Today’s guest post is brought to you by Dan Stelter of Anxietysupportnetwork. Does social anxiety make you feel lost some times? Like you just don’t fit in anywhere? Dan’s article is a great starting point for you if you’ve ever felt this way in the past. Dan has a lot of useful insights about social anxiety on his site and I’m glad that he was willing to share some of those ideas with us here.

Criticism sucks. There just isn’t any other way of saying it.

For anxiety sufferers dealing with criticism is especially hard, because it seems to arouse our worst fears about being judged or belittled.

And it’s not like being sensitive to criticism is unique to people with anxiety, it’s just that many of us – like so many other things – react to it fiercely. For example, when I graduated from University and got my first “real job” I wasn’t prepared for the rough and tumble world of corporate style criticism. My first reaction was almost always anger and resentment. But why do so many of us react this way?

About two weeks ago I was watching a t.v. show on the History channel about American prisoners of war and it got me thinking.

One of the most poignant moments in the show was when one of the former prisoners was talking about how his experience had helped him. He said it helped him to know himself better, he learned to deal with adversity, and if he had to do it all over again he would.

Today’s guest post is brought to by an Anxiety Guru reader named Emily.  She has lived with anxiety for some time now and wanted to share a few tips on how to challenge your anxiety. Do you have a story or tips that you’d like to share with the Anxiety Guru Community?  Contact me today and find out how you can help others in need of information and advice.

Today’s guest post is brought to you by an Anxiety Guru reader named Sue. She has suffered from fibromyalgia and anxiety for over 9 years and was kind enough to share her experience in the hopes of helping someone else.  Do you have a story that you want to share with the Anxiety Guru community? Contact me today and find out how you can help others that need information and guidance.

Have you ever wondered why you become so afraid when you have an anxious thought?  It could be a thought about a potential panic attack, fear of embarrassing yourself, fear of going crazy or if you’re in a depressive mode perhaps fear of hurting yourself or someone else.  Most times you might yell internally and pronounce to yourself that you would never take action on that nasty thought.  So why all the associated fear?  In a word, suggestibility .

Definitions

In their quest for peace of mind and reassurance anxiety sufferers will often seek answers and details about their condition wherever they can find them.  Answers that inevitably have to do with their chronic symptoms, whether it be headaches, muscle twitch, dizziness, panic, chest pain or any other symptom in the never ending  list of anxiety manifestations.  And of all the tools that help facilitate the search for further understanding of anxiety disorders the internet is perhaps the most used, influential, and potentially damaging.

To feel persistent fear is to be miserable, to feel sad because of fear is painful, to feel alone is what anxiety can make you.  But it isn’t simply the fear, sadness or isolation that bends our will and weakens our resolve.  No, it’s more than this.  It is the final culmination of all that we hate about anxiety – the final turn inward, the path away from the outside, away from what we all understand as normal and inside our minds in search of a way out.

photo credit: basibanget

Most people seek reassurance at some point or another.  The vast majority of all people did this kind of thing on a regular basis as children.  And when you have an anxiety disorder its almost like we are kids again in the sense that the desire to seek reassurance can be almost automatic. But why is this the case?

photo credit: stevendepolo
photo credit: Torley

Unlike the common cold or the flu anxiety disorders follow a much slower progression.  It could all start with panic attacks, then hypochondria, racing thoughts, palpitations and then, well then depression becomes a real possibility.  After years of being anxious a person can and often will develop depression and I want to detail how one can tell the difference between anxiety and depression.  Let’s start by taking a look at the symptoms for both anxiety disorders and depression.