Anxiety - how to deal

[hellohello1]

I was wondering if anyone has any advice for dealing with anxiety? I talk to a counselor but sometimes i still get little "anxiety" attacks. is there any tips anyone has?

[Ivory_Tower]

I have been struggling for year with anxiety. Do you know what is behind anxiety? FEAR.

 

When you start getting anxious you need to ask yourself, "Why am I upsest?" You also need to think about:

 

What is the worst thing that could happen to me?

What is the BEST thing that could happen to me?

 

Another way to deal with your anxiety is through building your self-esteem. This is the most important part!

 

What makes you the most anxious?

[zummyum]

I've struggled with anxiety in the past, too, and it's so hard... Something that's helped a lot over the past couple of years is that I learned to meditate. You don't need any special tools or anything, you just need to find a quiet place to sit where you can close your eyes and pay attention to your breathing.

 

It helps me a lot if I can just breath deeply in those moments of anxiety, then I can kind of check in with what the anxiety really feels like - you'd think that feeling the anxiety more would make it worse, but when you really slow down and feel the tightness in your chest, the heart pounding, the shallow breathing, and whatever else you feel, it makes the physical sensations of an anxiety attack a lot less scary.

 

I hope this helps... anxiety attacks really suck

[Ivory_Tower]

There are also a milieu of great internet resources on how to beat anxiety attacks. I had to google one at work a couple of weeks ago, but it worked!

 

That is your starting point.

[Anonybrit]

If you're an anxious person generally then experience in life overcoming things you were worried about will slowly chill you out and make you more relaxed and confident. It can take quite a while but it should happen if you have the right state of mind - try to keep a level head and be conscious of the fact that you are being over anxious about things. Insight is very important.

 

Dealing with panic attacks depends on how severe they are. If you are just prone to getting overly anxious at times then there are things you can do to calm yourself down.

 

Deep breaths in followed by slow, long breaths out. This is very very effective.

 

Pick some music, or I find even better, ambient sounds to listen to. I actually find the sound of rain incredibly relaxing, to the point where I now listen to it almost daily. There is also what's called "binaural beats", which is basically a neurological phenomenon in which a sound tone seems to be pulsing when heard through stereo headphones. Binaural beats can be tuned into the frequency of various brain waves, for example alpha, and listening to them for long periods of time while trying to relax will actually encourage your brain to enter a more relaxed state

 

Here's an example:

 

Regular exercise is something probably the majority of the western world lacks and yet it has such an incredibly powerful effect on mood. If you can swim or jog or run or go to the gym or whatever a few times a week every week then you'll find yourself becoming a much more content and relaxed person.

 

Any other little rituals you know of that help you relax, like a particularly memory, a particular thought, position, action.. whatever. Find the things that chill you out and do them regularly if you can.

 

If you are going through a particularly bad patch and your anxiety is out of control and actually causing you physical or mental harm, you want to talk to a doctor about short term use of medication, but this is really for extreme cases when it's getting out of hand, if you can avoid this then you should. You shouldn't be afraid of medication if you ever do need it but most of these drugs are really quite addictive if taken for very long and the withdrawal effects can be very nasty.. but they do work very well.

[freurmynd]

distraction... is th ebest one yet i have found. and xanax wehn u feel one coming on also do not drink coffee..... i dont take the whole xanax and only when i need it, i take a half of the smallest dosage. they are scored so u can break them. also just let go, let it happen, breathe thru it, it really does help... high stress times, yes u will need more, try to manage your stress. personally tho, if i have even one cup of coffee for two days i will have an attack. its one of the biggest triggers for me/ i dont drink alot of soda so not sure about that one. also find your other triggers... i didnt have panic attacks until i had a gall bladder problem and now any time my back hurts, i am more prone to have them.. read up on it, alot of good books and articles and even self help groups like htis will make life with panic so much easier than on your own.

good luck

[LarsWB]

I have been struggling for year with anxiety. Do you know what is behind anxiety? FEAR.

 

When you start getting anxious you need to ask yourself, "Why am I upsest?" You also need to think about:

 

What is the worst thing that could happen to me?

What is the BEST thing that could happen to me?

 

Another way to deal with your anxiety is through building your self-esteem. This is the most important part!

 

What makes you the most anxious?

 

Excellent post...FEAR. I struggle with it, not as bad as I use to.

[GoneCrazy]

I have been struggling for year with anxiety. Do you know what is behind anxiety? FEAR.

 

When you start getting anxious you need to ask yourself, "Why am I upsest?" You also need to think about:

 

What is the worst thing that could happen to me?

What is the BEST thing that could happen to me?

 

Another way to deal with your anxiety is through building your self-esteem. This is the most important part!

 

What makes you the most anxious?

 

I agree with you 10000000000% its based on fear and of the unknown, and where are minds take us.

 

For me few days ago i was getting nervous about a drive to a city been there before but the drive and maybe getting lost had me scared, worried, and the night before I start to feel my heart rushing.

 

Long story short I wen't everything worked out fine and i felt proud of myself, which brings me to your other great point and that is the self-esteem confidence issue. I have a very low confidence, and self-esteem and i feel thats what causes my fear, worries, and small anxiety.