Help me to calm down, help me to see the good, and cope with the bad.

[Marrilaife]

In case no one mentioned this, cut on all the tv news, tabloids and other media that are trying to prey on primal human emotions (like fear, outrage or pity) and just straight out upset you. Most horrible news will actually NEVER affect you personally and you'll be happier without thinking how many people died in x faraway place.

Also it's about the people you mingle with. If you mingle with doomsayers, then obviously your mood will be lower than if you stick with cheerful and optimistic people. Religion doesn't prohibit it. In general, if the world was really about to end there isn't anything to do about it, but you can live your life the way you won't regret. If it's living according to some religious rules, fine, if it's not, fine as well.

[Deleted]

psychiatry is a very non empirical science. Empiricism is my thing bro.

puking all the time because of anxiety sounds rationally explained but you need the pills sorry

[Gheld]

puking all the time because of anxiety sounds rationally explained but you need the pills sorry

Or maybe just some rolaids.

[DeltrusDisc]

Yeah...

...

...*probably* not...

...probably.

Helpful you are.

[May90]

OP, what you describe sounds very severe, and I don't think I can relate to that. But in the past, something like 10 years ago, I used to have a severe social anxiety, due to certain experiences in life. Two things helped me tremendously in overcoming it:

1) CBT (cognitive behavior therapy, not what some people would think first ). Most of our fears in life never bear fruit, and even those that do turn out not nearly as bad as we expected. Understanding it and practicing it by consciously analyzing what you say to yourself and forcefully overriding it in time leads to subconscious mind changing as well. Eventually you just start having mental calmness most of the time without consciously controlling anything. There is a lot of great books on CBT. I would recommend, in particular, these two:

http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-N...ing+good+burns - pretty much a handbook on CBT, which is easy to read and can make a profound change in your life, if you really take your time to do all the exercises and to employ techniques in your real life.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ie=UTF8&btkr=1 - not as much on CBT as on how to make conscious thought patterns be converted into subconscious ones. Very powerful book as well.

2) Working on my physiology. On this, I recommend reading Tony Robbins' books: although a lot of what he says/writes is a usual new age motivating stuff that has little practical applications in life, the way he explains how our physiology influences our mood is really helpful. When you are anxious about something, your body does something that fixates your anxiety. When you are feeling relaxed and confident, your body does something else. Finding these subtle differences and learning to consciously control them gives you a powerful tool on controlling how you feel.

you only take the pills if the symptom is big enough to stop you from having a normal life

Pills only deal with effect, not the cause. As soon as you stop taking pills, you get all your problems back. And taking pills forever is a bad idea, because of countless harmless side effects, such as lack of interest towards anything or anyone, emotional blankness, etc.

[Deleted]

Whenever I feel bad, I remember that one day I'm gonna be dead anyway, and that nothing matters.

[Deleted]

Yea, go see a doctor.

Or get a hobby. You know, a hobby that gives you something to do, provides a sense of accomplishment and most of all, puts you out of reach of the crazy people online. Like, honestly, you aren't "tuned in" like you say - you are just weak-minded and you believe everything too readily. You need some realism in your life, something to convince you that the world really does keep on turning no matter what the doomsayers say. So yea, go out there, see the world, get that hobby or job and you will see, things will not seem so threatening. As soon as you have some meaning in the things that you do daily, the things that are meaningless and ridiculous, like being paranoid about conspiracies will seem so distant you'll forget they are there.

[Deleted]

Half of it didn't make sense to me, maybe that's just me. I read untreated depression/anxiety, seek help as soon as possible. I find that the best way to let things escalate is to have a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to problems. Seek help.

Try smoking a little weed whenever you freak out. It sure helps for a lot of folks.

What doesn't help is the stress the world is going through, what with the Muslim hate and the Muslim refugees, and so many countries going through their own issues. I'm very empathetic and hate to see others in pain, I'm scared it's only going to get worse.

What exactly does this mean? Has the world been in more stress than usual the last few years? Muslim hate, what does this mean? Hate towards or from Muslims? With all due respect, I think that if you would be more informed of the amount of suffering there is in the world your head might explode.

[Nyoken]

Alright folks, this one probably won't be for everyone. Enough background to get you to know what I'm dealing with, I have an untreated/unmedicated anxiety disorder. I don't fall into panic/anxiety attacks, but rather, I get exceedingly uncomfortable, I worry, I (literally) shit my pants if I hear something that creeps me out), and I want to cope better. Not necessarily through medicine, however. And yes, I have a history with serious depression.

With everything going on in the world, my Christian upbringing (and belief still in it) unnerve me. This is not meant to be a conspiracy-theory thread, rather, one to get me to see the good, to see around the conspiracies, to deal with them better if they hit a nerve (see above), and overall promote good health. I've been trying to immediately search "debunked" type stuff whenever I hear about some new theory, sometimes I get something, sometimes I don't, Agenda 2030, stuff about the Pope, the Bulgarian lady who predicted a bunch of stuff, but what really chills me to the core is how much so many of these things are either talked about/certain aspects are happening, all in the same time-frame. What doesn't help is the stress the world is going through, what with the Muslim hate and the Muslim refugees, and so many countries going through their own issues. I'm very empathetic and hate to see others in pain, I'm scared it's only going to get worse. I hate seeing my family in pain, I hate seeing strangers in pain. It hurts me. If I see you cry? I'll probably cry.

I guess a big thing that probably got a lot of this started that I've not been able to shake ever since, is in 2007 I was dating this girl who said she believed we'd all be dead in 10 years. She didn't specify how, why, etc, she just said she had this gut feeling. As the 10 years, probably through bias but also some of the drama that's been allowed to grow during these years, my gut has just been getting sick as these 10 years have crept by. A lot of people talk about 2016 like it's a huge year and I am trying to find ways to argue against it. What I have noticed is how most of these people are often folks in my generation (20s, maybe 30s, and younger) the baby boomers like my parents aren't quite as bothered. Is it because they've lived through and seen plenty to know this is just how life works? Or is because maybe they aren't as tuned in? The internet is a wonderful and a terrible thing: it's allowing me to reach out to countless people who may be able to help, but then again, there's also all the people on the internet who used to look weird with their "THE END IS NIGH" signs at the market now able to more easily say "THIS THIS AND THAT" and here's some foreboding music and imagery, and thus, instead of only reaching a few people at the market, through the internet, they reach unprecedented numbers.

I guess what I'm asking is: how to deal with this when I hear it? How to brush it off? Obviously some stuff is real, people are dying, there is drama in the world, people are angry, people are poor, people are hungry, but how do I focus on the good, also? I know one guy who I work with who literally reads conspiracies for fun sometimes, he finds them interesting. They don't bother him at all. Even the bad ones. Hell, he doesn't seem bothered by much at all. How does one do this? I don't necessarily not want to care, but rather, I just want to stop letting every little thing that happens affect me. I want to be able to go for 3 days straight without worrying, you know?

Sorry for the wall of text/horrible wording, this is just something I've been bottling up and I just hope someone can read through it all and understand what I'm going through. I realize I more than likely should see a psychologist/therapist, but I'm not in the best situation for that, at the moment.

Thanks a lot, to any and all who reply with anything remotely helpful.

Hey man... you're just a human. You do the best you can to the extent of your own abilities. If you sometimes can manage to go beyond those boundaries, that's good, cause you prove to yourself that you can push your limits. But you can't help everyone, you can help a few, and that's more than good. Sure there is pain and suffering...happiness and joy a lot of sick and terrible stuff going on in the world, but that's all part of life =) You need to learn to accept stuff, even if it hurts. Learn to accept it.

You got a problem right infront of you that you can do something about?? Solve the problem the best you can, whatever it may be. There is a problem halfway around the world that you hear about? Can you do something about it?? Nahh prob not, best thing to do is to hope that there is like-minded people like yourself that's close by whose gonna do something about "it". Need to accept it, and stop worrying! Don't think so much! One thing at a time.... too much thinking is gonna drive you crazy, and that's not healthy man.

It's something you have to train your mind to become better at, like when not to give a shit about stuff ...like for example if I hear about something terrible on the news like 100 people just died in Iraq in a bomb explosion or something like that...i'm prob thinking to my self then; " Hmmm...I need to get some food...or take a shower maybe?? yea some food would be nice!" Why? Cause I can't do shit about it! I can't turn back time, i'm not god. And i'm at home right now, so the most logical thing to do is to focus on my self to do whatever I can to feel good about my self, as much as possible. This is what I mean about overthinking, you know? You're at home...just focus on ur self...one thing at a time...forget about everything else... learn to turn ur mind off, have to be selfish, have to think about yourself. Yesterday is history, don't focus on the past, that shit really doesn't matter...what matters the most is right now, in this very moment... the things your feeling now...feeling angry?? need to find a way to relieve those emotions, go hit a punching bag as hard as you can until you don't feel angry anymore....face your emotions! head on! don't let them control you, you need to control them! Always. If you don't do that, you will never be able to feel good about yourself.

[tithian]

Try to get some Valeriana on your hands. It's nothing illegal, don't worry, it's a natural herb that you boil to make tea. It also comes in pills, if you can't be arsed to prepare it. It has extremely soothing properties and usually used to help people with anxiety sleep. Also lay of all stimulants, like caffeine (in all forms, which includes green/black tea). If you need a hot beverage of the 'tea variety' try some camomile.

But yeah, eventually you will need to get some therapy. It's expensive AF, but it'll be worth it.