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From someone that often is PARALYSED due to fear and anxiety: take that walk

This morning I started to recognise the familiar symptoms of an anxiety attack, that usually leads me to be completely unable to function. I have my resources and I can handle them (anxiety/panic attacks), even if they cause me an immense amount of pain, both physically and emotionally. But there’s one thing I was never ever able to do, that people often told me would help: put on comfortable clothes and take a walk, go outside and breathe, get the fuck out of your room. I thought I would never been able to do that, never. “I am not strong enough, it may be good for others, but me? I’m weak, I cannot function, something bad might happen, my body is not my ally in these cases”. I guess I was wrong, and I’m so happy to admit I was wrong. I said to myself, when those symptoms arised this morning: “ok, breathe, it’s just the same familiar stuff you know very well. Now, you can deal with it, even if you’re scared. But this time, why don’t you try something different? For just one time, allow yourself to react by moving your body, try to show your mind that there are other ways to deal with this”. I was scared as fuck, but I did it. And I discovered another part of myself that I thought wasn’t there. My body, this time, wasn’t against me…and maybe it never was, the poor thing was just trying to adapt to the comfort zone that stillness represented. I am incredibly strong, so much more than what I thought. And if someone needs to hear this: YOU ARE TOO.

@veronjque

Jan 25, 2025

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exposure therapy

today i worked up the courage to do something i’ve had hundreds of panic attacks over, and that i’ve been avoiding for SEVEN years. and to my surprise it was like…. nbd??? like so much so that i was shocked into dissociating lol but a win is a win i am very proud of myself. huge day for milk nation ❗️

@milkbags

Dec 20, 2024

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Finding comfort in a movie that matches your anxiety

I’m not sure how old I was when my family rented Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” but I never forgot certain images from it: crows gathering on the playground; seagulls blotting out the blue sky over a children’s birthday party; a farmer staring straight into the camera lens (straight at me) through bloody spaces where his eyes should have been. It was probably somewhere around the attack on the schoolchildren that I left the room, and I never returned to finish The Birds until this year, following a trip up to Bodega Bay, where the film is set (only about an hour or so from where I now live). Bodega Bay seems proud of its legacy as the backdrop of this enduring story of avian mayhem. And there was a certain charm to the place that made the idea of The Birds seem more whimsical than terrifying. So, I decided it was probably time to finish what I started all those years ago. Two things surprised me: The first was how a movie with such a ridiculous premise, one that is so easy to mock and seems ripe for parody, still delivers a palpable feeling of uncanny dread. And second, what a near perfect representation this film is of certain feelings I’ve had in the year since I arrived in northern California. I recently began having anxiety attacks for the first time in nearly fifteen years. My struggles with anxiety and depression were a more immediate presence in my life when I was young, but with time and support and insight, their looming presence has lessened. The circumstances and pressures that caused these forces to return with such immediacy into my life is not the point of this post. What I want to get at here is something that is known by many fans of horror films, but might seem strange to those who steer clear of them altogether, and ask questions like “why the hell would you decide to scare yourself when life is frightening enough already?” It’s a good question, and one that I think takes more than one person to adequately answer, but for my part - at this moment in my life when panic and fear seem closer at hand, and my ability to control them feels too often outmatched - it can be truly comforting to recognize my emotional and psychological experiences within a piece of art. As someone familiar with anxiety as both a steady presence and a sudden consuming one, I find it calming to watch those same sensations unfold on a screen in the elevated scenarios of genre fiction. I can turn to psychology and therapy and neuroscience to better understand these feelings, but horror, when done well (and hell even when done charmingly poorly), offers scale models of these experiences, safe and even entertaining ways to engage with them, and in so doing, lessen the threat they pose. There are many layers to the appeal of horror, but to see certain heightened feelings reflected back at you is certainly one of them. They can tell you, now and then and in indirect and fantastic and even silly terms, that you are not the only one who feels this way. More in my substack “Angle On”

@withnickotte

Oct 25, 2024

Top Recs from @ikhk5087

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CAN WE BE SO FR

i'm in community college rn, i had a rough time in high school so i figured id do two catchup/gen ed years before finishing up my degree at a 4 year. we all know its college app season/college result season and oh my god guys i keep seeing these high schoolers shooting for 8% acceptance rate universities and not settling for anything less. like i get it, i do. but am i the only one whos seeing an uptick of kids just applying places just to say they got in ? i feel like i ask a lot of these people about what they want to do/what they're passionate about and why they're majoring in what they're majoring in and they just give me a blank stare. can we PLEASE normalize saving money and taking your time ? you have the rest of your life to work and be miserable paying taxes and pulling your weight at a 9-5. there's literally no shame in community, and I'm so sick and tired of people thinking there is. if you don't know what you want to do, you're allowed to take the time to get there. it's honestly worse to settle on a mediocre major that you don't particularly like just to get your degree faster and say you graduated on time. high school really doesn't give you the time to decide these things so once you reach adulthood it's your responsibility to allocate your time towards it. i really want to see more kids soul searching in a meaningful and responsible way. and if you know what you wanna do and you got into your 8% acceptance rate dream school, more power to you. I'm just saying that seeing a case like that is rare these days and people deserve the time to think and absorb their new responsibilities.

@ikhk5087

Mar 19, 2025

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PEPPERMINT TEA !!!

avid peppermint tea fan. i operate on a nervous stomach and overactive nervous system - peppermint tea is my saving grace basically. however trader joes put out "candy cane" peppermint tea bags that are seasonal only so i can't find them anymore :( other brands just sort of taste medicinal. not that that's a problem for me since i don't drink it so much for flavor but i actually liked the taste of their packets. i used my last one today. rip. good drink tho UPDATE I HAVE ANOTHER PACK !! WOO HOO

@ikhk5087

Mar 10, 2025

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ZOMBIEBOY BY LADY GAGA

i'm so serious this song is actually insanely catchy. not my choice genre of music but gaga has this magical countenance to her where she literally never misses and always ends up putting out something culturally significant. I COULD BE YOUR TYPE FROM YOUR ZOMBIE BITE !!

@ikhk5087

Mar 12, 2025

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