How to master anxiety, panic and stress?

[Canwejustrelaxnow]

How? What can I actually DO? I'm suffering from anxiety and stress. I can't seem to cope with my life. I do work in a toxic environment with a bullying boss and I will be resigning in the next few months, but even before then I was anxious: family breakup, bereavement, difficult births, debt.

I'm having CBT but it's not given me much to go on yet. The stress manifests itself in not being able to breathe properly and having a tight chest. It's really frightening. I guess I'm looking for tips on practical things to do when I get the breathlessness. It terrifies me. When will I get past this? Other people seem to cope with worse. It's affecting the whole family and we're all miserable. How do I "let it go"?

[LanguidLobster]

That's a tall order!

I can get extreme anxiety myself so can empathise, it can be really dehabilitating.

Have you tried techniques such as breathing exercises, plans of action like putting on the radio, going for a walk, bath, nice cup of tea etc whenever you feel panicky?

Life can throw muckloads of shit at you at times, you're doing well.

Are you taking any ADs? Based on what you've said propranolol might be useful, your GP would know if it would be suitable or not

[Teenytinyvoice]

I get really bad episodes like this, and find them really hard to manage. I find some podcasts helpful to reduce the symptoms “in the moment”, but mostly I just hold on to the knowledge that they pass, I won’t actually die from it (although it may feel that way at the time).

I try really hard with self care between the episodes. Yoga helps me, also creating strong routines so I’m not caught by surprise by anything