# How I overcame anxiety and mental illness



## Stayinsane (Apr 27, 2013)

Hi all,

Will try to keep it brief, have struggled with psychosis and anxiety for most of my life and have finally overcome and recovered from it all. Believe it or not, what helped me the most was cultivating the right attitude. I was always paranoid of what others thought of me and constantly worrying with repetitive thoughts around negative things I feared happening. So I started trying to develop an attitude of "I don't care what you think of me". At first this was very difficult and it took a very long time for this attitude adjustment to take hold and really start to sink in. But once it did, wow it made such a huge difference. I felt there was a need to develop mental toughness and that this could only be achieved by changing my mental attitude. Over time the negative thoughts lessened and I was also trying to notice and stop them, pulling weeds out from the garden so to speak. I sort of made it a rule that every time I noticed a negative thought I would stop it, ignore or dismiss it and think about something else instead. Nowadays my mind is very still, quiet and silent. I no longer have negative thoughts plaguing my mind every second and the thoughts I do have are usually positive or creative in some way.

The medication helped me get to a point where I was stable, but it was also keeping me down in a negative state of mind. So once I had got to the point where I was on minimal dose and still stable I began slowly reducing the medication until I was off it completely. 

I hope this helps you in some way on your own journey to recovery and wish you all the best of luck.


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## john.myles (Nov 13, 2020)

Wow, thanks for sharing that @Stayinsane, I'm real happy you finally overcame your mental hurdles. That's incredible. Very inspiring.&#128591;

I've been attacking my maladaptations with an arsenal of different approaches myself, and I'm slowly getting there, I think. I'm definitely through the darkest times, which is good.

Thanks again.&#128077;


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## KiwiJess (Dec 6, 2020)

I love that you shared a positive success story, I think there is so much we can all learn from them. Everyone has a different way of dealing with anxiety and it's always a journey to find all the different treatment methods that work well for us, personally. Well done on your progress and thank you for sharing!!


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## NotFullyHere (Apr 29, 2018)

Very inspiring indeed! I hope I can overcome anxiety and depression in the near future, we all know how crippling these mental attacks can be in our lives. Thank you for sharing!


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## Sainnot (Feb 6, 2021)

That's interesting - instead of dealing with your own actions, you just thought different thoughts, and that took care of everything. Usually people tell me to work on ACTING differently, but now I will try to THINK differently.


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## JamesHamilton (Feb 9, 2021)

Take a time-out. 
Eat well-balanced meals. 
Limit alcohol and caffeine, which can aggravate anxiety and trigger panic attacks.
Get enough sleep. 
Exercise daily to help you feel good and maintain your health. 
Take deep breaths. 
Count to 10 slowly. 
Do your best.


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