Dealing with anxiety in a scary world

Hey everybody!

Wow is it just me or is the world getting crazier? Here in the UK we have had a concert in Manchester bombed and now stabbings and people hit with a van in London…I am in a small town but I have friends all over and who knows where the next attack is going to come from?

Now I know this will go against the first sentence I wrote up there, but I in fact do not think the world is getting crazier. I have lived through the IRA attacks, I have seen bombings and shootings and wars all over the world and I ask myself, when will we learn? People seem to be nastier and more outspoken, maybe because of the internet or maybe the internet has just given nasty people an outlet?

Either way for me personally seeing that nothing has changed leaves me quaking in my boots afraid to go out of the house to walk my dog and feeling very small and scared. I have been diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, which is characterised by WIKIPEDIA as:

“Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry, that is, apprehensive expectation about events or activities. … These symptoms must be consistent and ongoing, persisting at least six months, for a formal diagnosis of GAD.”

I have had this my whole life and was diagnosed about six years ago with it by a therapist who gave me a lot of coping mechanisms and tips and tricks to learn to live with it. In the last few years, I have worked hard to be able to go on short walks with Gizmo alone, and to be able to speak to people in shops etc.

However, these attacks have sent me scurrying back into my home to hide away, the thought of going away to London for a convention is in question and I feel like terror is really setting me back. The problem is that these evil people can strike at any time, we do not know who they are or when they are doing this which is why it is such a shock when it happens. I am worried that this will undo all the hard work I have put in and I really do not want that to happen.

I am hoping that I can set myself small goals, and use logic to try and stop myself slipping backwards, and I can only pray that these attacks stop soon. I hope we as humans can be good and can learn from the past, I do not understand war and I never want to know it all we can do is put our faith in the government to keep us safe and to protect us.

Stay safe everyone

Namaste xxx

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