My name is Gabe Howard. I live in Ohio, am married, a hockey fan (go Blue Jackets), a college football fan (go Buckeyes), a couch potato, the life of the party, a home owner, and a pizza connoisseur. I sleep too little, talk too much, and drive my wife mad. I tell her I do it because I like the company.
In my late 20s, I was diagnosed with bipolar, anxiety, and panic disorders. Everything changed pretty much overnight. Severe panic attacks, paranoia, and general anxiety sidelined me for a long while costing me a marriage, a career, friends, social status, money, and time.
Anxiety Videos – Anxiety Schmanxiety
It can be so disheartening to suffer a setback after moving forward in anxiety recovery for so long. Your anxiety and/or panic were once so intense and they got in the way of your ability to fully live your life the way you wanted to live it. You wanted more for yourself, so you worked your way past the obstacles and you were doing great. But then something happened to make anxiety flare up again, and it felt like you went back to square one, no longer moving forward in anxiety recovery at all. Disheartening indeed.
Anxiety, as you are likely very aware, is about worry. Not just worry, but intense, consuming worry. It can take over our minds, causing our thoughts to race anxiously from one to the next. It can be miserable, keeping us up late into the night or consuming our days. We toss, turn, sweat, fret, and think, think, and think. Ironically, the thinking often contains the key to overcoming anxiety. You see, focusing your thinking, or mindfulness, can calm anxious thoughts.
I'm sure you've heard these statements:
He's so OCD.
Quit being so OCD.
This is just my OCD coming out.
The term OCD has become common in our society. Stigma turned OCD into an adjective that we frequently use to describe someone who likes things a certain way. However, OCD, short for obsessive-compulsive disorder, is much more than a compulsion for neatness.
Anthony D'Aconti
It's safe to say I've been a procrastinator for as long as I can remember. Before I learned about anxiety disorders, I always thought the single greatest driving factor behind procrastination was laziness. After discovering the truth about anxiety and procrastination, I now see the deeper meaning behind putting things off.
Social anxiety can be a miserable experience. Symptoms range from mild to extreme, but regardless of the degree of severity, the feeling it creates is miserable. When we're plagued by a fear of being judged, and not just judged but judged negatively, it's hard to relax and enjoy interactions with others.
Anthony D'Aconti
Welcome to the Anxiety Schmanxiety Blog!
I'm Anthony D'Aconti, the Founder of Breathe Into the Bag, an anxiety magazine created to help people struggling with all types of anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and PTSD. I'm proud to join the Anxiety Schmanxiety Blog and hope that by sharing my experiences and expertise, I'll be able to help you with your anxiety challenges.
I Understand Anxiety. I Live With It
As an emotional human being (aren’t we all?), I’m excited to be writing the Anxiety Schmanxiety blog. Typical of me, I’m also fretful about it. Will what I write be good enough? Will it be helpful? Will readers want to leave comments and interact? What if everyone judges me harshly? Of course I’m imaging an array of negative consequences including certain demise for me and, quite possibly, for you. But don’t worry! I’ve been dealing with this for a long time so I’m used to it. It’s under control – for the most part (I mean, the anxiety is still there, but I’ve learned ways to keep it from ruling me).
Truth by definition is absolute. It is definitive. It is what it is and that is it. However, I have come to believe that not much is true in the literal sense. What we believe is perception, not the truth.
It is like me asking you if you are human in the Western world today. Yes!
Much of our anxiety comes from comparing ourselves to others. We think that we are not smart enough, skilled enough, cool enough. Not enough, not enough, not enough! And if we are not enough, then maybe we can't manage things, or have people stay with us. This can shoot anxiety through the roof! Watch this video to see why we do this and what to do about it!