The reason that I am writing this is because it is advice that I have given many many friends and I know that it works. The principle is simple. Your subconscious has a lot of stuff in it that creates dreams, thoughts, daydreams, even nightmares and weird sensations. It doesn't mean you are a nutter. It means that you have a normal subconscious that works without you participating in its function.
Many shrinks have thought that all of these subconscious thoughts relate to childhood and maybe some of them do, but we have one life and if we live in the past, we harm today. Today is the beginning of the rest of your life. If you go on blaming past events for unhappiness and nervous ailments, sometimes you are right, but sometimes you are not.
A way that you can test my theory is to try my method for a couple of weeks and see how you do. I am not suggesting anyone who is on prescribed medication stops it without the advice of a doctor. I am just saying there are a lot of unhappy people out there that don't need to be so unhappy. My system works well.
First
Decide that you want to make your life less stressful. Decide that you will stick to it for at least two weeks. What is two weeks when compared with a lifetime of stress and self doubt. It will be worthwhile.
Second
Start a diary. You can either download one from download.com, or you can make a word document. It doesn;t matter. What matters is that you are the only person with access to it. There are online diaries as well which you cannot access without a password. One of my ops describes one of these. Use this if there is any chance anyone will read what you are writing.
Third
In the morning when you wake, before you do anything else, turn on the computer, and go to that private place and write exactly what is going through your mind. Do not make it up. Do not preconceive it. Just put your fingers on the keyboard and type whatever your mind tells you to type. It may be angry thoughts, it may be the remains of a dream, it may make no sense whatsoever, but all these things are from waking and the moment you wake they are clearer because the day has not had time to mess them up.
In conjunction with this
At the same time as you are doing your two week tryout, look at events in your current life that are negative. You must have heard about the half full or half empty glass. People who are pessimists view the glass as half empty. Those who are optimists, view it has half full. Take these thoughts one by one, one a day if you like - there is no pressure to really work at all on this, but when you have a negative thought about your life, turn it into a positive one. Example : I am too fat. Instead of thinking "I am too fat", thing "I am a nice person inside and that's what matters". Change every day and believe it. Every negative thought has a positive side to it. Get used to using it.
I am not capable of doing this - I can try my best.
I am not as pretty as I would like to be - people accept me as I am.
I am too pressured at work - I cope very well taking one step at a time.
Make all these negatives into positives. After a while it actually becomes a habit and a good one as long as in your thinking you never make yourself a selfish person and continue to consider other people because that will give you even more negatives.
Example :
I'm not cooking his breakfast. He can do it himself.
Tell yourself. I am cooking his breakfast because I love him and want to make him feel loved.
Find all the positive things within yourself because they are there.
I have had one of the most traumatic lives that I know of. That might sound odd but I am not going into detail here, but my survival has depended on staying a believer in the good things in life, and getting rid of the negative.
So in all, all you have to do is type a page a day of anything that comes out of your head, be is rubbish, be it dreams, but do not make it anything specific. Just sit at the computer at let it happen. No preconceived thoughts. That is not the same thing.
Change negative thoughts for positive ones, and believe me it will work with constant practice. This helps to keep negative thoughts at bay, which in turn helps anxiety levels. Anxiety and panic attacks are caused by not being in control. By practicing these methods, you regain control of your life, and are able to deal with them when they happen, because your mind is in a better state to do so.