Anxiety, urgency, and dread as an Indie Hacker
I am a pretty anxious person and am still learning to deal with it.
Most of the time I have a feeling of urgency, sometimes a bit of dread, and I think I cope poorly by reacting negatively to these kinds of internal sensations, becoming more sensitive to them and feeding the cycle.
Some feelings I have, or perhaps rationalizations of my prefrontal cortex to whatever is going on in my reptile brain, are:
- I don't understand how the economy works and need to make sense of it before I can be profitable
- I need to make sure society is gonna keep working so I have an environment to do business in
- I need everyone to be paid fairly so people have money to spend on my creations
I think a healthy amount of stress is good and keeps you moving, but I'd rather avoid being too worried all the time and feeling sick and rushed.
How do you guys handle these feelings? How do you get the message through to the ancient parts of your brain that you're not in danger and just want to see how much you can achieve in one lifetime?
Tangent on meditation: I haven't taken meditation seriously because of it being so trendy and me being a pretty skeptical guy (also lazy), but I just might start a daily practice of a few minutes and see how that goes.
I did try it briefly and still do from time to time, but I don't really feel comfortable (I start looping over whether I'm doing it right, and feeling worse, which kind of convinced me meditation wasn't necessarily good for everyone).
Hi, Marcos!
I feel what you feel completely. From time to time I have some kind of protracted panic attacks, I even can't sleep well sometimes, because I always think about anything, which even could be not connected with me. It's extremely important for me to control everything around me.
What is funny-that I may keep calm only if I have everything under control, even if I understand that this is not in my competence.
Some months ago, I had terrible problems with sleep, because I read an article says there is really dirty air in our region and I decided to know more about that. I learned there are different purifiers and humidifiers on the market and I realized that they are my only salvation in the situation. I was surfing the internet for some weeks to find an ideal purifier. Have you ever known, that there are water and filters purifiers? Now I know, because I couldn't sleep well until I know which type of them is better for my room. (Just in case, here you may find some "useful" info about purifiers, because I feel myself as an expert in purifiers right now, so, if you need that https://houseweather.org/best-air-purifier-for-mold/).
You know what? I've bought one of purifiers and only after that I could sleep without those anxious thoughts.
So, as you can see, I don't really know how get rid of that, how not to think about EVERYTHING.
Hey, thanks for chiming in! I think it's a good idea to expose to the feelings of anxiety and discomfort and tell our brain that it's ok not to be in control of everything.
I've dealt with a lot of stuff related to OCD and anxiety disorders recently and I had to learn that avoiding discomfort can be awfully counterproductive 😄
With that said, I did also look into air purifiers around a month ago 😂
Hey Marcos,
Me and many other people are in the same scenario as you. The truth is everyone is going through what you go through, anxiety and mental health issues are a normal part of any journey.
I think mediation will help you, in just like you and never jumped fully In it. But recently I have, and it does help.
Whenever you feel like this don’t be afraid to think through your thoughts. A note book, think about those you love, and everything your grateful for. Then just slowly work through everything you need to
Your not alone, I feel your pain and it’s all part of the journey that you will get passed