ADD, Emotions, and Anxiety | ADHD Information

 I know I have anxiety problems, infact before getting the ADD diagnosis I was said to have generalized anxiety.  Treating ADD actually reduced much of the anxiety.  I never had a so called anxiety attack, as when you feel like you are having a heart attack, but I did and still do get that restless going to explode feeling.  If I can arrange it, i find that exercise is the best treatment for anxiety.  However, in the past I delt with it by getting really intoxicated or doing something to get me in trouble.  I am going to try your writing technique.  I just need to stop and do it before I get into the trouble stage.

[QUOTE=ladyhope]Do you often have the time to write about what is going on inside your head when you're suffering these anxiety attacks?[/QUOTE]

It's not really an anxiety attack (that term sounds pretty severe).  I'm just talking about a feeling of uneasiness.  Anxiety can result from you being out of touch with your feelings and by journaling you can slow down and connect with those feelings and determine the cause for the way you're feeling.

YES. I get derailed a lot, without realizing it. When I try to work through something, bills for example. I'm crunching numbers and trying to organize my money and I don't realize that I've stopped thinking about what I'm doing.  I just feel like I've stalled and I don't know what to do next. Something similar happens during conversations. Someone may say something that is covertly insulting, for example, and I won't realize what has happened. I just get this unclarified "off balance" sense. I'm much better at recognizing this feeling now than I used to be. It's good that you take the time to sort it out on paper. Sometimes I feel silly about all the things I have to write down in order to sort out. Things that normal paople can keep in their heads, but whatever works. If I don't write down my grocery list, I won't buy anything.

Writing has always helped me. But, that's when I can remember to do it. I usually have to be in a lot of turmoil before I'll apply any of the things that actually makes me comfortable. The drs. say that I have a mild anxiety, but I take addrell for the adhd which hieghtens the anxiety.  Somedays it's just not fun to be me.

Do you often have the time to write about what is going on inside your head when you're suffering these anxiety attacks?  I think your idea is great, but I mostly do not, or cannot write about stuff when I'm suffering from, what I call, a panic attack (which is anxiety).  Probably because I'm not in a place to sit down and write out how I feel.One problem I've realized I have is that because my mind pops all over the place and I constantly find myself on tangets, sometimes don't recognize my emotions when they happen.  What I get instead is anxiety (a feeling that something is wrong (or out of place), but I can't put a finger on it.)

I've found if I take a second to write about what's going on inside my head, it forces me to slow down and think about what I'm feeling.  When I do take the time to do this, the anxiety goes away and I end of feeling centered and in control.

I guess what I'm describing is a method to cure the anxiety you may feel due to the fact that your emotions may get caught in the background noise of all the other channels that are switched on inside your mind.