Is this Social Anxiety? - Part 2

So I survived the grocery store but only just.

Okay I know that to you non-sufferers (who I hope are reading also) this sounds silly but, trust me, it is not. Willingly going into a situation that is going to be crammed with people, and the carts, and everything! Well, it just isn't that simple.

Here are some things that freak me out and how I am managing them.

First:

My partner touches all the fruits and vegetables in the store. He touches the potatoes, the onions, and the carrots because we have to purchase and eat them, yeah that is simple. He also touches the kohlrabi, avocado, brussel sprouts and fava beans. I couldn't pay him to eat them so why on earth must he touch it all!?! I start hyperventilating and become the shrill harpy that nobody wants for a spouse. So here is what has helped. Break it down now!

1. Why does this bother me? Because I feel others are looking at him and judging me by his behavior. Simple enough.
2. Are people really judging you? Look around. What is everyone else actually doing. They are shopping, corralling their kids, and trying to get on with their lives. The average person is too self absorbed to notice you much less care you picked up that eggplant. 
3. Is his behavior unreasonable? Initially I answered this one YES!!! but stop, breath and think it through... Well who else touches all the produce? The stock people, children of all ages, old people, uh... everybody. Does the smart person, knowing this, eat their produce without washing them? No! Then why does it matter? ... I hate it when I stump myself.

So here is where I had to stop and think; if his behavior is completely reasonable then mine is not. I need to figure out how to handle this. I tried to tell myself it was okay and ignore it but that just made the inevitable shrieks that much shriller when they broke through. So my solution. Touch the produce, do it, just touch it myself and see if the world stops. (which it didn't)

I know this one seems trivial but it made the thought of going to a crowded noisy place which is difficult on the best of days seem that much more daunting and the process is applicable in other places as well. I have taken to breaking each part of the larger experience down and I am asking myself why it bothers me. I try to find the reason and it can be tough since so many reactions we have are so emotional and instant. 

I have a hard time trying new places : Get the menu online, or outside the restaurant window. Once inside ask the waitress/cashier/whoever works there "This is my first time here. How does this work?". Watch as they do NOT whip around to perform the dreaded Point-and-Laugh maneuver. Instead they will help you. Ask for help.

I freak when someone tries to hold a conversation with me in the checkout line :  Look around, everyone else is. They don't even care you can hear them badmouthing their baby sitter or griping about their boss. They won't even care that you are having a life of your own either. Just try it!

The whole point is that to start combating your anxiety you have to pick up the sword. You must be willing to try something, anything that may help. This may mean some introspection as to what the root of your issue may be. You may even need to get a friend or loved one in on the conversation so they can provide ideas. Problems don't just go away you have to work at making them better.

P.S.

After the post this morning I went to get ready. My partner enters the room and says "so you're lying to me..." clearly just having read my blog. He smiles, and we have a great talk...

This is the aspect I never thought about when I started writing all of this down. A couple of friends came over this evening and said something wonderful; The person who lives with the anxiety sufferer has no idea what that is like, what the thought process is. I see this paving the way for lots of good discussion in the future.

Is this Social Anxiety? - Part 1

I am completely terrible at doing new things! Mostly because they scare me...

Portland City Hall, from Pioneer Courthouse Square

So what is it that keeps me from doing new things? Well I know it is a form of a social anxiety, or rather, anxiety brought on by social situations. I am not sure if that is the same thing or not but from the perspective of the person who is feeling it I'd have to say the difference is probably too small to fuss over. So what do I mean when I say, the very vague, statement "social settings make me anxious."? Here is an example of what it is like to be in my head and walking down the street.

"I hear laughing, are they laughing at me? No, they are pointing at something else. Oh my god, it's a group of very attractive people. I wish I looked like that, I am sure they are judging me, I want to crawl into a hole and escape to escape their attention..." The walking down the street diatribe that runs through my brain is a low buzzing sense of unease. It is mostly a combination of "how is everyone judging me?" and "I hate myself.". All-in-all it is fairly terrible for the self esteem. It is like having a snarky, degrading monkey riding my back at all times. So to sum up, I have insecurity issues.

All of this is fairly manageable and I still manage to go on walks fairly often despite what I have to put up with. The problem arises when I am with someone else and for this example I will be using my partner.

So I'm walking down the street with him and we are holding a light conversation all the while the Hate Monkey on my back is whispering into my ear, most of which, I push away and try to ignore. There are cars driving by and that noise gets added as well as the conversation from the people behind me, I begin to wonder if we are going too slowly and they'd like to pass us. I notice my clothes are chaffing and that mental 'Noise' gets added too. Eventually it can get to be so much I don't have enough attention to form a coherent thought any more and I start to unravel. And I haven't even started the anxiety portion yet.

Then he says "Let's go to this new restaurant!" and full blown anxiety starts in and I've realized most of it is caused from not knowing how this place works. Is it an order-wait-for-your-food type place, a 'sit down', is it expensive, will I know what to order, etcetera... it becomes so overwhelming I just say 'No, I don't want to go there.' and I start lying... fast and easy the excuses come: I don't like that kind of food, I really wanted 'x', I am not hungry and if I am called out on it then comes phase 2 of plan "don't step foot in there, its scary." I get angry and start an argument. 

I know this isn't healthy. I know I need to get a handle on it and I am trying to figure out how. All my life I have been using little stop-gap measures like the excuses to avoid being in situations like this rather than dealing with it. I am tired of being the person who is the downer, who always ruins the fun for others. I am done slapping bandages onto my hurt and I am ready to heal. There are some things that work and others that don't but I will be trying... It's when you stop trying and give in to despair that your anxiety rules you and I am done being subjugated by it.

This is a taste of what I deal with. It is my burden that I've never really shared with anyone, not even my partner. It feels too personal to put down into text but the more of these posts I write I realize how cathartic it is to get it out there and share. I am going to follow up with part 2 this afternoon after I get done with one social situation that usually triggers a couple episodes of anxiety, the grocery store. Then I will discuss how I cope, how I mitigate and manage so that I can still get out of the house and get things done.

Just a Photo - Enjoy

Enter Depression, Stage Left - Dealing with conditions, or mood swings?

Must... not... eat... my... feelings...!

Camelia and a hundred year old horse tie-off near my home.

Have you ever had one of those days? One of those days where it feels like someone put a mute on everything. The color dulls, the sounds are less brilliant and all you feel is sad.

Well my friends, that was today. 

I feel, personally, that conditions like depression are over diagnosed in our day and age. So I am not saying that I have depression but that is what I felt today, all day. I am sure you will say "isn't that an overly fine distinction?", and I would answer a resounding "NO!". In fact I feel that the distinction between the two makes the world. You are allowed to be depressed without having depression.

You may feel the grips of a depressing mood overtake you once in awhile but that doesn't mean you need mood stabilizers or antidepressants. What that means is you feel down once in awhile and you need to learn how to pull yourself up or how to batten down the hatches. Whatever works for you. 

I deal with mood swings, a lot, so I have learned a trick or two that I can share and maybe they can help you.

Method One: Acknowledge, Identify, Manage. This works well for me when I am feeling sudden rage since anger has physical symptoms that are easy to identify like increased heart rate (like an adrenaline pump) and a warm sensation. Using this to combat sudden sadness has a finesse that has, as of yet, eluded me. 

1. Acknowledge what it is that you are feeling. Have you ever been absolutely irate suddenly and not noticed what triggered it? Slow down for a minute and say, out loud if you need to "I am really angry right now..." For me, acknowledging the emotion makes it into something I can deal with in the moment. 
2. Identify the source of your irritant. Ask yourself, and try to be objective, "is there a good reason that I am feeling this emotion?" If you answer is No, then you need to assess the situation and move onto step three. If you have legitimate cause to be angry ask yourself if your response is proportionate to the problem at hand. You may still need to scale back a bit. 
3. Manage your self and how you interact with others. You may want to try some calming exercise or remove yourself until you can cope. Politely excuse yourself and take a mental inventory of the situation and then once you have regained control go back to business. Make apologies as needed.

Remember that, again, other people may not be aware of the situation brewing inside you and that ultimately they are innocent bystanders. Most people in my family are diagnosed bipolar so I learned from watching my Dad go from jovial and happy to rampaging and throwing drawers out and onto the floor and screaming at his children with no apparent gradation between. I have been talking to people and then suddenly start shouting because everything just pissed me off only to realize I was the one at fault and I had actually scared people I cared about.

Method Two: Escape Clause. Sadness on the other hand is a tricky adversary. It sneaks up like a crafty gauze sheet (known to be the craftiest of the fabrics) and cast a pallor over your day without you realizing it. Usually for me I figure it out somewhere between the sudden bursts of tears and eating half a jar of peanut butter during the 176th replay of Under the Tuscan Sun. This starts the same way as method one but for me it takes a helping hand also.

1. Acknowledge what it is that you are feeling. As always the first step in dealing with your problems is being aware of them. Stating the obvious may seem... obvious, but do it anyways. It is a real kick in the pants to hear out of your sobbing, chocolate bar smeared face come the words "I am sad and I don't know why." 
2. Do something, right now! I don't care what it is, anything. Grab your coat and go walking. Jump in the car and go somewhere. Pick up the phone and call a loved one. Just anything before you slip back under the covers or start chugging chocolate syrup you need to break the spell. 
3. Pick something that makes you smile, or better yet do something that makes someone else smile. I call my spouse and whine out a uber pathetic "I'm so sad and I don't know why..." and he comes to my rescue. I take the dogs for a walk. Go to the grocery store and get your loved ones favorite food for dinner. I write in this blog. Doing something productive that isn't for me makes me feel good. Cleaning house makes me feel good too since it make my spouse deliriously happy (except there is nothing left to do). The long and short of it is that activity will break the spell. At least is does for me. 

Sometimes I just don't have the energy and I call my hubby and sob until he gets what's going on and he helps me out. He takes me to dinner or just generally spoils me with love and if that doesn't work he throws up his hands and says "I don't know what to do, I tried my best. I'm going to go watch tv." If you are someone who suffers from this once in awhile then set up resources for yourself when you aren't sad and prepare. Make a "weepy day kit" or have that one great friend who is up for anything on speed dial. If you experience this frequently or daily then muffin, you need a therapist and probably a doctor too. Remember that taking medicine can alleviate the symptom of a problem but therapy will give you tools to cope for a lifetime. I just wish I could afford it. 

You are not alone!

You have friends and family who want you to succeed!

In my driveway of all places, how amazing.

I visited some friends this past weekend and I had an eye opening experience. Somehow we got on the subject of  fear and anxiety and I 'came clean' with what I am dealing with to some of my friends. Now, I say I 'came clean' about it because I really felt like I had this dirty little secret and that it is something shameful that I needed to hide.

Guess what? I was wrong.

A surprising number of people deal with either a generalized anxiety, phobia, or other more specific problems. In my small inner circle of friends I know two people who deal with different levels of Social Anxiety like I do. I know people who knew exactly what I was talking about when I told them about the "Bad Thoughts" I had had. This may sound sick but I was relieved to know I am not the only person out there dealing with this. It is liberating to know that I am not 'broken' or 'damaged' but that lots of people have at least experienced a period in their lives where they have dealt with problems like these.

My advice on this, for anyone struggling with this on your own, is to talk to somebody about it. I find that when I am feeling the yoke of anxiety resting on my shoulders especially heavily that I tend to crawl into a hidey-hole and I start avoiding contact with my friends. Well guess what peanut, those are the people you need to have a sit down with. 

When I let my friends know what is going on this is what changed for me. (Note: this is a dramatization that is representative of real conversations I have had)

Friend: "Nolan, come over and watch a movie with us, we're going to order pizza and it'll be fun."

Me: "Nah, that's okay. I am kind of tired, I think I'll just have a night in..." *lying because I am feeling morose*

Friend: "Are you in one of your moods again?"

Me: "No..." *Said sounding guilty*

Friend: "This isn't good for you, take a shower and get over here."

Me: "Okay..."

If your friends are aware of what you are going through and especially when they have been through something similar they can help be a support system for you. Remember, don't lean on them so hard that you can't get out of the house without a shove from a friend. But, when they put out a hand to help you up, take it. That's what friends are for, right?