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How to challenge anxious thoughts?
Hey! I'm a teenage girl and I need a bit of advice. My family is going to the beach tomorrow (my mom and 4 siblings) but I have a hefty amount of school work to get done so I'm staying behind. The thing is, I'm super nervous about them going. my sister is only 50 pounds and my brother is 40 pounds and the older ones can't swim and I'm in constant fear that they'll drown or be swept away even when I'm with them. I know that I have anxiety to some extent (though I've never brought it up because I feel stupid) so I know that my thinking probably isn't logical, but I can't help it. I feel like ditching my school work and just going along but then I'd be anxious about failing classes. every time I think about them going I get flashes of tears and funerals and my mom trying to pull the kids back to shore to no avail. how can I stop this thinking so I can focus on my work when they go?
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Maybe give some free advice about: Mental health?
You and I both know that the bigger issue here is not your homework but your anxiety issues. I am not a Dr. but instead of anxiety, I was wondering with all the detailed thought you put in to getting carried away with a negative scenario whether you might actually have something else. Either way, it's best a Dr. determine what is the problem.
What little I know of people I dont know closely, anxiety is something that shuts you down, unable to make any choice or take any action for fear of an undesirable outcome either way. Then there is Cognitive Behavior disorder which causes a person to dwell on negative thoughts and let them control them to the point it causes they to take certain actions that they wouldn't without these thoughts, using their imagined terrible scenerio's to be the 100% proven truth of a situation and thus taking action in regards to their imagined negative thoughts. There is something called Cognitive Behavorial Therapy for that. Its for a Dr. to decide which you have. CBT is not a medication as far as I know from what I've read, but more of a retraining of your mind how to stop your minds bad habit of writing full complete negative, disastrous, heart breaking stories in your mind because you tend to act upon them as if they are real. So if I am close to right, if you do end up ditching homework to go along, that would fall more under Cognitive Behavior disorder, whereas if you facilate between fears of not going or going and have a fear of them drowning if you dont go, or failing classes if you do, that would seem more like anxiety issues, that keep you from being able to take an action at all for fear of a bad outcome no matter what you choose. This isn't something you can fix on your own or ignore cus it won't get better on it's own.
In todays world, there are more people born with disorders as far as the brain goes and greater range of gender types than there ever were before. Its not that we didn't know about them in the past and just discovered it. Many brain related situations have been on the increase and people younger than myself wouldn't know it. But I've lived long enough to begin to see that many are being born this way when it used to not be such a prominent issue. Maybe in a less toxic world, there'd be less younger people with depression, anxiety, even ADHD, Aspergers and Autism than seems to be becoming the norm lately. This does not mean you are stupid. It has nothing to do with IQ, intelligence and all to do with the brain you were born with. In a less toxic world, perhaps you might have been born without these problems but since its the lot dealt to you, you need to make the best of it and decide to not let it rule your life. You can have a normal life, you just have to handle some things differently than the rest. People with such problems are no longer a minority. To some extent, the greater percent of the population are having some brain related issues that they brush off as insignificant. I like to write books. Even on here, I don't catch all my spelling mistakes and I am very good at grammar but continually in re-reading what I write, find all the dumb mistakes that I know I actually know better on like the difference between 'hear and here' It is frustrating to me but now I try to triple check my work in order to make up for whatever things in this world are affecting my mind in such a way and doing the same to all people. I find misspellings everywhere now...in magazine ads, bus billboards, on all websites, in books and its the silly little errors that should be easy to spot and fix but its happening to us all and will continue to get worse as the years go by.
So, instead of worrying and keeping silent about what you struggle with, tell the parents and ask to see a Dr. for a mental health checkup.
Do what you can that will help you live the most normal life you can expect. There's nothing like the human spirit and drive to get better. I remember the video on FB of a man whom Drs told he'd never walk again. He did yoga mainly religiously several times a day as he was on disability and got to the point he could walk again, and now runs. So there is a lot to be said for the drive to survive and more so, to excell in life. My daughter at your age said nothing of battling depression, she kept it well hidden. I saw no clues and was very into my kids. I wish she had said something. It wasn't til after giving birth years later it blew out of proportion even worse with post partum depressions on top of her regular one and she cried out for help because she battled thoughts now 24/7 of killing herself and her newborn so I took her to her Dr. She's one of those people who will need to take meds the rest of her life to live a normal life. Don't let it go so long that it gets to a crisis like that for you dear. Tell the parents. They like me won't want to be robbed of the opportunity to help you because they love you. They may not believe you at first because they may not have seen any signs of a problem like myself with my daughter, but would hurt forever in their heart over not having the opportunity to help, all because they love you and you are their child. Give them that opportunity dear. Good luck!
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Hi! I, myself suffer from anxiety and I've had anxiety attacks from time to time. You are not alone. We often worry about things that scare us (even if they're silly)because we simply cannot predict the future. We are only human. Quite frankly, you cannot change the outcome of the situation either way. So why worry about it?
"Don't worry about your life
Cause if you hold it too close you lose it
Don't worry about your life
So won't you let go before it's gone….
I see the birds, watch them fly
They have everything they need
Show me why
I can be free knowing You will care for me."
Don't Worry by Rebecca St. James
You don't know if these things will happen to your siblings because you have no logical proof to back it up. You're just worried because you won't be there with them to make sure they are safe.
When you place your faith in things that can demolish you, you open the way for Satan to bring these things into your life. Look away from those things and look to God. Jesus has already destroyed these lies and these lies cannot destroy your life.
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I think it's pretty normal to worry about the ones in your life. Just make sure that whoever is taking them will watch them (which if parents are present, then I'm sure they will) and stay with them in the ocean. Unless you are in the much deeper parts of the water, the water isn't that rough, besides at the shore but that only pulls the water towards the same. You could always go yourself just to make sure, and cram a bunch of your work and studying b4 you go, and then do the rest while you're there, but that is up to you. You could just be over thinking it. I mean, kids go to the beach all the time, and unless there is a storm, I'm sure there is nothing to worry about. They should have floaties and rafts and stuff, and probably not let into deep parts. You could just tell your parent(s) that you've been strangely worrying, and ask them to keep an extra eye on them and stay with them.
Hope this helps~
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