accepting death so we can live our lives

[ladyK]

Hi everyone, was just watching the Oprah show with guest Paula Deen, who suffered with agoraphobia for over 20 yrs.  She said that it hit one morning that she could take her life back.  She used the serenity prayer to get her started but she says that accepting her own death helped her to start living life to it's fullest.  It must have worked for her because she's gone on to have a successful restaurant, cookbooks and a show on the Food Network and a guest spot on the Oprah Show.  I wonder if sometimes it's just that simple...accept what we cannot change, change the things we can and have the wisdom to know the difference.  Hope this helps someone, it worked for Ms Deen!

Take care, ladyK

[livinthislife]

its absolutely true, this is the single most powerful tool to battling anxiety attacks and agoraphobia, once you accept death the fear is gone.

[gloomy]

Sounds great in theory but notoriously difficult to apply hence the massive amount of money earned by psychologists through CBT.     If the cure for types of anxiety was purely down to the power of positive thought none of us would be here on this site.

[ShootImCrazy]

I suppose it's a bit different from positive thinking though. I don't know, sometimes when I'm in the pit I start thinking "I'm suffering for a reason" and that helps alot. I know for a fact I've become way more compassionate since I've started having these little trips into hell.

You're right about the power of positive thinking crap, gloomy. I always equate the "power of positive thinking" stuff to looking the other way and ignoring the problem. Giving up isn't necessarily ignoring the problem; ideally it's accepting the problem and slogging through it, learning as much as you can along the way.

[lt33]

It seems to be the opposite of positive thinking, at least the usual one. A nice idea, but more like a personal insight than something everybody could apply in their lives.
Still, the thinking seems right, considering how damaging panic and agoraphobia is to people's lives, why not take it all the way even if everything bad happens? I'd surely like to try that soon, to go for all the situations and places I avoid and stay put until they're over or I actually faint/throw up or lose my mind (that's what I fear the most in those situations). I always find myself giving up and "accepting" it when probably nothing would happen except having a really hard time.

Rewinding a bit, there's a depression blog (with news about depression, not a depressed person writing, it's medical and a bit alarming) that has the title Positive Power of Negative Thinking. At last someone found something good in negative thinking. I started dealing better with my negative thoughts since then.

[livinthislife]

its not positive thinking, its accepting your fear validating it and moving on without it.      IT33 try it, this is the only think that has really helped me.once you face your worst fear, and survive it you have conquered it.