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Stress and Anxiety


Duke Wellington

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I think stress and anxiety are a cause of depression for people.  I’m not talking “clinical depression” but just general depression.  This is a wide topic...and includes situational depression.  A person can be depressed (more than normal sadness) - whatever normal means - by certain situations.....especially the repetitive type that seem to have no short term solution.

Anyway.....when I found myself situationally depressed and reached out to a friend, a wise person, he told me to embrace my angels and slay my demons.  You may interpret that as you see fit.

As a part of embracing my angels I brought music back into my life and began paying guitar seriously again and began covering songs.  I’ll be going to do an open mic at a cool place on Wednesday night.  Anyway, that plus golf has been really positive for me.  But, whatever the thing is you like to do....you should do that....plus find new things to do, but most importantly, just keep doing.  Don’t allow yourself to get weak and die if you can help it.  Sometimes I have to make myself go excercise....because I just don’t want to do it.  But it’s good for you....so do it.  It helps.

PS. As does regular bathing, skin care, and eating fruit in your diet...especially cantaloupe.  Just my oh two.  Peace.

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One thing for sure about anxiety, you want rid of it ! Back in the days when smoking was commonplace, it was a case of nicotine, being a potent anxiety reliever, being what drew people to it. Too bad the effect wears off fairly quickly, and the delivery method damaging to health. I wonder what effect nicotine patches, or gum, would have in relieving people of anxiety.

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After suffering from daily panic attacks for about 7 years, they started disappearing once I started facing things that triggered them. Little by little panic attacks just vanished. No doctor, no medications. Once I expose myself and see and process that there's nothing to fear and stress about my brain start to hardwire that and little by little in a period of about 2 years they completely vanished to the point that I have a hard time remembering how they even felt.

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Another philosophy of mine is that I'm going to die one day like everybody else, so it makes absolutely no sense to worry about anything...All we need do is just relax, sit back and enjoy the ride from cradle to grave..:D 

rel-grave-cr.jpg

Edited by Crikey
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8 minutes ago, Crikey said:

Another philosophy of mine is that I'm going to die one day like everybody else, so it makes absolutely no sense to worry about anything...All we need do is just relax, sit back and enjoy the ride from cradle to grave..:D 

rel-grave-cr.jpg

Easy to say, but anxiety is not a voluntary thing.

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On 1/10/2020 at 3:21 AM, ocpaul20 said:

I like the idea of lists.

You place on a list your tasks, everything you have been worrying about.

You then review the list and cross off everything you cannot directly control - there is no point worrying about that. Leave that up to the Universe to sort out.

You place in order of importance everything you can directly control.

Take the top one and break it down into manageble pieces and start on the first piece immediately or if it is too much then break it down further and start on the first piece of that.

You feel a little better once you have started to make headway on your most pressing task.

This reminds me of the film, Seven Years in Tibet.

When a monk say something like, "There are two kinds of problems. Those that you can find a solution for, and those that you can do nothing about, If you can solve a problem, then why worry, and if you cannot solve a problem, then why worry?"

And no matter what works for you personally, the actual act of trying, working towards a solution, taking back control of your life, those very actions will make you feel better too.

 

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9 hours ago, Desertrat56 said:

What about you?  Are you fearless like Bear Grylis?  I still don't think it has anything to do with religion, more to do with mindset, regardless of religion.  You can't blanket all christians with your personal experience or base it on something some famous person said.  Most I know are so afraid of burining in hell they have constant stress and anxiety.  Their lack of faith in themselves is exacerbated by their religion.

But a persons faith, or lack of, directly affects our mindset, how we see, and react to the world.

This is why atheistic idea can be so depressing. The universe is an accident, we have no reason to be here, and within the purely mechanical world, we don't even have the free will to change anything.

My spiritual faith means that I have very little stress, and the stress that I do feel, is the next place to investigate.

 

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10 hours ago, Habitat said:

Easy to say, but anxiety is not a voluntary thing.

I have to agree.  After 50+ years of phobic anxiety to a greater or lesser degree, I know almost all the 'cures and answers' but have never been able to fully remove my own particular brain habits.  My main issue is with anticipatory anxiety, almost every time I need to leave the house, be it to go for some serious invasive surgery, or walk the dog.  The only difference is in the degree.  I have coping mechanisms as do most people with this problem but sometimes they work, other times they don’t, or not as well as I would like.

The brain is a creature of habit.  It makes pathways of thought/action (muscle memory being one example).  Next time the same stimulus is encountered the thought processes it engaged previously are in action even before you have time to recognise the fact, making it hard to pull the rug from under them.  It ends up being a reactive rather than proactive response.  The hardest part is finding a way to re-write those original pathways caused by the troublesome stimuli.  The longer the problem exists the deeper the pathway rut and the harder to get out of - rather like getting a bicycle wheel caught in a tram line and having to go where that takes you.  The brain always takes the path of least resistance.

My most used mental reminder when anxious and stressed by some event, is that it will all be just a memory before I know it and that I am wasting valuable energy on pointless worry.  I hadn’t heard of the lemon scent as an aid.  I will have to get some lemon essential oil and give it a go.  

Edited by Susanc241
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9 hours ago, Crazy Horse said:

But a persons faith, or lack of, directly affects our mindset, how we see, and react to the world.

This is why atheistic idea can be so depressing. The universe is an accident, we have no reason to be here, and within the purely mechanical world, we don't even have the free will to change anything.

My spiritual faith means that I have very little stress, and the stress that I do feel, is the next place to investigate.

 

Atheists ideas (or rather your assumption of them) are only depressing to you because you need hope and fantasy to bouy your mental attitude.  You think it is something outside of yourself that keeps you going but it isn't, there is nothing outside of yourself that can make you happy or peaceful or what ever. 

You do that on your own, whether by believing in someone else's fantasy, making up your own fantasy, or just accepting you are human and have control of how you think, feel and how you act. 

Most atheists I know are much happier than most christians I know and I tend to lump christians together on this forum, but I know some who are happy and their faith is their own, put into the context of christianity, not the other way around. 

And there is one more thing, you need to define atheism, because many people claim that anyone who is not "chrisitian" is an atheist.  And I think @spartan max2 might know some who think anyone who does not believe in islam is an atheist. 

It is human to need to belong to a group, and for some reason a large population of humans also need someone to tell them how to think and behave, and when they can't live up to someone else's idea of what ever deity they have chosen to follow (never realizing it is not the deity, but the human created organization) they get depressed and self deprecating and guilty.  The guilt is what causes them to lash out at people (not sure why, but that is the root cause of a lot of judgemental violence).

Some find the cognitive dissonance too much to bear and leave what ever religion they have been practicing, but if they are weak minded they will just replace it with another religion, much like an addict trying to get clean but needing some kind of distraction.  I am not talking about EVERY religious person, or even EVERY person who has left a religion, I am talking about those who refuse to take responsibility for their own minds and thoughts and need someone else to tell them, which is what the judaic religions were created to do, tell people how to think "God doesn't want you to have children with your sister or mother", "certain foods are unclean so don't eat them", etc.  In lieu  of common sense we have religion.

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12 hours ago, Desertrat56 said:

Atheists ideas (or rather your assumption of them) are only depressing to you because you need hope and fantasy to bouy your mental attitude.  You think it is something outside of yourself that keeps you going but it isn't, there is nothing outside of yourself that can make you happy or peaceful or what ever. 

You do that on your own, whether by believing in someone else's fantasy, making up your own fantasy, or just accepting you are human and have control of how you think, feel and how you act. 

Most atheists I know are much happier than most christians I know and I tend to lump christians together on this forum, but I know some who are happy and their faith is their own, put into the context of christianity, not the other way around. 

And there is one more thing, you need to define atheism, because many people claim that anyone who is not "chrisitian" is an atheist.  And I think @spartan max2 might know some who think anyone who does not believe in islam is an atheist. 

It is human to need to belong to a group, and for some reason a large population of humans also need someone to tell them how to think and behave, and when they can't live up to someone else's idea of what ever deity they have chosen to follow (never realizing it is not the deity, but the human created organization) they get depressed and self deprecating and guilty.  The guilt is what causes them to lash out at people (not sure why, but that is the root cause of a lot of judgemental violence).

Some find the cognitive dissonance too much to bear and leave what ever religion they have been practicing, but if they are weak minded they will just replace it with another religion, much like an addict trying to get clean but needing some kind of distraction.  I am not talking about EVERY religious person, or even EVERY person who has left a religion, I am talking about those who refuse to take responsibility for their own minds and thoughts and need someone else to tell them, which is what the judaic religions were created to do, tell people how to think "God doesn't want you to have children with your sister or mother", "certain foods are unclean so don't eat them", etc.  In lieu  of common sense we have religion.

No, atheistic ideas are depressing because they offer no answers, no hope, and no guiding light.

And no, I don't just see this Higher Power as something outside of my-self, it is in me as much as in an ant, a tree, and every molecule and particle. I am the author of my life, I am in control, yet sometimes that authorship asks for guidance, or comfort in difficult times, and every time I am answered. 

An atheist is someone who rejects the idea of God.

And btw, I don't belong to any group, or have any religious affiliations per se, Buddha is my main teacher but I respect all good folk, (atheistic, agonistic, religious). I walk my own path, adding to my philosophy/practice/process what works for me personally, and I subtract anything that is unhelpful, with only one goal in mind, to know the truth/Truth, for myself, and I really don't mind what that is, or where that takes me.

And one last thing, there is nothing weak about believing in, and acting-out, religious ideals. Only once tried, the difference felt and appreciated and the stress replaced by happiness and joy, can become so powerful that a person has to share their experiences.

 

 

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27 minutes ago, Crazy Horse said:

An atheist is someone who rejects the idea of God.

Not really.

I do not consider myself an atheist.  I'm a human with a brain.  There is no God.  There are no Aliens from outer space.  When we die we are dead.  There is no Jesus.  There is no Muhammad.  I totally reject the idea of God or anything not real.

And I do not consider myself an atheist, nor do I allow other people to label me.  You just said yourself that you are not labeled.  Why then label others?  If they wish to label themselves so be it.

To be clear...an Atheist is someone who wears the label of Atheist.  got it?

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36 minutes ago, joc said:

Not really.

I do not consider myself an atheist.  I'm a human with a brain.  There is no God.  There are no Aliens from outer space.  When we die we are dead.  There is no Jesus.  There is no Muhammad.  I totally reject the idea of God or anything not real.

And I do not consider myself an atheist, nor do I allow other people to label me.  You just said yourself that you are not labeled.  Why then label others?  If they wish to label themselves so be it.

To be clear...an Atheist is someone who wears the label of Atheist.  got it?

 

I was asked a question and gave my opinion.

I wasn't talking about anyone specific, I certainly wasn't thinking about you.

And why all this hostility Joc? Cant you have a grown-up conversation like the rest of us?

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On ‎1‎/‎28‎/‎2020 at 4:10 AM, Habitat said:

Back in the days when smoking was commonplace, it was a case of nicotine, being a potent anxiety reliever, being what drew people to it. Too bad the effect wears off fairly quickly, and the delivery method damaging to health. I wonder what effect nicotine patches, or gum, would have in relieving people of anxiety.

 

I've never smoked, I simply never felt the need or want. Both my parents were heavy smokers. my neurotic mother to relieve her anxiety, and my dad to relieve his workaholic stress.

They've both been dead for years now so all that fretting and worrying was just a complete waste of time..:D

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4 hours ago, Crazy Horse said:

 

I was asked a question and gave my opinion.

I wasn't talking about anyone specific, I certainly wasn't thinking about you.

And why all this hostility Joc? Cant you have a grown-up conversation like the rest of us?

No hostility.  Your perceptions of my words are your own.  However; if you make broad brush statements you are going to get  your paint on unintended targets.  

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1 hour ago, joc said:

No hostility.  Your perceptions of my words are your own.  However; if you make broad brush statements you are going to get  your paint on unintended targets.  

I was asked a broad question: Quote. "And there's one more thing, you need to define atheism...…."

And my reply, "An atheist is someone who rejects the idea of God."

And the Cambridge Dictionaries definition, "The belief that God does not exist."

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52 minutes ago, Crazy Horse said:

I was asked a broad question: Quote. "And there's one more thing, you need to define atheism...…."

And my reply, "An atheist is someone who rejects the idea of God."

And the Cambridge Dictionaries definition, "The belief that God does not exist."

Can't really argue that. :)

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For me, anxiety can sometimes appear insurmountable not because of the anxiety itself, but because I magnify the anxiety-causing situation rather than magnifying my ability to do other things well. By strengthening myself in the things I do well, the anxiety-causing situations become less significant. The good lessons learned by playing to one’s strengths carry over to the weaknesses also.

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11 hours ago, Crazy Horse said:

No, atheistic ideas are depressing because they offer no answers, no hope, and no guiding light.

And no, I don't just see this Higher Power as something outside of my-self, it is in me as much as in an ant, a tree, and every molecule and particle. I am the author of my life, I am in control, yet sometimes that authorship asks for guidance, or comfort in difficult times, and every time I am answered. 

An atheist is someone who rejects the idea of God.

And btw, I don't belong to any group, or have any religious affiliations per se, Buddha is my main teacher but I respect all good folk, (atheistic, agonistic, religious). I walk my own path, adding to my philosophy/practice/process what works for me personally, and I subtract anything that is unhelpful, with only one goal in mind, to know the truth/Truth, for myself, and I really don't mind what that is, or where that takes me.

And one last thing, there is nothing weak about believing in, and acting-out, religious ideals. Only once tried, the difference felt and appreciated and the stress replaced by happiness and joy, can become so powerful that a person has to share their experiences.

 

 

When I used the term "weak minded" I was talking about people who follow someone else's religion and then get angry and look for another one to follow because they can't resolve the cognitive dissonance produced by trying to integrate someone else's projections of reality into their own.  If you don't do that, then I wasn't talking about you.  I find it interesting that you mention Buddha, as the teachings I have read lead me to believe that there is no judgement of another's  path choices nor is there need to proclaim to the world your beliefs.  Maybe I haven't read the same things you have and I may be getting you confused with someone else, but I do remember another thread where you seemed to be doing that.

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On 1/28/2020 at 7:05 AM, Crikey said:

Firstly, Christians have absolutely no fear that they'll burn in hell, why should they?..:D

Because that's up to God and not them?

Many Christians have admitted they don't know if they will go to Heaven.

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4 hours ago, Rlyeh said:

Many Christians have admitted they don't know if they will go to Heaven.

 

Yup, it's a question of odds, and the odds are that Christians have a helluva better chance of making it through the pearlies than anybody else..:D

Right Kid?

"Right"

cinc.jpg

Edited by Crikey
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11 hours ago, Desertrat56 said:

When I used the term "weak minded" I was talking about people who follow someone else's religion and then get angry and look for another one to follow because they can't resolve the cognitive dissonance produced by trying to integrate someone else's projections of reality into their own.  If you don't do that, then I wasn't talking about you.  I find it interesting that you mention Buddha, as the teachings I have read lead me to believe that there is no judgement of another's  path choices nor is there need to proclaim to the world your beliefs.  Maybe I haven't read the same things you have and I may be getting you confused with someone else, but I do remember another thread where you seemed to be doing that.

Discerning a persons belief, their attitudes and worldview is one thing, accepting someone's unhelpful ideas is another, something I find difficult to do. I can still respect them as a human being, with the potential to attain Buddhahood, yet certain beliefs and attitudes are very damaging in the quest for peace, happiness, and health. A Christian might say, love the sinner, hate the sin.

And as for, ".....there is no need to proclaim to the world your beliefs" - particularly as a Buddhist.

Buddhists do teach, sometimes by example, sometimes via more traditional methods, only, they are not supposed to preach the Dharma unless asked to.

Seeing as how we are on a public forum, I don't see an issue..

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4 hours ago, Crikey said:

 

Yup, it's a question of odds, and the odds are that Christians have a helluva better chance of making it through the pearlies than anybody else..:D

Right Kid?

"Right"

cinc.jpg

And what about an individuals morality, ethics and integrity as a decent human begin?

 

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24 minutes ago, Crazy Horse said:

And what about an individuals morality, ethics and integrity as a decent human begin?

 

If somebody had good morals, ethics, integrity and decency, would they really want to reject Jesus?

Jesus said he wants friends, so if they get to the pearlies and doorman Peter asks "Are you chums of Jesus?" what will they say?

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13 minutes ago, Crikey said:

 

If somebody had good morals, ethics, integrity and decency, would they really want to reject Jesus?

Jesus said he wants friends, so if they get to the pearlies and doorman Peter asks "Are you chums of Jesus?" what will they say?

While you have every right to your beliefs, not everyone agrees with your point of view. Many forum members like myself do not beleive in any omnipotent deity that sees all, knows all, and has created all. I was brought up in the Catholic Faith and I was Baptized as a child, but from the farthest back I can remember I have never felt any spiritual awaking in my heart. Once I reached an age where I wasn't forced to participate in these religious rituals I was introduced to as child, I walked away from Christianity and never looked back.

I am now a practicing Buddhist and have been for years. I feel close to this belief system and will never trade it for anything else. This belief system resonates with me because Buddha was not a god, only man who strove to lead a life that would eventually lead to to an enlightened state. Once he achieve this he set a path that any mortal like himself could follow to find happiness, wisdom, and a enlighten way of life that's only purpose is to Help our fellow man to achieve the same.

Peace

 

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