Victims of Anxiety

Well I have come to realize that there are more people in this world that suffer from some form of anxiety than I thought. It's comforting to know we victims of anxiety are not alone! I just thought that I would share some of the things that have helped me, and if you know of anyone that has anxiety, feel free to refer them here! I know I get desperate for any help I can get when I'm having a bad day and these things have helped me out a ton!

Two of the most important things I've been told to do is EXERCISE and drink LOTS OF WATER!! Walk or run at LEAST 30 minutes a day to an hour. It will boost those endorphins in your brain that make ya feel good! And water is always a good thing so you don't get dehydrated and helps in many other ways! And let me tell you, being dehydrated is no fun! My dad has tried to start and IV on me(because he's an EMT) twice and can't get it to work because my veins are so small and I hardly bleed! That's not a good sign! So I definitely need more water!

CHANGE YOUR DIET! I can't even tell you how frustrating food is to me sometimes. I've had to stay away from anything that has sugar in it. That's right. My favorite thing and I can't eat it! But no matter what anyone says, it has been so worth it. I never realized that it is in EVERYTHING though!!!! Instead of white potatoes, I've had to eat red potatoes, brown rice instead of white rice, and no bleached bread. Also reading labels has become a ritual for me. Anything that has stuff in it that ends in "ose" goes back on the shelf! Eat protein for breakfast and not sugary, carbs! Fruit has a lot of natural sugar in it, which can still be bad if you have too much, so if you have fruit, make sure you have some protein, like almonds, cheese or something with it, but try not to have fruit for breakfast!

Get lots of SLEEP! This one has been the hardest for me. I am such a night person and I fight sleep! I learned an interesting fact. You're body heals itself between like 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM or somewhere around there. I had no idea. Sleep will help your anxiety apparently, but I wouldn't know because I can't sleep! ;) My good friend Amy told me that Calms' Forte and Gaba are really good to help you feel calm and help you sleep. I still have yet to try them out.

LET IT OUT! Find someone you can confide in and talk to about what is going on. And I mean someone that might understand what you are going through, and if it's bad enough, see a counselor. Don't hold your problems in! Honestly, letting it all out has helped me so much. We all have some sort of experience we can share that will help someone else out. That's the greatest part of having trials in our life.

I've learned to do affirmations, meaning talk to yourself as if it is already happening. For example, when you wake up in the morning, say to yourself, "Today is a great day. I feel calm, I am healthy." Things like that. Also, deep breathing is a wonderful way to help yourself calm down. Breathe in through your nose and out your mouth. Try to breathe from your stomach and not your chest! Lay flat on your back or sit in a chair and close your eyes... JUST BREATHE!

Well, those are just a few things that I have done that have helped me. I have to keep reminding myself that nothing will fix me over night, as much as I wish it would. So just remember if you have struggled with anxiety for a long time, you didn't get that way over night and you won't be healed over night. Be patient and remember it will all get better in time! I'm no doctor, so if this doesn't help you out and you feel like it's getting worse, go see a doctor! Please do not let yourself get to where I am and have been!

If you have any questions, you can email me at: americangirl_22@hotmail.com! :)

Whoohoo Bullet Bike!

Well, yesterday, my friend Marc came over from Show Low and picked me up on his bullet bike! I love these things! They are so fun! He wanted me to go to church with him, so I loaded all my stuff up in my backpack and we headed out! You never really realize how pretty the scenery is until you get on a bike! The only bad this is the wind and the motor are really loud! We were about to come into Show Low and I started getting a migraine... Oh they are fun aren't they! I couldn't see and I started to panic and ended up hyperventilating.... Marc probably thought I was crazy cause my left hand and arm started going numb in the middle of church! But he was good and kept talking to me and made sure I was ok. After church we went to his sister's house and had dinner with his family. They are so much fun! I love spending time with them and I felt so welcome. We all played the old Nintendo games and Mario Cart ha ha. His parents were even getting into it! It was a blast!

Of course my mom had to capture every moment before we headed out! Gotta love her!

Thanks Mom!

Oh Valentines Day!

Well it's finally Valentine's Day! And of course Mom has to have her pictures so there it is! It's been a pretty relaxed day. We all just got to lounge around the house all day and spend some quality time together watching movies! That's always fun!

Then for an update on my anxiety, just in case you're wondering, the paxil FINALLY wore off!!! Boy that was a horrible day that I would definitely not want to relive! But I guess that's just all in experimenting with new medication. I really am grateful for all the doctors and everything though. It has helped me feel a little better than I did before. And during this season of "love" I have also been thinking about the people I have in my life and how grateful I am for each and every one of you! I know I've already mentioned all this, but guess what! I'll say it a million times more I'm sure! :) I know Heavenly Father sends people into our lives for a reason. I've been blessed with people in my life that have been able to help me with my anxiety because they've been through it too. I hope that I can reach out to people that have anxiety so I can help them as well. It's a horrible thing to go through, but I encourage anyone that has anxiety, or knows people that have anxiety, to get help and get it taken care of before it gets worse. I promise it doesn't go away on its own! It only gets worse! And hiding it only makes it worse too! I wish I would have taken care of mine a long long time ago, but I guess it's just a trial in my life I must face... and for a reason I wish I could know right now!

But anyway, enough of my babbling. I hope you all had a wonderful Valentines Day and I hope you are all doing well!

One Eventful Morning

So as you all know, it's been a pretty crazy roller coaster ride for me going through anxiety. I am currently taking Paxil to help out with the anxiety and, supposedly, it's supposed to help me sleep. I didn't feel like my 10mg was helping me very much so the doctor told me to start taking two pills so it would bump it up to 20mg. Well, lets just say that was a terrible idea.

Last night I took the pills around 9:00 pm and by 11:00 pm I still didn't feel very tired. So when midnight rolled around and I STILL wasn't tired, I decided to try the old trick of making myself fall asleep. That was a fight. When I woke up this morning, it was a hole different story! I got up, feeling kinda anxious already, and went in the bathroom and my eyes felt like they wanted to go cross eyed! They wouldn't focus and felt like they were WIDE OPEN! Well, that all didn't help the matters of me feeling anxious cause it scared the crap out of me and made me even more anxious!!! Long story short, I drove to my mom's office and she got to have a little laugh at me cause she said I looked like "a deer in the headlights!" My eyes were dilated and, literally, wide open! I feel much better now, but my eyes still haven't been able to focus all day and I feel drained. I just wish I could find the answer to all this so I could make it go away!

Going through what I have has made me realize something though. NEVER, EVER, put off taking care of yourself!! Your health is your first priority, cause without good health, you wont accomplish the things you want to. I really hope that somehow, when I feel 100% better, I will be able to help other people with their anxiety, depression, and OCD because I know how bad it feels!!!

Bored...

So here's just a little update. Sean and I are still going strong. It's been pretty fun spending time together, when we get to that is. Driving back and forth hasn't been too bad either. I actually enjoy the drive. It's peaceful time that I can have to myself, which is always nice. I got to go to his house on Friday and he played me the song he wrote for me! He is amazing on the guitar and despite what he says, he CAN sing! I loved it! We took some pictures together and here is one of them!

Today I was planning on meeting Sean in Snowflake to eat dinner with him before he had to go to class, but snow just had to get in the way!! It's been storming like crazy the past couple of days. Sean took a picture (the one below) of his front yard and said his mom's car was almost completely covered and it was still snowing! They had two feet of snow on the ground, and it was STILL coming down! Craziness!!! He had to get all the snow off his truck so he could go to class and it took him an hour! Then there's little 'ol St. Johns that hardly gets anything but wind! But I won't complain cause snow is cold and takes too long to melt! Wind eventually goes away! :) hahaThen mom decided to make a blog... Lets just say it was pretty funny watching her on this little mini computer she has! She's kept me entertained tonight ha ha! The keys are tiny! The whole thing looks like a little DVD player! My computer is a monster compared to hers. But despite all the frustration of how small the keys are and how hard it is to type on the thing, her blog turned out pretty dang cute! And boy is she proud of it!!! Ha ha And she did it ALMOST all by herself! :)

Meeting The Parents

So last week Sean came to St. Johns and met my parents and they love him! Which makes me very happy! Sean and my dad get along pretty well because Sean is taking EMT classes so they get to talk about all that good stuff. It's pretty fun. Then I finally got to meet his parents and they are SO nice! His mom is pretty shy, but his dad talked to me quite a bit, and they are really cool. His dad actually cleans my best friend's parent's carpets all the time and he told me he remembers seeing me before in pictures that they have! Crazy huh? I've also met one of his brothers. He is 6th out of 7 kids so there are a few more to go! But I really enjoy being around his family that I've met so far! They are all so nice.

We've been able to hang out quite a bit the past two weeks and then more we talk the more we realize how crazy alike we are! Its really almost scary! haha

But here is a picture of him! I had him take it and send it to me. He was about to leave for church so I had him send me one all dressed up! We are planning on taking some pictures together sometime.... Whenever we get a chance to hang out again so I'll post some more later:)