Anxiety and dealing with it

  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
T

thegooddoctor

💊 Very much greatly extroverted💊- Dr weirds Lab
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Feb 14, 2015
Not just general ‘muh anxiety’ but actual medical anxiety or trauma caused by something horrible happening to you at some point in your life that just affects you on almost every level like sight hearing senses? If you suffer from it how do you deal with it? What are good ways for dealing with stress and anxiety so you don’t have horrible panic attacks or feel like your just going to spiral into madness at any second?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
I try to keep grounded and objective about the situation I'm feeling anxious about.
Is there anything you can do about it right now?
Is there anything left to think about, or are you wasting mental energy going over the same thing?
Is it something that has already happened, and won't change? Is it something inevitable that has to happen?

Realistically the only thing you can do is put one foot in front of the other. As long as you are aware that it's happening, I believe you can conquer it. Escapism helps a lot if you can find something to take your brain off it for even a short amount of time, but it isn't a permanent solution. If it's truly disruptive to your life, then maybe consider therapy, actually try to find someone that works for you (It doesn't have to be a therapist, it can be someone you trust and is put together enough to help you. I have personally had the best luck with therapists because they're trained for this shit). Sometimes having someone helping you process why you are having this anxiety will help you cope with it in your daily life.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 2 Downvote
What @Shig O'nella said. Also if you're out in public and you get a panic attack take a little time and a deep breath and look around to ground yourself. Make a list to keep on top of your everyday responsibilities, take time in the evening before bed to relax with a book or something, do some kind of daily exercise, work on what you can control and try your best not to over think the things you can't.

So many twitter tards will say but that won't work, that's because it takes time. There is no fast fix for any problem, you do your best to plan it out and take steps to get it done. Don't listen to twitter freaks, they just want to wallow in their mental illness because they're so boring it's the only thing "interesting" about them. Get a little hobby where you make something or learn something.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Meditation and daily exercise is pretty powerful if you keep to it. I never feel worse after doing it.
Try and find music that is calming. I love music but some days I really can't listen to stuff with drums and basslines and singing. Its just too much on my senses and frustrates me. I'll listen to slow ambient atmospheres and string ensembles. It slows my mind down and gives me mental space.
Also talking to someone you trust is priceless. Its hard if you don't have someone - and you can't force it. But if you have someone you trust sometimes just asking them if they wanna have a chat on the phone for 20 minutes or whatever can make me feel a lot better.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Panic attacks are especially easy to deal with; I recommend addressing them by being self-toxic:

What are we going to do, body? Are we going to die? Ok, go ahead and do it. No? Then shut the fuck up and stop making problems, idiot.

Call your brain out for acting like a bitch and before you know it you'll stop getting them.

It sounds like I'm joking, but sitting around hyper analyzing and fretting only blows up a non-existent situation. Anxious conditions are almost exclusively the realm of the overthinker, so I figure the obvious solution is to take a more caveman-like approach. Don't be patient and baby panic attacks, treat them like the ridiculous phenomenon they are.

Of course therapists don't teach toxicity as a self-help method, but that's because they're weak.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think exposure to what makes you panic can help a lot, avoiding unpleasant feelings can make someone more sensitive to even the smallest negative situation. I think if you take small doses of being uncomfortable and work your way up you'll be more healthy in the long run
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Routine. Structure really seems to help. Responsibly, if you have to look after other people it helps but only in burying your problems.

Small victories. If you have something overwhelming to do managing to get 1% done is still a step forward to competing what ever end goal it is. Don't beat yourself for failing to complete the whole task just keep going back and doing as much as you can as often as you.

Forcing yourself to leave the house every day especially if people or going out is problem. Going to a near by store every morning for a snack of drink can also act as a small reward or motivation.

As for trauma, time unfortunately. Talking, with anyone you know even if it's just venting about bullshit or actually diving into it.

Panic attacks, try breathing exercises or the excerise where you look for 6 thing in the room say the thing and it's color out loud till you pick 6 things then keep slowing going through that list and looking at each thing as you say it.

Exercise is always positive
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
A couple years ago I was struck with panic disorder for seemingly no reason. I got it so bad that for months I was effectively bedridden and would frequently get bouts of muscle pain, then became agoraphobic. Couldn't sleep, couldn't drive, couldn't eat, sometimes couldn't even drink. Panic disorder is real shit, but its biggest weakness is that it's an affliction of the mind. A good therapist helps, but ironically, what really helped me is having many panic attacks.

The more you have and the more you survive (because you WILL survive them), the more confident you become. This makes you worry about them less, and the less you worry about attacks, the less they're gonna happen. I went down from having two or three debilitating ones every day to having exceptionally tame ones every couple of months. This leaves more stable ground for you to work out the root causes, to be in extended states of a clear and rational mind. Another thing I've already seen people point out is distractions. Working or creating tasks for yourself to do is also a great idea, if you are able to retain focus on something, then an attack won't spiral out of control. This thread is full of great advice, but I would also recommend researching the nature of panic attacks. Read what psychologists have to say about them, learn everything you can about how they work.

It's all a humbling experience, a very important one. No matter how much it breaks you down, you adapt, and you're stronger for it if I'm being honest.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I can't help with trauma, but for anxiety I think I can give a few tips.
  • Responsibility and structure, as stated before, helps LOADS for general anxiety. Especially if your anxiety is of the "what if" variety. Knowing what's coming and directing your energy towards preparing for and/or dealing with that is invaluable to a brain that's got a tendency to panic. I've kept multiple separate journals on multiple separate topics for years now and it helps me tons. Worth noting that some people recommend journaling negative thoughts- I would advise against this, especially if you've got a tendency to spiral. Try to either focus only on positive ones (especially if they're so scant that having one is an event) or your rebuttals to negative thoughts because otherwise it's very easy to get tunnel vision and slip into self-loathing or perpetual panic. For similar reasons, try to avoid focusing on upcoming events without pairing that focus with some productivity. If you just think about something that's happening- especially if it's something you don't like- then you're going to start overthinking and spiraling quick.
  • A stable sleep schedule. It sort of ties into the routine thing I already mentioned, but making sure you're sleeping well is absolutely key to functioning properly. Pair this with regular exercise (even the tiniest bit helps, like punching air for 5 minutes a day or something like that) and you'll have both a relatively healthy body and an absolute confirmation that your anxiety is either due to poor self-care or your own irrationality (the latter helps with confronting it as well)
  • For anxiety attacks specifically, try to ground yourself in the moment. When you notice yourself starting to panic resort to basic shit like counting or observing. Count the amount of cars in the nearby parking lot, notice the color of someone who's nearby's hair, put a hand in front of your face, something. Just make sure you're present and latch onto that present-ness hard. If you do it right then you can calm down within a few minutes to half an hour. Breathing exercises are apparently supposed to work, even though they've never helped me, so it might also be worth giving those a shot.
  • If all else fails, try escapism... in SMALL DOSES. Nobody ever mentions it because everybody online is drunk on escapism these days, but letting that stuff into your life to any extent that interferes with your daily operations is a gateway to laziness, self-destructive longing for something that will never happen, and such strong dissociation from reality that it invades your dreams and alienates you from those not "in the know". Limit things like video games to a tiny portion of the day. No more than 3 or 4 hours at the absolute max. Books and movies too. Anything meant to immerse you or tell an unreal story should be treated with the same amount of caution as excess sugar- a very sweet treat with incredibly addictive properties that isn't harmful enough to warrant strong social stigma but is dangerous enough to seriously ruin your life for a very long time if you let it get its hooks into you. Despite all this, it is- like sugar- a good way to escape from responsibility in favor of a quick and easy hit of happiness that'll keep your brain distracted long enough to prevent more spiraling.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom