[geye1234]

The ACT approach worked for me. It's compatible with CBT, but with a different emphasis. The following names may help:

Claire Weekes, who somebody else in this thread recommended. She's the pioneer of the approach. She wrote mainly in the mid-20th century but her work is still accessible.

Also look at Kevin Majeres' work, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGa-jQJazpY

Also look at the DARE Approach to anxiety: https://www.youtube.com/@DareResponse

They all say variations of the same thing, which is that you need to train your brain not to fear your anxiety.

This approach ought to be the standard -- it really works, and is well-demonstrated in the literature.

Also exercise every day, or as often as you can. Both weight-training and cardio are good. Swimming is excellent.

Don't spend much time analysing some deep-seated reason for your anxiety. A little bit is fine, but going too deep is a waste of time, and can actually make it worse. You want to train the rational part of your brain to disregard the anxiety signals coming from your amygdla; and over time, the amygdla's messages will become less and less intense. If you spend time thinking 'why why why am I feeling this way?', your brain starts treating the anxiety signals as important, which is the opposite of what you want.

I would strongly recommend against changing careers. You will not be making good decisions while anxious, and other careers will not be less stressful.

[wruza]

You want to train the rational part of your brain to disregard the anxiety signals coming from your amygdla; and over time, the amygdla's messages will become less and less intense

Can that really be more effective than/without digging to the cause? My personal experience with downward arrow is that on success, it doesn't reduce anxiety by itself, but it adds lots of courage and knowledge to intentionally face situations where it comes up and to go through aware. If you don't know what's wrong... hmm I'm not a therapist to figure it out. Do you really feel it less, or do you accept it like a tinnitus? (I mean the latter is a solution but personally I'd rather not feel it).

You will not be making good decisions while anxious, and other careers will not be less stressful

Mostly agreed. Because (from CBT perspective) while it's nice to take a break and relax, the crucial reflection info disappears. It's sort of a pointless pause and the issues will find you anyway.

[geye1234]

I suppose I would say that you should be aware of what triggers your anxiety, for sure, for the reasons you state. But once you're aware, limit the amount of further analysis you do. I think the law of diminishing returns will kick in pretty quick. Other methods (ACT) will prove much more fruitful once you have a basic awareness. ACT is like building muscle: the more you do the more effective it gets it gets. Analysis is the opposite :-)

Perhaps I over-stated the case in my GP post. I didn't mean to imply that you should be ignorant of the reasons; but they are definitely far less important than the biological/neurological processes that are taking place. At least such is my experience, and such (I believe) the research says.

> Do you really feel it less, or do you accept it like a tinnitus?

Acceptance, over time, causes you to feel it less. Seeing it as something horrible and evil that you must get rid of will cause a vicious spiral, and end up making you more anxious.

[wruza]

Ah I see now, it seems to be closer to my experience then, than I thought. Find the source and go torture it rather than beating around the bush.

tinnitus

Yeah I learned that sort of hard way :) But it was true. I should draw parallels but that begs more questions which probably aren't worth asking by the same principle. So much of it only gets clear in retrospect.

You and your sibling commenter made me realize something new about it, thanks!

[margor]

Something that helped with my anxiety is changing the way I think about my physical and mental issues where even if I have some underlying conditions causing anxiety, it should not define how I feel about it because I am in the control of how I feel. Even if you have tinnitus, and it causes you great discomfort, you must convince yourself that tinnitus does not define how you feel about it, that it does not cause continous issues, and that worrying and digging on the causes of it can actually make it worse because our brains are stupid sometimes.

It does help, but you must push through it. Your body will give you signals that its not ok, but you must try to ignore it, and then you may actually feel better, even if your underlying causes did not change.

[devwithanxiety]

Thanks for the advice and book recs! I will take a look at them. I have been given some CBT techniques by my councillor but always good to read up on other systems as well.

> Don't spend much time analysing some deep-seated reason for your anxiety.

Yeah I feel like I'm supposed to be able to instantly see the problem on a little introspection yet that never happens. Constantly wondering why I feel like this doesn't seem to help much.

> You will not be making good decisions while anxious, and other careers will not be less stressful.

Good point. Most well paid careers do pay well because there's a demanding aspec t to them.

[geye1234]

> Yeah I feel like I'm supposed to be able to instantly see the problem on a little introspection yet that never happens. Constantly wondering why I feel like this doesn't seem to help much.

Generally it doesn't. Anxiety disorder is irrational, pretty much by definition. So looking for a reason for the anxiety will IMO not be that helpful. (Yes in small amounts, for sure, but you'll soon face the law of dimishing returns.) But if you treat anxiety as your brain mis-firing and acting irrationally, you will I think be more successful. That's how the links I gave you treat it. IANAD, but these techniques worked for me, and I believe the research is pretty positive about them.

OTOH, CBT is good, I recommend it. ACT grew out of CBT.

I wish you the best.