How do you deal with anxiety

[thejuice]

Got it at the moment. I'm listening to upbeat music, trying to be a bit silly. Moving around a lot.

Telling myself it won't always feel like this.
Thinking of solutions and not problems.

What about you?

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Depends a bit on the reason for the anxiety and the way it manifests itself. When I feel restless and overactive, I go for a brisk walk with my headphones, or even go for a run if I feel like it. When I feel like my head explodes from worries and rumination, I write in my diary and try to get those thoughts sorted by writing them down, making lists and just writing down my train of thought. When the anxiety itself is pointless, I try to distract myself by watching a series/a movie or read an easy-to-read book, like Harry Potter or one of my other beloved childhood/teenage books, nothing hard or too literary during those moments. When it's about something real that can be sorted out, I talk about it with my partner or a friend and get their input to rationalize, or also do the diary version to sort out my thoughts and write down all the options. When it's about something that can't be changed or that's still a long time off, I try to put it out of my mind temporarily, saying "you'll think about this on Monday (e.g) but right now you can't do anything about it". When it happens late at night in bed and prevents me from sleeping, I often listen to an audio book or tell me one of my favorite audio books in my head until I fall asleep - I find that it soothes my thoughts by giving them some structure.

 

[Misty Avich]

Talking in depth about my problems really helps with my anxiety, even though I feel a bit guilty unburdening myself on to others. It's why I email the Samaritans a lot, to get stuff that is worrying me off my chest without feeling guilty for burdening friends and family with my problems. But I do enjoy talking to people about feelings, especially when they offer reassurance and empathy. I always encourage them to unburden themselves with their problems too, as I don't mind listening and offering support where I can.

 

[Au Naturel]

Got it at the moment. I'm listening to upbeat music, trying to be a bit silly. Moving around a lot.

Telling myself it won't always feel like this.
Thinking of solutions and not problems.

What about you?

I think of anxiety as a fear reaction that has gotten stuck. Ordinarily, something might frighten you, and then you'd get over it.

Distraction. Once anxiety kicks in, It demands to be paid attention to. You need to do something else, or your mind will inevitably be drawn to whatever makes you anxious.

Anxiety isn't just a mental thing. Physiological reactions happen. You start pumping out adrenaline and cortisol. You can have the physical symptoms without even knowing what triggered them. It becomes circular and reinforcing. If what you do to distract is physically demanding, it will be more effective.

Assuming you can identify what makes you anxious, sometimes you can reason through it. Anxiety very often comes from catastrophic thinking. Worst-case scenarios fill up your thoughts and crowd out the more likely outcomes, and then you start making up impossible scenarios even worse than than worst case. If you can talk to a therapist, It can be a big help. Here's a good article on catastrophic thinking and how to handle it.

Catastrophizing

Catastrophizing is a cognitive distortion that prompts people to jump to the worst possible conclusion, usually with very limited information or objective reason to despair. When a situation is upsetting, but not necessarily catastrophic, they still feel like they are in the midst of a crisis.

www.psychologytoday.com

Sometimes, I can control the anxiety before it gets too strong. Other times, it takes days or even weeks to burn out. Eventually, whatever I'm anxious about has passed its due date, and the world hasn't ended.

I used to have an "FTW!" demon that would short-circuit anxiety and transmute it into anger or simply not caring. It is not nearly as effective as it used to be. (As I get older, I think my natural defenses are weakening.) Philosophy helps. How you look at the world can prevent anxiety from starting to begin with. For people of religious faith, "Let God handle it." works. (I think I was born without a faith gene.)

Medications that neutralize the physical effects, like Valium, make overcoming anxiety much easier. (With all the adrenaline and cortisol in your system, you cannot think straight, you can't sleep, and your body is taking a beating.) But Valium and the like have the potential for abuse, and doctors may hesitate to give them out.

 

[Misty Avich]

For me, anxiety is an emotion that can't be ignored or distracted from. It's like a pathological thing. The only way to help ease it off is, like I said in my previous post, talking about it. As the saying goes, a problem shared is a problem halved. Sometimes I need reassurance or support from more than one person but things I'm anxious about usually sort themselves out in the end.

Whenever I hear something that has triggered anxiety, the thought keeps repeating itself over and over in my mind, and even when I have heeded all the clichéd advices of distracting myself from the thought, the anxiety still hangs over me, like it's giving me a certain mood that I can't shake out of no matter what I try to do. That's what general anxiety disorder is.
Anxiety is an emotion everyone experiences, for example if someone heard that their job is under threat of being made redundant, they would worry about it, even if they can't do anything about it. It's only natural. But when you have an anxiety disorder it's always a lot worse, and even just one idle rumour can set off your anxiety for the next few days.

I think anxiety can be a survival instinct or something, and is a good skill to prepare yourself for upcoming events, which I think is what my anxiety is actually trying to do. But having an anxiety disorder can worsen this habit, and it's no good saying "well you can't do anything about it so why worry?" But it's not about worrying pointlessly about something you can't control, it's more like a mood that just hangs over you, causing feelings of dread or woe.

I always say, I bet if I didn't have a brain I would still feel emotions, because my emotions seem to come from my heart and can't always be controlled or logically reasoned with.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Medications that neutralize the physical effects, like Valium, make overcoming anxiety much easier. (With all the adrenaline and cortisol in your system, you cannot think straight, you can't sleep, and your body is taking a beating.) But Valium and the like have the potential for abuse, and doctors may hesitate to give them out.

The reason why doctors are so hesitant with benzodiazepines for anxiety and panic attacks is that those medications provide intense relief very quickly, so naturally patients grow to love them and rely on their effect (which is completely understandable - give me something that'll make this awful feeling go away right now and I'll take it). That's the perfect base for addiction. And that's even without physical dependence.
Benzodiazepines are very good medicines under controlled circumstances, but need to be monitored very carefully. They're good to break through intense panic states to make you be able to function again, for the duration of a few weeks, but their goal should be for you to have found a better, more long-term strategy after that.

 

[Au Naturel]

I think anxiety served a useful purpose when the threats were imminent and physical. Wartime and probably when we were hunter-gatherers who were also hunted.

The threats we face today are usually not physical in nature. We don't need to perform superhuman feats of strength, contract our peripheral blood vessels, or slow or perception of time sense. Most contemporary tigers and bears are social or economic issues best handled with a cool head and a steady hand. Do what can be done to shape the situation and accept what cannot be changed. The anxiety doesn't help and may make things worse by clouding your judgment, affecting your health, and making you physically unsteady.

If only it were so simple!

 

[jsilver256]

To me anxiety is constant. Used to be alcohol which kept it at bay. Now it's fixating and stimming. I do exercise everyday as part of a routine, but I haven't discovered that makes a difference (except that it does take my focus off anxiety for the duration of the exercise).

I used to have horrible panic attacks before I discovered alcohol. Luckily these haven't come back yet.

 

[Misty Avich]

Saying ''why are you worrying? You can't do anything about it'' is the same as saying ''why are you crying at a funeral? You can't bring your loved one back.'' When you look at it from that perspective, anxiety is an emotion triggered by a situation, just like grieving is an emotion triggered by a death of a loved one. It can't always be solved by logical or dogmatic cliches.

 

[Rodafina]

@thejuice

I deal with anxiety by learning as much about it as I can.

Here are some forum threads on the topic of anxiety that you may find interesting.

How do you fight/distract yourself from fears and overthinking?

All of us have rational and irrational fears, and as an overthinker I often start thinking about the worst cases and horrible problems, which may or may not come in the future, so beating yourself over them over and over just drains me mentally and physically. I only touched this topic with my...

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Worry, fear and anxiety management

I read that heightened fear, worry or anxiety is common when on the spectrum. For me it seems to be correct. I get easily stressed over what people said, or what I said. I am thinking about the eventual negative outcomes=easily painful for me. Even if I know that it is so and when it can be...

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Anxiety?

I often claim to suffer anxiety from social things like being approached by someone or being watched, etc. Children induce anxiety to meltdown levels. When I say I am experiencing anxiety, I usually get the question, “what are you afraid of?” or “what are you worried about?”, etc. The problem...

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[Neonatal RRT]

Got it at the moment. I'm listening to upbeat music, trying to be a bit silly. Moving around a lot.

Telling myself it won't always feel like this.
Thinking of solutions and not problems.

What about you?

Personally, I don't have generalized anxiety, but rather situational. Fear-based behaviors are "primitive brain" responses that can be appropriate in life-and-death scenarios, but when they creep into day-to-day situations, it is irrational and then the logic centers must take over. Perhaps my alexithymia dampens down the emotional components. Perhaps my deep connection to my logic centers allows for risk analysis without emotional influence. Perhaps I have physically and mentally challenged myself and overcome obstacles and have developed a high degree of self-confidence.

I certainly have experienced fear and anxiety in my life, but it's rather infrequent.

 

[Fino]

I generally think of emotions in neurobiological terms and therefore rely heavily on medication for the management of aberrant emotions, though not to neglect a healthy diet, exercise, friendship, hobbies, self-care, and, of course, an adorable puppy.

 

[Misery]

Only thing that's ever worked for me is intense distraction.

Basically, I need somewhere for all that agitated energy to go, or it's just going to keep haunting me.

Of course, for some people this will do the opposite and make things worse. Rather frustrating, really.

 

[Misty Avich]

Often people suggest I go for a walk when anxious, but that wouldn't work for me because being agoraphobic going out in public just causes more anxiety. I live in a city so no matter where you go you're always going to pass people, even in nature places. In fact the peaceful nature places here are often where drug-users and predators hide out. So I feel safest when indoors.

 

[marc_101]

@thejuice Physical activity for me. Or more accurately, "calming my body" first.

One day in graduate school I was far beyond normal anxiety territory but I don't think I realized I was anxious (I have that problem, not recognizing emotions). I had an app for yoga, so I did some yoga. It was like magic. After an hour I was calm, and that's when I realized that I had been extremely anxious before.

At least for me, the body-mind connection is an extended highway with back and forth connections. Betablockers work, too. They don't let my body feel anxiety and that calms my mind. I use them in emergencies.

The other thing that helps is pressure, like a compression vest or a nap under a weighted blanket. My dog is super anxious. A tight vest works for her. I decided to give it a try. It works for me, too.

I'm a little scared of benzos, like @AuroraBorealis mentioned. Both my mom and brother got dependent on them and it's not pretty.

 

[Lemon Zing]

Fortunately, I haven't been feeling too anxious lately. I think it could be because of a lack of exercise when it takes hold.

I was at Penicuik the other day, and I don't go on a bus so much now, so I walked for many miles. Then I noticed my belly wasn't quite as big.

 

[thejuice]

@marc Beta blockers? I use small dose diazepam but I don't like the hangover. I am too, wary with my addictive personality type. Been there done that with alcohol and I'm not doing it again.

 

[marc_101]

@marc Beta blockers? I use small dose diazepam but I don't like the hangover. I am too, wary with my addictive personality type. Been there done that with alcohol and I'm not doing it again.

Yeah. Musicians and presenters use beta blockers to block adrenaline -- it lowers your heart rate (for a musician, their hands do not tremble). They are usually not prescribed for anxiety. But for some reason, they do work for me. My best guess is because I have a weird issue naming emotions and separating mental from physical issues. Even though I'm fully aware of it, every single time I have a cold or a reaction to a vaccine, I think there is something wrong with my life. So one way to clam myself is to calm my body. Beta blockers work like magic for me, and they are very safe and non-addictive.

 

[HorseloverFat]

I wish I could tell when anxiety was starting to hit me, but I have a hard time identifying my own emotions so I often don't notice it until it's already high enough to be a problem. Once it's up there, though, I like to do one of these things:

1. Hold an ice cube in each hand (over the sink to avoid mess) as long as I can stand the cold or until they melt.
2. Put an ice pack on my face over the bridge of my nose, right under the eyes, and set a timer for 7 minutes. I was once told by someone that this signals the nervous system to calm down, and I've been doing it ever since.
3. Take a brisk walk around the block to move the anxious energy through and out of my body.
4. Sing along to one of my "comfort songs", sometimes several times on repeat. Vocalizing stimulates the vagus nerve, plus the ritual is comforting.

Talking about it, trying to rationalize myself out of it CBT-style, or trying to emotionally console myself doesn't work for me at all. I have to deal with anxiety in a physical way, the discomfort is very much experienced in my body so that's where I need to address it.

I hope you find something that works well for you!

 

[marc_101]

I wish I could tell when anxiety was starting to hit me, but I have a hard time identifying my own emotions so I often don't notice it until it's already high enough to be a problem. Once it's up there, though, I like to do one of these things:

Interesting. Would you mind explaining a bit more? I think I do the same. How do you notice it? How does anxiety feel at the beginning? How does your mind work in those situations?

I'll try the cold stuff. I do the opposite sometimes: I use a sauna.