I have had insomnia for over a decade, often triggered by a panic attack. My attacks involved some sort of financial worry, did I pay for this credit card, did I pay for that, can we afford this. Two years ago I lost my job and decided to go back to school instead of taking my old job back at half the pay. I'm still in school and getting closer to finishing my goal.
Somewhere in the middle of the last ten years I have learned a little about cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT. I didn't know I was doing this on my own until I got through Psyc 1 and 2, but its a pretty simple concept and simple to try out. When you realise your having a panic attack try to focus in on what triggered it, often it a irrational fear of something bad happening. Normally for me a possible scenario starts things off, like losing my wife, home, job, truck, tools, or whatever. Then I started focusing on what happens to us after that bad stuff happens and this is where it can get weird. My heart rate spikes, then the sweat and the spinning.
This is when you need to kick your higher brain into gear, you say to yourself, Okay..I'm losing my job..but my wife has a good job and is doing well, she said don't take the crap job back and finish school. A few months in..my wife still looks at me like she always did..maybe even better..I'm doing something hard something most people don't have the balls to do.. the lights are on the fridge has food the dogs have food.. so far so good.. maybe you say I still have my tools and someone just called and asked me to come out and fix something. Focus on even the smallest positive stuff.
Then remember that God has us in his hands, and in the end as long as you can draw air into your lungs you still have a chance. God has continued to be faithful my wife and I, even though we so often fall short of offering the same faith back to him. This time is hard, it gets old staying at home so much, and its hard as hell to watch your wife get up every morning and go to work. In the end this path I'm on and the path you are on will be the path to something much better.
Make good use of the free time, try to not drink too much, that can get hard when you got nothing else going on. Remember you are still a man, and in the end we need very little to survive. We only need air to breath, shelter, some food and water. After that you can rebuild yourself into anything you want. CBT is all about looking at whatever triggered your panic attack and saying, "this scenario is BS" its not going to go this way. Even if it got bad I have all the tools I need to survive.
A bible verse that helps me is John 11 verse 4 " “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” This sickness could be replaced with this job loss, this divorce, this foreclosure... Jesus brought a stinking rotting corpse back to life...he can bring you back from your own sickness, and in the end glorify him.."and that's good stuff"
Somewhere in the middle of the last ten years I have learned a little about cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT. I didn't know I was doing this on my own until I got through Psyc 1 and 2, but its a pretty simple concept and simple to try out. When you realise your having a panic attack try to focus in on what triggered it, often it a irrational fear of something bad happening. Normally for me a possible scenario starts things off, like losing my wife, home, job, truck, tools, or whatever. Then I started focusing on what happens to us after that bad stuff happens and this is where it can get weird. My heart rate spikes, then the sweat and the spinning.
This is when you need to kick your higher brain into gear, you say to yourself, Okay..I'm losing my job..but my wife has a good job and is doing well, she said don't take the crap job back and finish school. A few months in..my wife still looks at me like she always did..maybe even better..I'm doing something hard something most people don't have the balls to do.. the lights are on the fridge has food the dogs have food.. so far so good.. maybe you say I still have my tools and someone just called and asked me to come out and fix something. Focus on even the smallest positive stuff.
Then remember that God has us in his hands, and in the end as long as you can draw air into your lungs you still have a chance. God has continued to be faithful my wife and I, even though we so often fall short of offering the same faith back to him. This time is hard, it gets old staying at home so much, and its hard as hell to watch your wife get up every morning and go to work. In the end this path I'm on and the path you are on will be the path to something much better.
Make good use of the free time, try to not drink too much, that can get hard when you got nothing else going on. Remember you are still a man, and in the end we need very little to survive. We only need air to breath, shelter, some food and water. After that you can rebuild yourself into anything you want. CBT is all about looking at whatever triggered your panic attack and saying, "this scenario is BS" its not going to go this way. Even if it got bad I have all the tools I need to survive.
A bible verse that helps me is John 11 verse 4 " “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” This sickness could be replaced with this job loss, this divorce, this foreclosure... Jesus brought a stinking rotting corpse back to life...he can bring you back from your own sickness, and in the end glorify him.."and that's good stuff"
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