Anxiety/Depression/Mental Health Problems

[keyran]

Hi, i'm an 18 year old male, and here's my question...

I will tell you the full story here - 4 months ago tommorow, I smoked some Marijuana through a pipe, and ever since that moment, i've been feeling extremely anxious and depressed, i've always been a generally anxious person anyway, but it's got a LOT worse since that night. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, and my heart will be pounding so hard, and i'll get really sweaty and hot, just worrying all the time. I'm getting tired of it, I can't enjoy anything in life anymore. The most strange thing is, for example - i'll do something, like take the dog for a walk, then when I get back home, i'll get these weird pop-ups in my mind sort of reminding me what I did when I took the dog for a walk, and that's really starting to scare me and make me feel really panicky, I can't explain it as it's hard to, but it's really getting to me now. I feel like i'm going crazy mentally, and there's nothing I can do about it, I feel so trapped.

I do plan to see my GP, but it's hard to right now as the clinic is shut for the Christmas holidays, so I can't even enjoy Christmas with this over-whelming anxiety, it's really getting me down.

Please, give me some advice.

Thanks,

Keyran.

[Jaquta]

I expect your GP would be very cautious about giving you medication(s) but I expect he would.

Try to let some of your negative thoughts go and just focus on and enjoy the activity.
These are skills for a different disorder but are useful life skills.

The first skill is to put your negative thoughts on clouds, on the river, or in boxes on a conveyor belt.  Don't hold onto them, just let them go.

Skills that I found the most useful were: observing, describing and participating.
You can only ever do one of these at a time -never two at a time.

Observing is just observing, but without describing or making judgments.
Describing is describing the object, situation, etc.  (You could try describing your dog, things you see, hear and smell.  I am walking my dog, he is brown and has big floppy ears and a waggy tail.  I hear birds in the trees.  I hear my feet on the pavement.  The sun is shining and I can feel it's heat, it makes me feel warm and happy and I feel positive.  I'm pretty lame at describing but it can be a good distracting tool plus it also helps you focus on stuff that is happening now).
Participating is just that, participating.  For example, walking your dog.

Another skill is one-mindfully, just doing one thing at a time.

I don't know if that was very helpful.  The skills are from a Skills Training Manual for Borderline Personality Disorder written by Marsha Linehan.

My T told me to try and distract (I repeat things) by doing a mindless task mindfully.

J

[keyran]

If I tell my GP what I tolled you, do you think he will give me medications for this?

And you say I should use my mental powers to get rid of my anxiety, but i've been trying that for weeks and weeks, but no luck.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

You are having anxiety about being anxious...get some medications to break the cycle , but until then use your mental powers to prove to yourself that you can pause and dial down your anxiety, that too will help you break the cycle.