Does the idea of change make you anxious?
Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone else feels anxious at the idea of change? When it comes to work or study, I don't find the idea of change at all anxiety building. However, if there is change in my personal life, I find this can increase my anxiety levels to sometimes ridiculous levels. Positive change doesn't seem to worry me at all, but it's the notion of negative change that makes me rather anxious. This can then impact upon my sleeping patterns, and I normally realise that what I've been worrying about was nothing to begin with. How do others cope with this? It doesn't happen much, but when it happens, it seems to do it in full force. This isn't a new thing either, when I think about it, it's happened on many occassions when I was an adolescent and anxious about what school was going to be like that day due to bullying etc.
Thoughts?
Anxious doesn't even begin to cover it.
Positive change has an equally bad effect.
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Music Theory 101: Cadences.
Authentic cadence: V-I
Plagal cadence: IV-I
Deceptive cadence: V- ANYTHING BUT I ! !! !
Beethoven cadence: V-I-V-I-V-V-V-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I
-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I! I! I! I I I
For me Change = OMG well what do I do if X happens
X might not happen
X might not even be that bad I don't even know what it's going to be but it's enough to destroy me thinking about it
I'd say within my lifetime the experience of X is 99% bad and 1%tolerable
The bigger the change the worse X becomes
Too many changes = more X
Too much X = instant overload
Sometimes I want to escape X which can bring on suicidal thoughts.
Thoughts like Why can't I deal with X and other people can I'm weak, and Why does X only happen to me?
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Last edited means I caught yet another spelling mistake I missed while I was looking for them, Damn Dyslexia.
These replies have been really interesting, as I have felt this way also, and have never spoken to anyone about it because I thought it was just me, and a deficiency in my character. This may be the case, and something I need to work on, but it is comforting to know I am not the only one who has these feelings. I saw an interesting episode of Dr Phil (yes, I know, not a great thing to watch for these things), but a woman on there was suffering from anticipatory anxiety. When he asked her what is really the worst thing that would happen if x happened, she basically said that she would deal with it and move on. This makes sense, but to me, it's the feeling of me causing x to happen and then having to deal with the consequences of x happening, with the "knowledge" that I played some part in it.
Yeah I don't feel as though Aspie anxiety is the same as atypical anticipatory anxiety. It's way more complicated than that, and causing x to happen sucks. For me though it's not just causing x to happen it's OMG I have no idea what to do if x happens. Who do I ask for help? Will they be mad? Am I a failure? OMG there's too many things I can't do right. Why bother?
Here's a good video on it
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9r0MxNpoCc[/youtube]
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Last edited means I caught yet another spelling mistake I missed while I was looking for them, Damn Dyslexia.
I react differently depending if its negative change or positive change. Positive change I can deal with and look forward to. If that happens, I actually don't feel real and feel like its a dream. When negative change happens, if it is bad enough (such as a death in the family or losing everything we own) I get suicidal and extremely panicky and near death. I am terrified I am heading toward one of the negative deadly changes but hardly any positive coming up. The only thing that is preventing me from being totally suicidal is that my art is doing well at one of the places I am at but the other place is doing the worst there making me depressed. The reason why I am depressed and anxious about an upcoming change is that my mom probably has cancer on top of her many other life-threatening diseases. Also, her spleen is highly enlarged and its causing breathing problems. This will kill her especially if the spleen would need to be removed. Once the spleen is removed you are highly likely to get deadly infections. My mom already gets infections highly easily because of her many diseases including something called "Sjogren's Syndrome." She also has lung disease and very severe arthritis. She is only 56 years old with these many health problems I wonder what hell awaits this family. Change is hardly good for our family because its rare that I get a positive surprise. Did you know I am depressed right now? How shocking. It is actually surprising that I am still doing my art but for some odd reason I am obsessed with art right now. Sad to say like last month I bet a million dollars that I won't receive a check from Ventures this month either because I am doing the worst there. They will kick me out.
Pretty much everything everyone said above...even positive change makes me anxious because I cannot be certain that it will be positive a priori. The more certain I am about the change being positive, and the more I am in control, the less anxious I am, but there is always some.
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