6 months update

There are 6 months since I started this blog and 1 year of therapy (no anxiety-related medication) and I see major improvements.

Anxiety is still here, but it has no steam. It really is like a roller coaster ride: gets me up or down quickly, a bit dizzy and nauseated at times, but 5 minutes later (or an hour... or a day), the ride stops and things are fine again. I am still shy around new people, avoiding to make phone calls, not sleeping when something good or bad happens, etc. but it lasts only one night, or a finite amount of time, I know exactly what it is, and I have the luxury of rationing through it. Whenever I get too angry, overly upset or too happy, I just question what caused this and I talk myself through being rational about it.

I am even more thrilled with my physical health. Everyday I am amazed at how well I am doing. Last year I used to have high blood pressure (mild, but still, without medication it would get into 130/100). I now take no medication and my blood pressure is around 115/75. I get spikes into the 80s when I am anxious or excited (like posting comments on other people's blogs ;o) ).

My recent diagnosis with ulcerative colitis has been an immense relief for me. Yes, it is a chronic disease, but it is manageable. I didn't feel really well for a very long time, and I always thought it was the anxiety that was causing it. Isolating the real problem made me me feel better (with medication) and relax about the anxiety messing up my life.

So I am very much OK with where I am... I did very well, I got very far. What is the miracle? What did I do? I did therapy, exercise regularly (aerobics for 45 minutes 3-5 times a week and yoga 2-3 times a week) and blogged. I also read a lot (LOL - I knew I was doing better when I put all my psych books back on the shelf and swore that I will not read another one for another year at least).

I hope that over the next couple of weeks I will be able to describe how each of these was beneficial for me, but all in all, I just attacked the anxiety with as many weapons as I could (other than medication) and I eventually won. I guess that how everything can be resolved in life.