Annoying.

[LanzaDragoonOrta]

After I've dismissed my current symptom (obsession), I get a small sense of urgency about a previous thought or symptom, and I tend to start the cycle over again!  This is so annoying!  Does anyone recommend a solution to manage GAD other than medications?  I've tried the whole medicine thing, and most of the time I felt more depressed than usual and wanted to commit 0119.

[firebird]

After I've dismissed my current symptom (obsession), I get a small sense of urgency about a previous thought or symptom, and I tend to start the cycle over again!  This is so annoying!  Does anyone recommend a solution to manage GAD other than medications?  I've tried the whole medicine thing, and most of the time I felt more depressed than usual and wanted to commit *******.

therapy: cognitive behavioral therapy, pyschotherapy or maybe hypnosis....i know from friends that CBT can be very helpfull to overcome obsessions.

[Xalatimo]

This sound like OCD...the whole start the cycle over thing, its like youve already obsessed, came to a conclusion that this is not worth obsessing over, but still felt the urge to, so you try to think the whole thing through, and you do, and you come to a conclusion..its like a maze..you finally get through the maze and all of a sudden your mind makes you go through it again for no apparent reason, sounds like OCD...since gad and ocd have some similarities i would suggest something to you --- and im not sayin this is gona work 100% but, i used to have gad and ocd pretty badly, and now i have recovered and anxiety does not run my life anymore, yes its there in the background but not like before..anyway, when you get a thought that pops up that you say was a previous thought or symptom, or any intrusive thought, remind yourself that is not a thought that you came up with yourself, and so its not worth the time and effort to go through it, because you already did...so it must be the anxiety causing it, instead of obsessing over the thought and putting all the energy into the thought, i took a step back, and realized that it was the anxiety or the ocd that was causing it...so the thought suddenly became meaningless to me and obsessing over it wouldnt do any good, so i try to just accept the thought instead of fighting it...when you fight the thought and you get all upset, its like the anxiety gets a victory and you feel defeated, and once that happens, the brain senses something wrong and keeps that thought there even longer, then the thought and or symptoms get worse, the cycle begins again.  try to break the cycle dont put any effort into it and remember its anxiety causing it not your own mind.  i know for me, obsessing over the fact i had ocd was better than obsessing over individual thoughts...it helped, and it was a start.  so i replaced every thought with just 1 general 1, i have ocd..this way i dont go from thought to thought and start and restart the cycle over again.  over time, each new intrusive thought that i got meant less and less and less til eventually they barely even got me anxious anymore, cuz i knew in the back of my mind no matter what the thought or symptom was, i would just clump it into 1 category "im thining this cuz i have anxiety so it doesnt matter what the thought is"

maybe its confusing so ill give an example

i get an intrusive thought "maybe i have ms" now, i could go for hours obsessing about this, but if i replace it with "nah, its my ocd" then i wont need to analyze why or why not i have ms

i get an intrusive thought "maybe im dying" i could obsess about this as well and think of reasons why i am, but if i replace it with "nah, its my ocd" then i wont have to analyze reasons why im dying

they all get clumped into the "its my anxiety, or its my ocd" category 

eventually differing thoughts lead up to the same conclusion -- that you have anxiety, so new thoughts dont affect you the same.

this is how i recovered without the help of medication or a therapist, but i know everyone is different

its all in the mind, hope this helps good luck