Today I had some major triggers set me off which I chose to take on. I was researching things in my past and most likely dug too deep. I was ok until I got home but then I got a stabbing headache and started shaking. This is a first for me and no matter what I did I couldn't stop it. I sat down for dinner and we had tacos which I had a hard time keeping the food in the shell. I mixed up a stiff drink and that seemed to take the edge off but the shaking continued. I tried to focus on my breathing trying to relax but that did nothing. Are there any tips to get the shakes to stop or do I just have to wait it out?
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How Do I Stop Shaking?
- Post starter Deimos
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intothelight
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Hi Deimos,
The shaking will stop, when the adrenaline stops pumping and gets burned off. If I am really anxious, my whole body can shake like I have Parkinsons. Most of the times it is limited to my hands and arms. If I am really anxious and I can exercise before it gets away from me, that has been the thing that is most helpful with the shaking.
It's annoying, but not permanent. I hope you get some relief from it soon.
Wishing you peace.
Debbie
The shaking will stop, when the adrenaline stops pumping and gets burned off. If I am really anxious, my whole body can shake like I have Parkinsons. Most of the times it is limited to my hands and arms. If I am really anxious and I can exercise before it gets away from me, that has been the thing that is most helpful with the shaking.
It's annoying, but not permanent. I hope you get some relief from it soon.
Wishing you peace.
Debbie
- Post starter
- #3
I will try that next time. I was getting frustrated I think because it was new to me. It was just my arms and if I focused on stopping it in one arm the other would worsen. I kept telling myself its all in my head but that didn't help. Next time I'll try some push ups or something along those lines. Thanks for the tip.
I get the shaking when I feel a strong emotion, like anger. Yes, I assume it's adrenaline-based, fight-flight-freeze response, which is a PTSD response. It's good to try to see what emotion led to that response in the body. If you try to push the emotion away completely, you can feel suspended in that adrenal state. It's good to allow some of the emotion and label it with a thought or word, and let it wash away gradually. Have you tried visualization? You can label the emotion as if it is a yellow ball, and watch it roll slowly down your body, across the room, out the door, and out of sight. This works with physical pain. The mind leads and the body and emotions follow. After you relax and try this a few times with physical pain, it can work with other things. The trick is to get to the point where you are not afriad of it, the emotions and the body's reaction to them.
When I shake now, I accept the emotion and accept myself for having it, and then it goes away. I feel it is my attempt to hold the anger back that causes me to shake. I don't want the anger, and try to repress it. If I accept the anger, it calms.
Muse
When I shake now, I accept the emotion and accept myself for having it, and then it goes away. I feel it is my attempt to hold the anger back that causes me to shake. I don't want the anger, and try to repress it. If I accept the anger, it calms.
Muse
I have panic disorder and I shake like that (so annoying, makes me resemble a leaf). Even long before or after an attack sometimes. I think it's just because my body stays at an elevated anxiety level for a while--not enough to constitute any sort of attack. I usually just wait out the shaky bit (and yours may very well be over by the time you see this post). When I do want to actively stop I have to count my breathing (inhale...1,2,3,4...exhale,1,2,3,4), breathe with my stomach not my chest, and concentrate on not shaking. If you can really focus on being still and sit through the really high level of discomfort that comes from not allowing your body to instinctually react to the signals being released by your amygdala the discomfort will ease in a few minutes, at least for me.
Feel better!
Feel better!
- Post starter
- #7
Thanks guys! Now I have a few ways to combat this. Muse, you might be on to something because it definatly started after trying to suppress anger. It was anger that I haven't experienced since shortly after my trauma which was 17 years ago. Almost more rage than anything. I wonder if my ball I stick it to could be black and instead of it rolling out the house I just kick the crap out of it. I was in a mindset that I wanted to help my abuser (and countless others like him) meet his maker but I know if I do then I'm no better than him. I guess therapy is working because anger comes out and I process it.
Deimos,
I am right there with you. The shaking came with the released anger that I've held for 30 years toward my abuser. Then, when any significant anger surfaces, I shake some more and sometimes feel cold, too. As you said, therapy brings it all up to the surface, and the body will react to it. Why not? It's waited a long time to have it's say.
Now that it finally is getting the attention it deserves, It's going to get up on stage and dance; anger wants to move us. We feel compelled to take action, get revenge.
But yes, I have to keep telling myself that if I allow what evil people have done to determine my choices, then I will become evil, too. And I won't allow them to destroy me.
Besides, it won't release the anger. It will just add remorse and self-loathing to the pile. Instead, I try to detach from my self a bit and look at what I'm doing here on earth from a more spiritual perspective.
I see a hurting person, but a strong and compassionate person, someone who stands up for right and clearly sees the wrong. She finally can say "You hurt me," and push the bad people far away. She starts to allow feelings and to work through them. She is healing her wounded inner child, which is like having a new baby in house, one that cries daily and has so much unmet need. She feels the rage of that child sometimes so deeply that it frightens her, and she wonders how one person can contain THAT MUCH RAGE without actually having rabbies or taking PCP. The years of neglect and abuse take on perspective, and I no longer see it as something to avenge so much as something to grieve. Have to get down to the pain, below the anger, and allow that such pain is part of my earliest experiences, and that I survived the pain. I am strong.
Then I remember that I am and have always been me, and that if I could handle the anger up to this point, I can certainly still deal with it now. Somehow, accepting that it's there and will always be there to draw from, like a retirement account, allows it to settle from a rolling boil to a simmer, which alllows me to get on with my life.
I am right there with you. The shaking came with the released anger that I've held for 30 years toward my abuser. Then, when any significant anger surfaces, I shake some more and sometimes feel cold, too. As you said, therapy brings it all up to the surface, and the body will react to it. Why not? It's waited a long time to have it's say.
Now that it finally is getting the attention it deserves, It's going to get up on stage and dance; anger wants to move us. We feel compelled to take action, get revenge.
But yes, I have to keep telling myself that if I allow what evil people have done to determine my choices, then I will become evil, too. And I won't allow them to destroy me.
Besides, it won't release the anger. It will just add remorse and self-loathing to the pile. Instead, I try to detach from my self a bit and look at what I'm doing here on earth from a more spiritual perspective.
I see a hurting person, but a strong and compassionate person, someone who stands up for right and clearly sees the wrong. She finally can say "You hurt me," and push the bad people far away. She starts to allow feelings and to work through them. She is healing her wounded inner child, which is like having a new baby in house, one that cries daily and has so much unmet need. She feels the rage of that child sometimes so deeply that it frightens her, and she wonders how one person can contain THAT MUCH RAGE without actually having rabbies or taking PCP. The years of neglect and abuse take on perspective, and I no longer see it as something to avenge so much as something to grieve. Have to get down to the pain, below the anger, and allow that such pain is part of my earliest experiences, and that I survived the pain. I am strong.
Then I remember that I am and have always been me, and that if I could handle the anger up to this point, I can certainly still deal with it now. Somehow, accepting that it's there and will always be there to draw from, like a retirement account, allows it to settle from a rolling boil to a simmer, which alllows me to get on with my life.
ClairBear226
Platinum Member
I'm with ya too, Deimos. And it's new to me, so I've been at a loss. I'm not usually an anxious person at all, and suddenly I'm having all sorts of symptoms that point in that direction. When I'm getting the shakes, it's coupled with feeling nausea and/ or stomach pain, feeling like I can't catch my breath, and my heart feeling like it's racing double time. Can we say fight or flight? For Pete's sake, I understand the physiology behind it quite nicely, but that does absolutely nothing to make it stop. I wound up tearing apart my bedroom closet today on a crazed freaky cleaning spree, like I was possessed. But it was the only thing I could think of to do to get rid of it. Good news is, my closet looks awesome. Bad news - it still took HOURS before I could shake it. And now I'll never find anything in there again. It's too damned organized.
- Post starter
- #11
ClairBear226
Platinum Member
Lol, I won't say a WORD! Especially since my garage needs cleaned out too!
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