How to cope with anxiety in university or work?

[Syfmsl]

I started a course and quit because i couldn't cope with all the anxiety, but still want to go to university. What do u do/did to cope with this feeling?

 

[NothingToSeeHere]

If anxiety is negatively affecting your life I would advise you to see a therapist or counsellor.
In the mean time learning some relaxation and breathing exercises that you can use throughout the day might help keep the anxiety under control, I find them very helpful, there are times when I wouldn't be able to get through the day without them. This is rather lame, but "positive thinking" also helps, although it is admittedly an incredibly difficult thing to do when you're feeling anxious or down. Try coming up with a few "confidence boosting" sentences to repeat to yourself, eventually you might come to believe them. Finally, I recommend this video on how posture effects your anxiety levels:

But these are just small tips to help get through the day, I really would advise you to get professional help.

 

[Cali Cat]

I had to have an immediate "fix" to control my levels of anxiety at work and university. I saw a psychiatrist and got on medications. They helped, and I was able to do what I needed to do. However, there are side effects. Weight gain was the first thing I noticed, and I wasn't one for easily gaining weight. The first drug I took was an older version of the newer SSRIs and it worked pretty well. I used them for a few years while I learned to cope with anxiety through other methods (i.e. meditation, exercise, counseling). I got off the drug and maintained a degree of success managing stress. After a few devastating experiences, I ended up back on medication. This time it was an SSRI and benzos. The benzos aren't much of a problem for me, but I'm completely physically addicted to the SSRI. On top of that, the side effects are more insidious. There's still the weight gain, but the meds also affect my thinking adversely. I can't juggle multiple ideas in my mind like I used to. It adversely affects my abstract thinking and my creativity. Sadly, this is the trade off I must make in order to meet my daily responsibilities. I can't advise you to take meds because I know the down side to them. I can say in cases like mine, it's the only alternative to maintain an even keel. I'm not disciplined enough to use natural methods of stress control. If you do decide to take meds, please understand that you never know how any drug will affect your body and mind. You might happen on to a drug that works miracles for you with no discernible side effects, or you might end up like me, making a less than optimal trade off. The worse case scenario is taking a drug that make you feel even worse. Often it's a crap shoot though. The second time I used meds, the doctor had to change them several times before finding a drug that worked. It just so happened that the one that worked was also very addicting to me.

 

[Licorice]

What parts specifically make you anxious?

One of the worst parts for me used to be group work, because it involved trying to communicate with so many people I couldn't understand very well. That's part of the reason I started taking technical classes where we were more likely to be having a lab partner or working alone, and there was time to adjust. Some classes are very socially-oriented, and I had to choose between various communications classes to include in my major.

I used to sit near the back of class where I wouldn't be in people's range of vision, but it often made me feel disconnected. I sit near the front now near the door and where I can see clearly.

I still allow myself a half hour or so before class to have something to drink or review what it is we've been studying so that I don't walk in unprepared.

 

[Syfmsl]

I'm anxious about most everything, like when i'm living home i became excessively worried about if i have everything, and i do check things like 10 times each thing. The travel to there is just stressful, like if something happens, i think what i will say to every situation that comes to my mind, and they are a lot, or i just think i'm on the wrong bus even if i check it a lot of times. Being surrounded by people makes me be very stressful, like i start to think that they talking about me, making fun of me, even if i'm able to check it. In class i do well with others and i can speak to then (like an aspie (although they just i'm shy)) but i became in such a stress that i sometimes have difficulties in moving, and my body starts to hurt. Anything make me became lost in my mind and i'm always thinking which with that stress i became exhaust and the day didn't even end. And in the way back home the same stress i had to go there. Sometimes it is so intense that i start to cry and my head hurt me a lot. Also happened sometimes that i started to laugh and to cry or being hyperactive and then sleepy.

I do take medications, i don't know the name, which is an injection, for sleep, to be calm and for hallucinations. I still don't want to be dependent to medication 'cause it takes part of my intelligence and i want to study in a lab of chemistry ( which i already of one diploma, which makes me able to work at this) and i need to be normal. I feel that after i start to take medications i'm not has smart has i was before and this make feel sad.

Another problem is that many times i feel such an intense feeling that i can't move and my head hurt me a lot. Like when i have depression i became stopped and i badly think about suicide, i just don't have the physical strength to do it. Or about frustration, i'm doing something that i like and suddenly i feel that nothing that i do have any meaning to life, until i feel that my life has no meaning, and just became stopped again.

 

[Kari Suttle]

I started a course and quit because i couldn't cope with all the anxiety, but still want to go to university. What do u do/did to cope with this feeling?

i became excessively worried about if i have everything, and i do check things like 10 times each thing

Being surrounded by people makes me be very stressful, like i start to think that they talking about me, making fun of me,

I have issues with anxiety too. I find myself checking that i turned on my alarm before i go to bed or that i have everything and the house is all locked up before i leave all the time, multiple times. Being in a crowd, i don't like that for the same reason either though i've learned to deal with it better. Someone once told me that people are generally too self-absorbed to worry too much about you for anything more than a passing observation. Once people get to college, they generally have loads more to worry about than what that one person across the hall is doing or looks like. Paying for rent/groceries/school, balancing work and assignments, life stuff.

What usually helps me is breathing exercises. It works best if its while i'm just starting to get anxious. If its getting bad, either putting in headphones and listening to music is what i normally do. Sometimes i blast it as a distraction and other times i find calming nature like sounds or piano to listen to.

 

[gregmcph]

Get blinkered. Chop down your worries to whatever is immediately in front of you. Don't let Everything swamp you with a thousand little complications and freeze you up.

If you have exams, concern yourself with getting through the immediate upcoming exam, and leave the next task for when it is the right time to deal with it.

On the flipside, that assignment you have due? DO IT. Sit down and do it. I know this is kind of obvious, but the best way to deal with stresses and dreads it to actually tackle them. Sit down and write those 2000 words, even if they are crap, even if the result doesn't seem sufficient. Get blinkered. Shut out other worries. Do this One Thing. One thing at a time.

I have one daughter in her final year of high school, where exams get serious. And another daughter and her boyfriend in University. The younger daughter is getting stressed to the point of tears from her exams and assignments, but she is trying to do everything at once, and is overloading. The boyfriend failed a subject last year simply because he didn't get around to writing an essay... this year, he is dithering on writing that same stupid essay. Write it, damn it!