Archive for the 'Anxious Living' Category
The Reason for Renewed Posting
August 14th, 2008 by Aaron
Now I want to get into the reason I decided to renew posting at Anxious Living.
For the last four months I have been doing a form of therapy known as EEG biofeedback (previously more commonly referred to as neurofeedback). On the most basic level it is a system that allows the brain to get information about itself and thereby correct certain imbalances or traumas. As I get into further posts describing the process in more detail I’ll provide plenty of links. For now I’d like to concentrate on my initial experience.
I was skeptical when first offered the chance to try the therapy. Skeptical, but curious. Anything that might work was worth a shot.
Since We Stopped Posting
August 7th, 2008 by Aaron
I experienced a real burst of progress when I first realized I had SAD and began to see clearly how it had affected my life. I was able to put a lot of very frustrating things into perspective and lighten up about my worst moments. Writing posts for this site was a big part of that.
But eventually, around the time the posting stopped, I began to feel like, no matter how much progress I made or effort I put into getting better, the intense discomfort I felt in difficult situations made lasting improvement something of a mirage.
Re-Introducing Anxious Living
August 4th, 2008 by Aaron
As you may (or may not) have noticed this site hasn’t been terribly active lately. To put it succinctly, we stopped posting. And Anxious Living probably would have slipped into that place reserved for Internet sites that never get updated, despite the best of intentions, if not for a lucky set of circumstances on my part.
Something unexpected and very positive has happened and I want to share it here because it has had such a powerful effect on my social anxiety. I have had a major reduction in the physical symptoms of social anxiety and the associated thoughts are loosening their hold. This is thanks to a very specific form of therapy I have been doing for the last three months.
I’ll get into that therapy fully with a handful of posts and provide links so that anyone interested in trying what has helped me so much will know who to contact. But for right now I want to establish this site as active once again. My next post will be a catch up post and then I’ll get into the story of what has happened with this therapy.
I’d like to take this opportunity to invite anyone who is dealing with SAD to write for this site. Please contact us with stories you’d like to share or insights you’ve gained. Take a look through the archives and see if anything we have written speaks to you. We’d love to see a post about your reaction to a particular topic we once covered. Anything at all will be welcomed. I would like to keep this site going once again.
Tonglen and SA
December 15th, 2006 by dashh
I wanted to share with you all a technique that I have found very helpful recently in dealing with social anxiety and our fears. The technique or practice is actually a type of meditation taught and practiced in Tibetan Buddhism. It is called tonglen. The word tonglen literally means “sending and taking” in Tibetan. Pema Chodron, a Buddhist nun, explains the practice as follows:
Announcement: Anxious Living Ma.gnolia Group
October 31st, 2006 by Ryan Oelke
We’ve opened up our bookmarking group at Ma.gnolia. Now anyone can submit bookmarks:) Be sure to use good tags and lots of them when sending a bookmark to the group!
Subscribe to the group feed:
Shawn’s Intro – SA past to present
June 23rd, 2006 by dashh
I wanted to share some about my experiences with social anxiety and social anxiety disorder (SAD) in my intro post here at Anxious Living. As I reflect back, my issues with social anxiety seemed to develop full on during my first few years of undergraduate study in college. I have always been shy and naturally an introvert, but had lots of friends and I was pretty social growing up and through high school. With the start of college though, there was a gradual shift to a more self-conscious and withdrawn person than I’d ever been before. Over the first few years I became isolated to only a few friends and a more and more limited experience the social opportunities that many seem to embrace in college. In high school I had worked in an athletic shoe store dealing with public almost daily but left that job and started taking jobs during the summers where I could avoid as much social contact as possible. My self consciousness and anxiety grew to the point of avoiding eye contact with anyone on campus, not getting my haircut for months on end, physical symptoms from anxiety and even a full blown panic attack driving to class one day where I just wanted to turn around and go home. I avoided a public speaking class until my senior year and almost skipped classes when we had to present our speeches and I never participated in class discussions and froze up when called on in class. Needless to say I was suffering.
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Aaron’s Introduction
June 22nd, 2006 by Aaron
I have always known I was shy. I have always had trouble getting to know people. I have been ribbed, gently and not-so gently, for being the quiet one in any group.
I have called myself socially awkward, introverted, nervous.
I have long listened to an internal voice, asking, “What will people think of you?” It reminds me not to stand out and never to risk looking foolish.
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