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Comment by drooby | Hacker News Reader

This resonates deeply with me. Though I don't have schizophrenia, I had social anxiety and general anxiety for many years.

One example of how this mindset worked for me is probably best demonstrated by my experience with sleep paralysis. My anxiety kept me tossing and turning in bed, and I would eventually fall unconscious due to exhaustion - triggering sleep paralysis. I of course developed fear of sleep paralysis and thus going to bed made me anxious... cue vicious cycle.

How did I break the cycle? I had to develop a joy for sleep paralysis. A genuine interest and joy for that experience. Once I started to look forward to it, the vicious cycle was broken and I no longer got sleep paralysis. It was the ultimate reframe. I psyched myself out.

I eventually started to apply that same principal to other anxieties and insecurities and things just started to melt away.

A vicious cycle of sleep paralysis is pit of hell though. I don't recommend it.

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I'm really glad to hear that you found a way to deal with this. As someone who has dealt with generalised anxiety / panic disorder, it always deeply heartens me to read stories of people who have found some relief.

Similarly, I have made a lot of progress through lifestyle changes, but also through reframing. In my case, I try to not worry about the worry, and instead experience it as transient physical and mental sensations (which it is of course). I also find that an attitude of compassion and kindness helps, to direct that feeling to myself. It's something I picked up for Buddhist practice, but compassion practices can be a very very powerful antidote to fear and anxiety for anyone. Generally, the approach is not just passive mindfulness, but active in the sense of actively trying to cultivate a counteracting emotion in the mind / body.

So I guess this is somewhat related to what you're saying. I sort of reprogrammed myself.

I had a similar experience with sleep paralysis, although may have went a few steps further. Not only did I manage to replace my fear with curiosity about it and compile a file folder of info about sleep paralysis and hypnogogic states (all from that blessed early 2000's Internet and an old inkjet, mind you), but I went so far as to start seeking ways to induce it, everything from psychotropic cocktails to just trying to fall asleep in very specific positions. I never did succeed, but I still experience sleep paralysis about 2 - 3 times a month. Now, it us just sort of a boring/annoying experience.

I also suffer from GAD and asthma and believe them to be connected to incidents of sleep paralysis. Both actively work against achieving "restful" sleep, regularly interrupting the sleep cycle which creates a bit of a feedback loop, as you can imagine. With that in mind, I posit that people who experience a lot if disrupted sleep are more sensitive to the transition between the wakeful and sleeping states, which is where the sleep paralysis occurs.

I experience sleep paralysis few times per year (it used to be a weekly occurence when I was younger).

Every single time, I am overwhelmed by an intense panic. I am trying to yell but nothing comes out, I feel as if I am breathing rapidly, even though I can often hear my own calm breathing. I can never seem to realize that it is merely sleep paralysis until I finally wakeup, and everything is just fine.

Yep, that's the common reaction. Do you also feel like there is a presence in the room with you? Many experience that as well, or see shadow creature(s). This is likely what caused early documenters of the phenomenon to believe that a demon or succubus wax visiting (being watch/not alone) sitting on their chest (restricted breathing/unable to cry out) and holding them down (unable to move).

Really, it's just that you've become partially aware of the transition from wakefulness to sleep, during which the body is more or less "offline" for a few moments while the brain shifts gears.

No feeling of presence at all. Only fear, lost in-between worlds. Probably a mix of real world input and whatever I was dreaming.

For example I might somehow open my eyes a bit and see a faint superposition of the room atop of my current dream. But I still cannot make sense of it and I am in total panic.

Sound also doesn't make much sense, the sound of rain feels totally unknown and unrecognizable until I wakeup.

I just wish I could recognize what is happening and just wait calmy until the body finally wakes up.

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