Halloween Anxiety

[hmf099]

Hey all! Haven't been around in a while. I've been doing well, or at least I was until mid October...

Halloween is my favorite time of year tied with Christmas. I love haunted houses, dressing up, passing out candy, getting my daughter dressed up, all of it... except the tv. My family loves horror movies, shows about ghosts, scary stories, and all that stuff. I used to like that stuff too when I was young. But now that I'm finally dealing pretty well with my GAD, OCD, PTSD, panic disorder, and phobias, I avoid triggers like scary shows and movies and even the news. During this time of year it's much harder though, especially with a family enthusiastic about that stuff.

One of my fears that was hardest to learn to deal with was the fear of "going crazy", I won't go into detail because I don't want to trigger anyone else's anxiety, but I'm sure you can see how many of the popular movies this time of year would bother me.

Today there was a slasher movie marathon on that after a month of prodding my family got me to watch. Since I have many more tools now to deal with it I'm doing ok, but I'm a bit worried about bedtime :)

While I'm sure I'll get through it since I've been studying anxiety and how to deal for years, even helping others, I would like to know if anyone else has higher anxiety this time of year and how you deal with it. I'm in therapy, on meds, don't drink caffeine, watch my diet, exercise, and use self help books among many other things. How are you all doing this Halloween Eve?

[ILADVOCATE]

    Yes I have unpleasent feelings at this time of year. I described it in my latest journal entry. I was thinking it through as I wrote it because I acquired both my psychiatric disability and my physical disability at this time of year and decades ago my stepfather passed on at the same time of year. Many times at this time of year I would fall apart and need a sudden medication change. I learned to realize it was an anniversary date of an unpleasent event and rather than assume everything was falling apart discuss my concerns in a rational manner with my psychiatrist who is also my therapist as well. My mom has anxiety disorder among other  psychiatric disabilities and she also now discusses this with her therapist.
    I do agree about avoiding anything that could bring on unpleasent emotional changes but I did watch a couple of horror movies and thought why they upset me and why I had these concerns and what they might mean. Some feelings are hard to overcome. Its how you deal with them. I also have some standard residual paranoia. However when changes occur in the exact same manner each year I learned the best thing to do was not to assume it was a medication issue and discuss it with my psychiatrist and follow up with what they advised.

[hmf099]

Thanks for your response. I know seasonal depression kicks in for many people this time of year, I would guess it's like that with anxiety too for some. I'm sorry for your loss. My grandparents pretty much raised me and my grandfather passed 4 days after Christmas and Christmas day was the last day he remembered who I was. I live in the northern part of the country too, so I know what you mean about the changes.

The thing about me watching the marathon today wasn't so much that I was pressured, it was because that used to be so much fun for me to do with my family so I thought I'd give it a shot today. Once it started to get dark I said I'd had enough and my family happily turned it off and gave me the remote. I'm very blessed, my family is very supportive and understanding of my anxiety.  

I'm just really interested in others feelings this time of year.

[rls27]

I think a lot of anxiety sufferers seem to spike this time of year for several reasons. Mostly because the days get shorter, it stays darker longer, it's colder, the leaves have fallen off the trees and it becomes a bleak, dreary time of year, especially for those of us living in the northern part of the country.

In the past, my anxiety was always worse during the winter months. I partically attributed it to seasonal, but also for other reasons which I associated with this time of year. I lost a close family member in October several years ago and his birthday is in January, so October thru January were very difficult months for me. Historically October was always my favorite month of the year and I love Halloween. Now I can take it or leave it.

You don't owe it to anyone to do something you don't want to do or aren't ready to do. Skip the horror movies, change the channel when a disturbing commercial about some new drug for random diseases comes on, throw on a comedy instead and keep your mind distracted. Don't invite triggers and remind yourself that these triggers have no control over you or your well being.