Emma
45, London
I got extreme anxiety in relation to eating. It feels enormously powerful to know that you can change the way you think.
Fave Film
The Lobster
Special Hobby
Excellent Roller Skater
What helped me
Self-learning
I tried to see a therapist but couldn’t get an appointment for 4 weeks and I really felt like I couldn’t wait that long to get help. I decided to research Anxiety - what was causing my mind to be that way? The more I understood how anxiety was caused the more I tried resisting it. It took a while but trying to use my logic brain to calm down the emotional ‘ape’ brain worked. It was a battle but after a few months normal life returned. It meant pushing against the anxiety every single day but it worked.
My Story
I got extreme anxiety in relation to eating after I had to rush to the loo one lunch break. The anxiety got so bad that I couldn’t eat when out in public places. I would sit at tables in restaurants and have to go to the toilet to calm myself down. I lost about a stone in weight and it really did feel like it was getting a tighter and tighter grip on me. I can only describe it as feeling like I was hanging on the edge of a sink trying to stop the anxiety taking hold and pulling me into the plug hole! I joke but it was awful. I had never experienced anxiety like it even though I was used to feeling ‘nervous’ and out of my comfort zone. This was a very very different feeling.
See what helped me...
Where I am now
Great. As it really helped me to understand how my mind worked and it feels enormously powerful to know that you can change the way you think. Anxiety has never been a problem for me since and I know how to keep those feelings in check now. It’s like a super power!
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