Stress Management

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meem
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Stress Management

Post by meem »

Hello,

I have always been someone that deals with anxiety and it literally stops me from doing everyday tasks because of how bad my attacks are. In my current journey of being diagnosed and than thinking its a misdiagnosis and than being diagnosed for sure I have become a person with severe anxiety. I am only 23 years old and not married or in a relationship and I've always hated the unknown. I dont know how to deal with the possibilities of this disease and what a future could look like for me? will I find someone? will I be too sick to raise kids or even have kids? Is it even fair bringing kids into the world in my situation. I tend to not talk about things with my family and friends because it will only break my moms heart more and cause my friends to feel pity for me which I dont want. So going back to my topic ( I ramble a lot as you can see) I was wondering if there is anything any of you did to overcame anxiety and stress? like go to a specific class such as boxing or meditation or something. I tried reading a few books about the disease and a few about general stress and they just made things worse. My "official" diagnosis was only about three months ago but every time I hear about ms or remember it it brings on another anxiety attack.
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NHE
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Re: Stress Managment

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meem wrote:I have always been someone that deals with anxiety and it literally stops me from doing everyday tasks because of how bad my attacks are. In my current journey of being diagnosed and than thinking its a misdiagnosis and than being diagnosed for sure I have become a person with sever anxiety. I am only 23 years old and not married or in a relationship and I've always hated the unknown. I dont know how to deal with the possibilities of this disease and what a future could look like for me? will I find someone? will I be too sick to raise kids or even have kids? Is it even fair bringing kids into the world in my situation. I tend to not talk about things with my family and friends because it will only break my moms heart more and cause my friends to feel pity for me which I dont want. So going back to my topic ( I ramble a lot as you can see) I was wondering if there is anything any of you did to overcame anxiety and stress? like go to a specific class such as boxing or meditation or something. I tried reading a few books about the disease and a few about general stress and they just made things worse. My "official" diagnosis was only about three months ago but every time I hear about ms or remember it it brings on another anxiety attack.
If you haven't read it yet, then I would recommend the book "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life" by Dr. Daniel Amen. Pay particular attention to what he has to say about ANTs or Automatic Negative Thoughts. He discusses ways to develop ANTeaters to help kill the ANTs and put them into perspective. Your local library probably has a copy, though you can read what others have to say about the book on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Brai ... 10190464X/
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lyndacarol
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Re: Stress Management

Post by lyndacarol »

meem wrote:I have always been someone that deals with anxiety and it literally stops me from doing everyday tasks because of how bad my attacks are. In my current journey of being diagnosed and than thinking its a misdiagnosis and than being diagnosed for sure I have become a person with severe anxiety. I am only 23 years old and not married or in a relationship and I've always hated the unknown. I dont know how to deal with the possibilities of this disease and what a future could look like for me? will I find someone? will I be too sick to raise kids or even have kids? Is it even fair bringing kids into the world in my situation. I tend to not talk about things with my family and friends because it will only break my moms heart more and cause my friends to feel pity for me which I dont want. So going back to my topic ( I ramble a lot as you can see) I was wondering if there is anything any of you did to overcame anxiety and stress? like go to a specific class such as boxing or meditation or something. I tried reading a few books about the disease and a few about general stress and they just made things worse. My "official" diagnosis was only about three months ago but every time I hear about ms or remember it it brings on another anxiety attack.
I don't recall that you have posted results for the 25-hydroxy D test (http://www.thisisms.com/forum/under-25- ... ml#p242439) – if you have had this test, please let us know the number results.

You have mentioned that you are in Canada (http://www.thisisms.com/forum/post242987.html#p242987):

The Vitamin D Society
http://www.vitamindsociety.org/

About Us:
The Vitamin D Society is a Canadian nonprofit group organized to:

Increase awareness of the many health conditions strongly linked to vitamin D deficiency.
Encourage all Canadians to be proactive in protecting their health and have their vitamin D blood levels tested annually.
Fund valuable vitamin D research.

97% of Canadians are vitamin D deficient at some point in the year, according to University of Calgary research. Worldwide, an estimated 1 billion people don't get enough of "the sunshine vitamin".


Symptoms of a vitamin D deficiency include anxiety/depression/and other psychiatric conditions. Optic neuritis has also been linked to vitamin D deficiency.

"If you have any of these symptoms or conditions, you could be low on Vitamin D, and it would be advisable for you to have your level checked. The technical name for this test is 25-hydroxy vitamin D, or 25(OH) D. The ‘normal range’ for the result is a value between 30 and 100. An optimal level would be in the 50-70 range, and up to 80-90 is often advised for cancer patients or for certain autoimmune problems." (From BioTechPharmacal https://www.biotechpharmacal.com/blog/2 ... eficiency/ )

I urge you again to see your GP and request this simple, inexpensive vitamin D blood test.
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jimmylegs
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Re: Stress Management

Post by jimmylegs »

short answer, magnesium. make sure your daily intake from food and supplements is suitable for your weight and activity level.

if you have not already done so and can get a serum magnesium test, ensure your result is at *least* 0.90 mmol/L

if you do not already do so, boost magnesium rich foods in diet. know how many mgs of magnesium are delivered in individual food servings.
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... #foodchart

check the form and dose of any magnesium supplement you may currently be taking. they're not all good enough. if you are not supplementing any mag, choose a high quality product. that means NOT magnesium oxide

take epsom salts baths (they are magnesium sulfate crystals or magnesium chloride flakes and you'll absorb the mag through your skin).

if you can, swim in the ocean. the salts in sea water are loaded with magnesium.

personally, in addition to a diet emphasizing magnesium, i top up with a 'magnesium glycinate' supplement. my system can't handle 'magnesium bisglycinate' for some reason. mag glycinate is one that can be taken in quite high daily doses without causing unpleasant laxative effects. because it is highly absorbable, you don't tend to need as many hundreds of mgs either. personally if i take 180mg in a day plus whatever is in my multi, in addition to diet, i'm good. if i try to add a second 180mg capsule in one day, it's too much and my large muscles get a bit over-relaxed and sluggish.

a previous boss of mine started taking mag and other things i had recommended unrelated to stress. then came to me asking if there was anything in what i had recommended that would make her feel calm. for sure the magnesium i said. she said she had thought she had a high-strung high anxiety personality, and had had no idea her day to day experience could change so much with just a bit more of an essential nutrient each day.

one easy option: http://naturalvitality.com/natural-calm/
that one is mag citrate. it's partway between mag oxide and mag glycinate on the solubility spectrum. so too much would likely have a laxative effect before a sluggish muscle effect. i've only personally used one container's worth of the plain, but i hear raspberry lemon and the cherry flavours are popular.

i don't know if this applies everywhere, but i just noticed you can order free samples from the web site to try it out if you feel so inclined.

magnesium status tends to be low in ms patients
low mag reduces your ability to synthesize vit d3 (also low in ms patients) from sunshine. some researchers have suggested that low d3 is a marker of illness. i would say that is more likely the case if low d3 is in part the result of low levels of essential cofactors. in fact, treating low d3 status ONLY with d3 could make a potentially bad cofactor situation worse, even more imbalanced. researchers are starting to look at d3 and magnesium together, but to date it has not been looked at closely and especially not for ms patients in particular.

at the end of the day, could be worth seeing if adding some magnesium to your daily routine helps you :)
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NHE
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Re: Stress Management

Post by NHE »

jimmylegs wrote:take epsom salts baths (they are magnesium sulfate crystals or magnesium chloride flakes and you'll absorb the mag through your skin).

if you can, swim in the ocean. the salts in sea water are loaded with magnesium.
Well, this was a fun calculation. Apparently typical sea water contains 1.295 g/kg magnesium or 1.327 g/L. An Epsom salt bath usually uses 2 cups in a tub of water. The typical tub holds about 35 gallons or 132.5 L. The weight of a cup of Espom salt has been reported to be 244 g. Using the molecular weight of Epsom salt, MgSO4·7H2O, at 246.505 g/mol, there's just 48.12 g Mg in the whole tub or 0.363 g Mg/L. Sea water has a 3.66x greater Mg concentration so that would be the equivalent of putting about 7.3 cups of Epsom salt in a typical tub. So, yes, go swim in the ocean. However, this time of year, unless you're in the southern hemisphere, the Epsom salt will be less expensive than a trip to Maui!

:geek:
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jimmylegs
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Re: Stress Management

Post by jimmylegs »

*cough*NERD*cough* ;) that is awesome actually.

if i was still 10 mins from mettam's pool, i would go there before setting up an epsom salts bath any day. now being on the other side of the globe, and many hours' drive from (VERY COLD) salt water, defs not worth making a special trip. and frankly, i don't even bother with epsom salts baths myself - i stick with food and supplements. it is possible to overdo mag from a bath so if you feel any sluggishness in the muscles when experimenting at concentrations above package directions, you can tweak things to personalize a 'recipe' that works for you.
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meem
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Re: Stress Management

Post by meem »

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the late reply life and ms kind of got in the way for a bit.
NHE wrote: If you haven't read it yet, then I would recommend the book "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life" by Dr. Daniel Amen. Pay particular attention to what he has to say about ANTs or Automatic Negative Thoughts. He discusses ways to develop ANTeaters to help kill the ANTs and put them into perspective. Your local library probably has a copy, though you can read what others have to say about the book on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Brai ... 10190464X/
NHE I have not read that book but I will give it a try even though I find that sometimes I am too stressed out to actually sit down and read something. Thank you for your suggestion :)
lyndacarol wrote:I don't recall that you have posted results for the 25-hydroxy D test (http://www.thisisms.com/forum/under-25- ... ml#p242439) – if you have had this test, please let us know the number results.

You have mentioned that you are in Canada (http://www.thisisms.com/forum/post242987.html#p242987):

The Vitamin D Society
http://www.vitamindsociety.org/

Increase awareness of the many health conditions strongly linked to vitamin D deficiency.
Encourage all Canadians to be proactive in protecting their health and have their vitamin D blood levels tested annually.
Fund valuable vitamin D research.
lyndacarol I do have a vitamin D deficiency and I am taking vitamin D and yes living in Canada I am more likely to be vitamin D deficient but I dont think its the only cause of my symptoms. Thank you for your feedback.
jimmylegs wrote:short answer, magnesium. make sure your daily intake from food and supplements is suitable for your weight and activity level.
Jimmylegs I have actually never heard of any link to magnesium. Thanks for the information I will for sure look into it and ask my doctor about it.
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jimmylegs
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Re: Stress Management

Post by jimmylegs »

no probs :) you might find some interesting research abstracts to look at here:
https://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=emo ... _sdt=0%2C5
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Jimpsull
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Re: Stress Management

Post by Jimpsull »

"A man's spirit sustains him in a time of sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?"

Somewhere in Proverbs
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