Jean, God love you.. I am truly impressed with your post and grateful that I
learned from you today... Love, Carla
-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas A Johnson <jtjohnson@juno.com>
To: mol-cancer@lists.meds.com <mol-cancer@lists.meds.com>
Cc: mol-cancer@lists.meds.com <mol-cancer@lists.meds.com>
Date: Thursday, May 14, 1998 1:27 PM
Subject: Re: [MOL] need support today
>Christine,
>
>I am a worrier, too, and here are some of the methods to deal with worry
>that I've either heard about, read about, or tried:
>
>1. Set aside a specific time per day (like 9:00-10:00 p.m., for
>instance) where you will do nothing else except worry. For the rest of
>the day, you must put aside your worries, reminding yourself that you may
>deal with them only at the appointed time.
>
>2. When you start to worry, say a mental "Stop!" and then switch to a
>pleasanter thought.
>
>3. Involve yourself in something that is entirely engrossing, so much so
>that you cannot concentrate on anything else while you're doing it.
>Meditation is excellent. (There's one meditation I saw where you
>visualize yourself putting all of your worries into a huge balloon and
>then letting it float off into the sky.) And I like working jigsaw
>puzzles. It requires rapt attention. Or put your photos into albums.
>Do anything that will require you to shift your focus. Get "The
>Relaxation Response." I haven't read the book yet, but I've used the
>technique. You breathe deeply in and out, slowly counting back from 10
>and progressively relaxation every part of your body until you're
>completely relaxed.
>
>4. Pray. One poem I read was about someone complaining that God didn't
>help him when he asked for help. God replies, "How could I? Whenever
>you turned over the problem to me, you kept taking it back again." How
>true.
>
>5. Ask yourself, "What is the worst thing that could happen?" "Will
>this be important 10 or 20 years from now?" "Is worrying about it going
>to make the outcome any different?" I waste a lot of my energy worrying
>about things. Remind yourself, "God, grant me the serenity to accept the
>things I cannot change, accept the things I can, and the wisdom to know
>the difference." Worry just drags you down further. Also, get a book
>called "The Feeling Good Handbook." It explains distorted thinking like
>tragedizing things, black & white thinking, projecting, personalization,
>etc. There's a blank form in it that you can copy whereby you can
>analyze your thoughts to discover what you own internal dialogue is and
>whether or not you're giving yourself distorted messages. It's
>excellent.
>
>6. Write out your fears in a journal. In fact, make it a dialogue.
>Pretend you are trying to comfort a friend who has these concerns. Write
>out what each of you would say & responses you would give. I bet you'll
>feel better when you're done.
>
>7. I read in one book that a good way to stop the mental loop of
>worrying is to get an answering machine tape and record your fears over
>top of it. Then sit down and overload yourself w/your fears until you
>are sick and tired of hearing them and you become less sensitized to
>those fears, your reaction becomes less strong each time you're
>confronted with your fears. Sort-of like people who are afraid to drive
>across bridges and go ahead & do it anyway until they become less fearful
>and more comfortable.
>
>I'm on medicine for depression right now that also deals with my
>obsessive worrying. It's called Luvox and it seems to help a great deal.
> Of course, you may not have the worrying compulsion that I do. I think
>exercising would help ease your worry, too. At least it would be a
>productive way to work off some of the anxiety and stress.
>
>I hope this doesn't sound too simplified. I don't mean it to be. These
>are just some recommendations from another person struggling with the
>same problem. I've wasted so much of my life worrying about things over
>which I have no control. It's such a waste of energy and time. I will
>pray that you find peace from your fears and anxieties and that
>everything turns out well for you. But will you feel like you spent
>your time wisely when you finally get your mammogram results, be they
>good or bad? Will you feel you were good to yourself by allowing that
>worry to take over your life? Would anything be different because you
>spent so much time worrying about it? Fill yourself with peace. Don't
>let this fear rob you of life and love of life. It is preying on you.
>That is all it is doing. You may not have control over what life deals
>you, but - as many have said on this forum - you have control over how
>you react to it. That's pretty strong stuff.
>
>-Jean
>
>
>
>
>_____________________________________________________________________
>You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
>Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
>Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>This is an automatically-generated notice. If you'd like to be removed
>from the mailing list, please visit the Medicine-On-Line Discussion Forum
>at <http://www.meds.com/con_faq.html>, or send an email message to:
>majordomo@lists.meds.com
>with the subject line blank and the body of the message containing the
line:
>unsubscribe mol-cancer your-email-address
>where the phrase your-email-address is replaced with your actual email
>address.
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an automatically-generated notice. If you'd like to be removed
from the mailing list, please visit the Medicine-On-Line Discussion Forum
at <http://www.meds.com/con_faq.html>, or send an email message to:
majordomo@lists.meds.com
with the subject line blank and the body of the message containing the line:
unsubscribe mol-cancer your-email-address
where the phrase your-email-address is replaced with your actual email
address.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
