Ye...]]

Hello @[Ch...], I read that you have not taken pills for 49 months and you still have high anxiety. My main problem is anxiety. During these 15 months I have hardly been able to go outside due to interaction with other people. In all this time it has remained very similar. My question is how much has your anxiety improved in the 49 months so far and to what extent has it affected or is affecting you?

The thing is, 49 months is a long time. At 15 they are already getting very long and hard.....

A hug!

A hug!

Edited July 7 by [Ye...]

[[Ma...]]

N/M

Edited July 7 by [Ma...]

[[Ch...]]

1 hour ago, [[Y...] said:

Hello @[Ch...], I read that you have not taken pills for 49 months and you still have high anxiety. My main problem is anxiety. During these 15 months I have hardly been able to go outside due to interaction with other people. In all this time it has remained very similar. My question is how much has your anxiety improved in the 49 months so far and to what extent has it affected or is affecting you?

The thing is, 49 months is a long time. At 15 they are already getting very long and hard.....

A hug!

A hug!

Oh yeah, I should say I’m doing so much better. I founded a grassroots advocacy org, organized protests, wrote two screenplays, am 70k words into a novel, and have done a ton of interpersonal healing. Whereas 49 months ago I was inpatient and keeping myself alive second to second. It’s been a slow climb out of destabilizing anxiety, but now it’s more a matter of managing the extra anxiety buzz and being mindful for when it affects my worldview. Which is part of why I checked-in here because I veered pretty far into catastrophizing. 15 months is long to suffer, but improvements can happen quickly and even if you don’t recognize it you’re becoming incredibly strong under it. You’ve got this!

[[Ch...]]

2 hours ago, [[k...] said:

I’m 73. Took Benzos for 30 years and am still tapering.  I’m no great fountain of wisdom, but here are some observations during my lifetime. When I was a kid, we used to have air raid drills at school. Everyone was building fallout shelters in their back yards and laying up food stores for the nuclear holocaust. I came of age during the height of the Vietnam war. The draft was ongoing. When they had a lottery to decide our fate, I had to stay in college to avoid going to war. Friends who didn’t came home in boxes or were so screwed up, their lives were over.  Civil rights were always a problem and police had unquestioned power. I’m a WASP, but my car was stopped and searched just because they could. LGBTQ folks lived ‘underground’ and women had no rights whatsoever. The 60’s-mid 70’s provided some sense of progressive awareness, but you, no doubt, know what’s going on with political factions. I live in the US and things do not look like anything has evolved in human thinking or cognitive abilities. It’s quite likely that that aspect of evolution has reached its peak. We’ve come from pond slime into something with a brain and nervous system, but human wisdom, attitudes, and compassion have, no doubt reached their peak.  My friends in conservative and fundamental faiths yearn for an apocalypse, but the human race will most likely do it to themselves and the natural world will take care itself. Doom and gloom? Not really.  Some ways of thought know that everything is in a state suffering and demise. Things come into being, appear for a time and then are gone; only to reappear again in another way and another time.  Be in the present. Look at the true, good, and beautiful.  That’s what will win out into infinity. 

I urgently needed to hear something like this. Because I feel like I’ve been in a trance of despair for a long time, in part from the 24 hour news cycle and in part because the benzo anxiety makes reality checking so much harder. But just some perpsective on the long arc of history helps make this moment feel less pressured and precarious. Thank you, friend. 

[[vo...]]

4 hours ago, [[k...] said:

I’m 73. Took Benzos for 30 years and am still tapering.  I’m no great fountain of wisdom, but here are some observations during my lifetime. When I was a kid, we used to have air raid drills at school. Everyone was building fallout shelters in their back yards and laying up food stores for the nuclear holocaust. I came of age during the height of the Vietnam war. The draft was ongoing. When they had a lottery to decide our fate, I had to stay in college to avoid going to war. Friends who didn’t came home in boxes or were so screwed up, their lives were over.  Civil rights were always a problem and police had unquestioned power. I’m a WASP, but my car was stopped and searched just because they could. LGBTQ folks lived ‘underground’ and women had no rights whatsoever. The 60’s-mid 70’s provided some sense of progressive awareness, but you, no doubt, know what’s going on with political factions. I live in the US and things do not look like anything has evolved in human thinking or cognitive abilities. It’s quite likely that that aspect of evolution has reached its peak. We’ve come from pond slime into something with a brain and nervous system, but human wisdom, attitudes, and compassion have, no doubt reached their peak.  My friends in conservative and fundamental faiths yearn for an apocalypse, but the human race will most likely do it to themselves and the natural world will take care itself. Doom and gloom? Not really.  Some ways of thought know that everything is in a state suffering and demise. Things come into being, appear for a time and then are gone; only to reappear again in another way and another time.  Be in the present. Look at the true, good, and beautiful.  That’s what will win out into infinity. 

Edited July 7 by [vo...]
I didn't like what I wrote

[[Ca...]]

5 hours ago, [[W...] said:

There are no problems "out there", it all happens in our heads. Try reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle to start with.

Oh and helps if you switch off all "news", they make most of it up anyway!

I am familiar with Tolle and with ACIM that he endorses. Those sources are talking about a radical, deep inner-shift. I think it's on another scale to talk of absolutes under this forum. I posted it under another forum on BB. But that's a lot to consider for someone who's already suffering. But then it could ease someone's mind, who knows.

As for the "outward" vs "inner" world views, I'd frame as in rational vs irrational fear. The news is not all made up, some is true information, some is misinformation or disinformation. Seems too many ppl are sleepwalking their way towards an authoritarian dictatorship. The fear of history repeating itself ex. circa 1939, is quite rational and stresses me out to where I've had to back off the news myself. Stress is the LAST thing you want with Benzos. 

Edited July 7 by [Ca...]
clarification, softening

[[Mu...]]

Caution, use words like border, Biden, cultural , enricher, or illegal and moderators may intercede. Some words are just a no no.

[[Pa...]]

7 minutes ago, [[M...] said:

Caution, use words like border, Biden, cultural , enricher, or illegal and moderators may intercede. Some words are just a no no.

Thanks @[Mu...], the team has been following this thread. 

[[Ma...]]

Opps 🤦‍♀️

[[Kr...]]

@[Ca...]just always love your insight. You help me and I consider you a very real and lovely person. Bless you❤️

[[Ca...]]

23 hours ago, [[K...] said:

@[Ca...]just always love your insight. You help me and I consider you a very real and lovely person. Bless you❤️

I'm only delighted to help! You help me as well! Sometimes I think oh no, I've alienated ppl on here. I need to connect on here just so don't feel like I'm cracking up.💔

[[Ho...]]

Just to chime in here, as another older person who's been through the same world shifts, we're getting pummeled these days with a 24 hour news cycle. If you're well on in your recovery and more involved in life and the world than you were before, you may be inadvertently over-exposing yourself. Keep in mind that people without benzo injuries are struggling with feelings of powerlessness and over-the-top fears these days, too. 

Your best bet may be to step back and out of reach of as much of the news cycle as you can. You can't effect world changes from your seat at the table. The best we common folk can do is pray and do as much good as we can in our own small orbit. 

Warmly,

HCHC

[[Mu...]]

Many of us in the real world are past the anxiety stage, fear of the future. Now it's just fear. My community has been invaded by young men that are in my country illegally. As a result a 12 year old girl died last week. Yet we are not supposed to say anything do anything keep her mouth shut and act as if nothing happened. Combining current events with benzo withdrawal leads to very unhappy people.