Re: I am down in the dumps today need encouragement

that's the problem with anxiety...some is truly physical but most of it is mental and they more you think about what could be, the worse it gets...it is so tough but anyone who has experienced anxiety knows that exact feeling. all i can say is it sucks and it takes time to learn how to calm yourself down. my mom has a meditation/relaxation tape she uses that focuses on breathing...it can almost always bring her out of a panic attack. do you have an ipod? those earphones are really small so they could probably be worn while she cuts or colors...maybe the hairdresser wouldn't mind if you listened to music while she did your hair. just a suggestion but it might help you escape reality a bit.

i never had anxiety problems before the candida either. it is strange to go from a normal stable person to someone who is afraid to live life normally and even sit at a restaurant with friends. i kept waking up in the middle of the night with panic attacks for the first month or so - it was horrible. and it was affecting me at work pretty bad too. i have a weekly meeting - wednesday mornings to go over what is going on in my department with other managers and there were times i would have to leave the room for awhile and calm myself down because i would get so anxious and nervous - my palms would be dripping in sweat. i didn't understand it...i have always been sort of shy and had a hard time speaking in front of groups but i was out of control! funny but i was always nervous in the meeting even before the candida really took over my body but i attributed it to my fear of public speaking...i would always just take the easy route in the meeting and say that i really didn't have anything going on that i needed to let other's know about even though i did...it was my way of avoiding the talking and anxiety. now that i am treating myself and getting a lot better i have no problems at all talking and can actually do my job much better than before this whole thing even started. it leads me to believe the candida was really creeping up slowly for a long time and then it finally hit me full force this past july throwing me into full fledged panic attacks. all that time i couldn't understand why i was so nervous and anxious but now i know one hundred percent that those suckers were multiplying inside me. i just keep piecing things together now - thinking back to different situations and emotions i had over the last year and a half while on Antibiotics and so many things are making sense to me now that didn't before. trust me...the more you heal...the more the anxiety goes away. eventually it will be a distant memory...many of my symptoms almost seem like they never even happened because it has been quite some time since i have had a lot of my initial problems. i bought a book on anxiety called panic phobias and fear or something like that...can't quite remember. it might be something you could do...something to help you out with the mind over matter.

funny you should all mention the hair thing...i have a hair appt tomorrow afterwork and i am actually a little nervous about it. not because of anxiety anymore, but because when i last got my hair done (about 6 or 7 weeks ago) i remember being under the hair dryer and my head really started burning not just from heat but from the chemicals....kinda freaked me out. and i changed face washes recently and noticed that i seem to react to it in a bad way. i have no problems with perfume..at least not my own...but i can't stand the smell of cigarettes on others and i seem to have some weird chemical sensitivities now.