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Wow, you're a total BEAST ! I wanted to try shame attacking last year but didn't have the balls to do so.
Do you think the effects still last after that ?
PS : Ah, and welcome by the way.
Thanks for the welcome. I think you find the sufficient motivation to try and tackle your anxiety issues when you get fed up of experiencing the same old destructive feelings over and over again. About 2 weeks ago I had a panic attack (hadn't had one of that severity for a long time) out of nowhere when in a group of friends and acquaintances - ok, I'd had a very unhealthy weekend of booze and hardly any sleep, so that didn't help, but no one else was in a state of mental flight other than me. The following week I could've propelled a rocket into space with my nervous energy, I was completely on edge and definitely felt like I was losing it. As a consequence, I've quit binge drinking forever - it's given me horrible anxiety hangovers for as long as I can remember, so no great loss. Anyway, once I felt relatively normal again, I thought it was time to actually do something rather than just read about ways to deal with SA. The ancient philosophers were always saying you need to put yourself through training in the real world, not just learn the theories, so, I decided to give shame attacking a go. If it's good enough for Zeno of Citium, it's good enough for me. Let's face it, it's easy to find enough people to act stupid in front of, so we've got this technique on tap for whenever we want!
But, very early days for me still, in fact I only did my 3rd exercise today. Basically I wore the same mental looking outfit as yesterday; dressing gown, red bandanna and shades. Parked up, and started strolling up and down a busy road with the usual stares and weird looks from passers by. What I chickened out of yesterday, was actually going into somewhere enclosed, like a shop, dressed like this - that was my main challenge today. So, I walked into a newsagents, put the shades on top of my head, went over to the ice cream freezer and picked myself out a white Magnum. Paid for it and the girl didn't even blink. I ate it outside infront of all the passing traffic, looking suitably crazy I think. Something interesting started to happen though; I was feeling that during the 2nd half of today's exercise like I was actually dressed relatively normally (obviously I wasn't), because I either wasn't noticing the reactions as much, or I just didn't care anymore. That could be an encouraging sign. Continuing with today's story, I initiated a few pleasantries about the weather, people answered back normally, although most avoided eye contact. I saw a guy on a bike riding towards me, so I challenged him to a race and ran alongside him for a bit - he was fine about it! Then I saw an old guy with a walking stick making very slow progress - I chatted to him, to be honest I don't even think he noticed what I was wearing. It turns out he'd fallen and damaged his spine a while ago, and he missed his bus. He was intending to walk a mile and a half but I insisted I gave him a lift in my car which was just parked up the road, so that's what I did! We must've loooked a good pair to oncoming drivers! Anyway, dropped him off and drove back towards home, needed to stop off and get some beers (responsible drinking of course) for later. I was planning to change before going into my most local Tesco, but I thought screw it, so kept on my dressing gown, bandanna and shades, and went in to buy my beers. Again, some double takes and long looks but no one cares. Exercise completed.
Will update tomorrow I expect. Peace.