Said a young guy on a forum:
I have very high anxiety. I overanalyze things, and get caught up in my head a lot, meanwhile, life kinda just passes me by. It’s very difficult for me to be in the moment. When I try to be in the moment, I start analyzing that. It’s an endless cycle. I started doing yoga and meditation, and afterwards, I just felt normal. I still can feel myself overanalyzing things sometimes and I still feel anxiety, (though everyone does) but its in the background. I can still function. It basically makes the anxiety bearable, whereas before, it was absolutely crippling. Meditation and yoga allows me to stay in the moment, be spontaneous and take risks. Before, I just felt like a robot.
The difference is that i’m not in my head. For someone like me, that is a world of a difference.
I always thought my anxiety would disappear after quitting porn, and it definitely went down, but I think I just have some sort of anxiety disorder that isn’t related to porn. Fortunately, I seem to have found a way to deal with it. After the third day of yoga, I felt like I was on a drug, or had a few drinks. I could talk and joke around with strangers and i could stay in the moment and not get into an endless loop of over analysis. Since that day, i’ve decided to do yoga or meditation everyday for at least 30 minutes.
I mentioned during the summer that i took this dating course, which helped, and was approaching girls. I sort of stopped after a while because with my anxiety and over analysis, I just felt like I had no hope. I didn’t know how I could get out of my head. I tried to accept it and just be, and that helped a little, but I wasn’t really happy with that. I just felt so limited. Now, I really feel like the future is bright. Approaching girls suddenly feels like it could produce a benefit because I feel confident that I can interact with girls and get them to date me.
Note that the yoga I am doing is more about mindfulness and not stressful exercise. I read the book “You are not your Brain”, and that may have helped, but a majority of my progress has come from yoga/meditation. I also cut down on the alcohol. I’m more of a social drinker nowadays.
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