Anxiety/PTSD - Where to get help? Pros are too expensive.

[btunney]

Hi

I am here because I have had Anxiety/PTSD from being locked in a room and being whipped and beaten by my father on different occasions. Also my father hit my mother so I grew up thinking it is ok a hit a woman. I lost my first marriage through some similar situations which was back in 1995. I met my current wife and I have been married since 2001. I have bad habits 1. repeat my thoughts over and over again 2. I raise my voice when expressing myself sometimes 3. I am working on my anxieties and worries' without medication ( I am thinking of trying saffron and non controlled substance like lithium etc etc. 4. I have NOT actually hit my current wife but she thinks i have PTSD from my childhood. I have retiring from my job after 20 years and to be honest I believe only God has allowed me to make it this far. I hate some of the people I work with for various reasons but on January 2 2026 I am retired. Thanks be to Jesus.

Does anyone have any suggestions where to start to get help with anxiety groups etc Any professional services are alot of money. I want to take steps to find a level of less anxiety as possible so I have to find out how to take control of my anxiety/PTSD.

Thanks for any ideas/direction/help

 

[Rose White]

Some ideas that come to mind are: meditation groups, self-help books, yoga, church, exercise groups (hiking, tai chi, walking), and art classes. Basically channeling that nervous energy into action, creativity, and mindfulness.

 

[Lost in the Woods]

I take a sub therapeutic dose of Zoloft that immediately removed my frustration. I also take buspirone. Between the two it has removed 90% of my frustration and my swearing stopped immediately. Your regular doc can prescribe. I was resistant to the medication idea and I am glad I gave it a chance.

 

[Sideways]

There’s a number of apps that you can practice CBT skills with to help you learn the skills a pro would teach you for managing anxiety. Short courses in CBT may also be a cheaper option than individual-session therapy.

 

[btunney]

Thank you very much

Some ideas that come to mind are: meditation groups, self-help books, yoga, church, exercise groups (hiking, tai chi, walking), and art classes. Basically channeling that nervous energy into action, creativity, and mindfulnes

 

[btunney]

There’s a number of apps that you can practice CBT skills with to help you learn the skills a pro would teach you for managing anxiety. Short courses in CBT may also be a cheaper option than individual-session therapy.

Thank you

 

[anthony]

CBT skills are your way through this. Not positive thinking BS, but actual skills to review what you think, is it rational or irrational based on your current circumstances, and then how to change your thinking by applying the realistic view of your current circumstances.

Simply, this translates something like this - when I go to the shops I am anxious and hypervigilant because I think someone will attack me. Realistic based on current circumstance - I have been going to the shops for 20 years and have not been attacked.

The realistic circumstance has to become the normal over the unrealistic thoughts creating anxiety and hypervigilance. That is CBT. CBT is not ignoring something that is realistic, ie. someone is trying to attack you or going to attack you (person in vicinity with weapon or directly threatening). People confuse the two and think CBT is some kind of positive thinking BS... it is just taking the irrational and looking at how to change it into rational, logical, thoughts based on the realistic surroundings you live. If you lived in a community where gun crime is nightly, and if you go outside you have a high chance of being robbed or shot, then that is not irrational, but rational, thus any anxiety from that is normal. How you change that, is you have to look at another community that is as affordable, but without the crime.

People confuse what learning CBT is, and how to apply it within their life. Symptoms (anxiety, depression, hypervigilance, etc etc) are often toxic and destructive to us, so we have to change our thinking and sometimes our situation, to remove the toxic from ourselves.