Dennis Simsek > Quotes

“you pick up new habits and let go of anxiety, you’re going to start to realize that instead of being so tightly knit with yourself there’s more to life than just you. The amazing thing is, this takes lots of pressure and tension off. Once you understand this, you’ll find that not only do you have enormous momentum towards the goal you want to get to, but you’re also becoming much more conscious of your surroundings. Not only that, you might even start to help other people in need which will give you such a feeling of accomplishment that it will become addicting and next thing you know you will have turned into a caring outgoing person rather than a grumpy anxious ogre afraid to go out into the world.”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All

“Once you pay attention to those feelings, you can turn them around and begin to improve your overall outlook. Knowing what causes your negative feelings can work a great deal towards ending the cycle of Generalized Anxiety Disorder and panic attacks. What drove me to the ER were one of the two different kinds of anxiety symptoms I experienced throughout a day―there were the lingering kind such as a lump in the throat feeling, more commonly known as Globus Hystericus, or the dizzy feeling of literally feeling like you’re walking in a dream and no one can really see or hear you. Or there were the sudden symptoms in the form of a heart palpitation that seemed to rise from nowhere and scared the life out of me, or the numbness/tingling in my arms that led me to always think a stroke was right around the corner, but as always I was wrong again...thankfully.”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All

“As Anthony Robbins said, where focus goes energy flows. When the focus is off, whether or not your mental health is getting better or not, and is put towards physically helping and inspiring others to be better than their yesterdays (the main reason I now believe I’m on this planet). When you do that, suddenly a huge weight gets completely taken off your shoulders and a feeling of accomplishment and gratitude takes its place. But it wasn’t until I stopped looking for the cure that I thought was in the outer world that I started to overcome my worries and fears.”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All

“My emotions, as they were happening, were just signals that I needed to react to the current situation. What I’ve learned is that I needed to read the emotion and react accordingly, which I wasn’t. If I was feeling scared, for example, I should have looked at the root cause of that emotion, not the situation I was in at that moment. All main emotions have secondary emotions that are usually causing them. I should have tried to understand what secondary emotions might be coming into play at any time that was causing me to feel upset or anxious. You are never feeling an emotion “for no reason.” There is usually a trigger that you experienced that set off a secondary emotion, which then builds up with all of the other feelings you have been supressing, and this causes an emotional reaction that seems out of sync with what you are experiencing. The key here is to be aware of those deep-seeded underlying secondary emotions that are causing whatever negative feelings you are having, and deal with those feelings first.”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All

“To take control of your thoughts, then to have those new empowering thoughts turn into positive action in your life is extremely important. It may be one of the biggest tools I’ve used to conquer my anxiety.”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All

“As you pick up new habits and let go of anxiety, you’re going to start to realize that instead of being so tightly knit with yourself there’s more to life than just you. The amazing thing is, this takes lots of pressure and tension off. Once you understand this, you’ll find that not only do you have enormous momentum towards the goal you want to get to, but you’re also becoming much more conscious of your surroundings. Not only that, you might even start to help other people in need which will give you such a feeling of accomplishment that it will become addicting and next thing you know you will have turned into a caring outgoing person rather than a grumpy anxious ogre afraid to go out into the world.”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All

“Many people think it is the fear of death that perpetuates health anxiety, but I believe that that is just a cover-up to the fear of revealing our true identities and living life to the fullest. This is where making peace with the unknown becomes so critical.”
― Dennis Simsek, The Essential Guide To Health Anxiety

“Fear distorts our sense of what reality really is. It takes over our thoughts and drains us of our energies. The important thing to recognize again though is that fear is in everybody; everyone walking this earth now and in the past have faced the different faces of fear from time to time. The only difference is some have made a decision to not let fear of something control their lives, and others let fear control many aspects of how they live their lives. In people living with panic and GAD, fear is a constant, but rarely ever manifests into reality. Anxious people give way too much respect to a fearful thought, and therefore it grows in strength and eventually becomes chronic, we start to avoid anything and everything because of the negative result that may occur if we attempt to take part.”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All

“Health anxiety can make a sane person feel insane, a healthy person feel sick, and a loved person feel unloved.”
― Dennis Simsek, The Essential Guide To Health Anxiety

“How will you know when you have fully recovered? When your body has had enough rest and nourishment that your energy is back and chronic fatigue is not an issue anymore. When your fearful thoughts (which may continue to creep in) don’t send you into the anxious cycle, and you can brush them off knowing that your past has given you enough information that the thing you fear most will not come true. This is just another false alarm. When you stop giving attention to those false alarms, then the many faces of anxiety will recede. When you begin to stop just THINKING positive, thinking that this alone will turn things around. Action is the main element that will turn your anxiety disorder around, in my struggles I was the most anxious positive person ever, but I kept telling myself lies such as things are getting better, things are getting better...THINGS ARE NOT GETTING BETTER, telling yourself the truth that things are not ok and this is not all there is to life, will get you to take massive action and celebrate the smallest victories. When you start taking responsibility for your anxiety disorder. Certain factors such as your childhood environment may actually be a reason for your anxiety disorder that you are experiencing right now, but in the end when you begin to take responsibility for your issues you instantly stop playing the blame game and stop being the victim. Once you take the power back into your own hands, you will begin to recognize that you ALWAYS have a choice in the matter, it just takes time to recondition yourself until desensitization begins. When your thoughts, emotions and physical body are in sync. It may seem that at the moment your thoughts are running out of control, you’re emotionally unstable and you may feel completely fatigued or scared to partake in a daily exercise routine because of fear due to your heart. Once these three things are aligned and the daily struggle to have clear thoughts, to try so hard to be upbeat and the fear of exercising is gone, days feel enjoyable and easy for you again. No more fight or flight out of the blue and no more sweating the small stuff.”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All

“An important lesson can be learned from Robbins’ experience on the race track. If your focus is constantly on what you don’t want, then guess what you’re going to get more of? What you don’t want! Change your focus to what you do want, but not only when things are easy and your anxiety is at a reasonable level. It is more important to do this when you are feeling like you’re in a tough situation and there’s no way out. Those are times when you need to say to yourself, “Ok, I’m not feeling great and I feel like my anxiety is rising to an uncontrollable level. I have a choice: to focus on stopping it quickly (which doesn’t work) so I don’t have to go through this cycle again, or to focus on how these feelings have not killed me in the past and won’t kill me this time either.” This way the fear starts to fade and along with the fear, your negative thoughts and bodily sensations with it.”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All

“good and the bad – as ridiculous as that sounds. When anxiety starts to beat you up mentally and physically, stand up to it and realize that these thoughts and feelings are here now, but soon they will be gone. Nothing is stronger than your own will. If you draw enough strength like I talked about in the last chapter, as well as having the attitude of “I’m feeling awful now but deep down I know I’m on the right track. I have the tools to move through this in the end.” You will move through it in the end, and when you do, you’ll look back and laugh at the way you once were.”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All

“I’ve been in a rut going from doctor to doctor and from one website to the other, in that cycle of panic and anxiety, not really sticking to anything for a long enough time to develop confidence in that new habit. It was really important to me not to judge my progress from one day to the next. Realising first that I was in this for the long run and looking forward with confidence was a must. Setbacks will occur as you continue on to your path to full recovery, so take a second and take a longer look at your own cabinet if in fact you were addicted the way I was.”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All

“All power is from within and is therefore under our control.” I”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All

“Also a good B complex vitamin taken with food can help support neurotransmitters in the brain that are responsible for stress management, and have worked well along with the new changes in my day to day life. Herbs are also a good way to fight mild to moderate Anxiety levels. Unfortunately my anxiety levels were so high that herbs didn’t do much for me, but they are definitely worth experimenting with. Kava Kava is a fast acting de-stressor that also acts as a joint pain reliever. Valerian Root is a good remedy for moderate anxiety and can be used to treat nervousness, insomnia, and high blood pressure. Finally, Chamomile, which is best used in tea form and is great for its calming influence on the mind, especially for people who have trouble sleeping.”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All

“I remember taking my family for granted. How could someone turn into such a mute and unloving human being when you have such a beautiful partner as I did and a new born son? Because the world was about “me” and I was in desperate need for attention from myself all the time just in case I lost control of my thoughts and the panic cycle got out of control again, but I had already lost control and didn’t even know it.”
― Dennis Simsek, Me VS Myself: The Anxiety Guy Tells All