To ask how do you deal with your anxiety?

I’m currently signed off work with it, pretty certain it’s my age so hoping HRT will help. I’ve gone from being quite capable to a stressed out knackered wreck 🤦🏻‍♀️

Writing every worry down in Notes on the ipad, has helped hugely, adding to it daily - once it’s logged for the day, it seems to calm me.
(e.g. neighbours kids playing football at my window at 0545 - again!)
Sort of, it is what it is, factual, neighbours won’t change, so I just “log it” to reduce my anxiety.

For checking the Iron - a mantra I say out loud - “It”s switched off at the wall, it’s unplugged from the wall, it’s removed from the board and away from everything else”. Adapt this for the front door similarly.

Also any jobs on my mind, I just send myself multiple emails which I “flag” as important.
Then can forget about tasks till the next day.
Each day I just pick up the important ones for the morning, and a few random less pressing ones that I fancy doing.

Also writing jobs in an A4 desk diary, things I don't want to do today, write them as a task for one day next week or next month - feeling more in control, less anxious.

Repetitive exercises at more difficult times - walking and deep breathing, yoga, or swimming to music.

After years of CBT and talking therapy I saw a different GP who encouraged me to try SSRIs. I was scared of medication… but it has transformed my life!

My husband deals with his with beta blockers.
I find being rational works best for me although I appreciate it is not possible when anxiety is more severe. So whereas he starts worrying if eg a train is delayed and creates all sorts of scenarios, I refuse to start worrying until I have the full facts to base any scenarios on. So I wait to see how long the train is delayed for and whether or not we miss our connection or if it is held before I really engage with it.

If you operate according to the principles of “control the controllable” and “act on the facts, don’t speculate” it eliminates most anxiety-inducing thoughts.

I take 10mg of Citalopram daily; if my anxiety gets on top of me I do that exercise where you name something you can hear, see, smell and taste. Had my first anxiety attack when I was 37 and thought it was a heart attack. Citalopram saved me.

The not being able to sleep at night because I'm ruminating on something I deal with by forcing myself to daydream about something else.

Nothing too exciting, because that'll stop me sleeping too, but usually something pleasant.

At the moment it's an upcoming holiday. So, we get off the plane at X time, transfer to the hotel takes about an hour. We'll check in head straight down for lunch.... How the fuck am I going to fix that sink in the ensuite, nope not thinking about that, so, transfer to the hotel takes about an hour, we'll head down for lunch.

Soon enough my brain gets bored enough of repeating the same bits of daydream that it's gives up trying to think about the sink and let's me go to sleep instead.

CBT helped me a lot. Sometimes also going with it - I deliberately left my back door unlocked overnight to show myself that even if I did leave it unlocked by mistake, chances are thst nothing would happen. I’ve done this sort of reality-checking with myself a few times. I also catch myself having “nice thought times” and I try to tell myself thst this is how normal people think, and how enjoyable it is to rid myself of the anxious thinking.

As well as most of the things mentioned I genuinely find exercise definitely keeps my anxiety at a lower level

I'm the same. Beta blockers help. Also hobbies and walking in the fresh air.

I don’t think it’s a victory. I now it’s a massive failing on my part.
I need help, I just can’t find it. I get stomach ulcers, mouth ulcers and tonsillitis all the time. I have a shocking immune system and I have just been diagnosed with CFS and I have to have hysterectomy when I can loose weight. It’s not a victory, it’s a giant problem I’m storing up for later, but with 2 ND children, an ND husband, a grandad with dementia, a dad with knee surgery and hip surgery, a mum who’s loosing it and my own business, I don’t have the luxury of time to be able to get it out.

I have the 'did i lock the door' anxiety. Have even got off a bus once to go back and check!

Someone told me to take a photo on my phone of my key locking the door when I leave the house. It's really helped!

with meds!

My anxiety is much worse first thing. I box breath and I try to mentally list 5 things I am grateful for/ like about myself. Sometimes I get to 2/3 before anxiety takes hold, but it does help.

Generally; take magnesium, limit booze & caffeine, limit screens (find it hard), exercise.

Thing is, that's not really the victory you think it is. If you push it down for too long, it starts to come out in funny ways. Like stomach ulcers and other physical symptoms. You adopt unhealthy coping mechanisms that take a toll on your health

If you find someone you feel safe with. You probably should empty the pot

I did Cognitive Restructuring to get myself out of rumination spirals. This is the core skill in CBT, where you catch a negative automatic thought and replace it with a more balanced or helpful one. I always replaced the thought with a happy one, which is more close to ‘positive redirecting’ - deliberately shifting attention toward a different emotional tone can build new neural pathways and weaken the old anxiety loops.

I'm a long standing anxiety sufferer and have been on meds for over 20 years now.

I've done a lot of therapy over the years but I have to say (and some people might think this is a bit 'out there') that what has really helped me temper the anxiety right down was BWRT - https://bwrt-anxiety.com/. When you get down to the science of what are pesky brains are really doing to protect us, you start to understand more about your own reactions to every day things.

I'm not suggesting it's right for everyone and personally I don't think it's a cure as such, but I'm in a much better place than I used to be in the main.

I do have a snoozeband that I religiously use every night either listening to the Calm App or another app that not everyone knows about called Insight Timer, it's brilliant in my opinion.

I don’t.
I mask/hide it as much as I can, push it down and try not to show it.
So it doesn’t worry my kids/DH.
I have done all the therapy offered by the NHS. But they aren’t good therapists because I know what answers they are looking for and I just parrot those answers and they don’t actually get to the root of my anxiety and have never resolved it. I’m very very good.

I’m the same, I went to my Gp and currently waiting for CBT. I had it before and it really helped but I now have different things that trigger my ocd so I’m struggling again. Please reach out to your Gp I felt ridiculous telling them the things that were triggering me but they were so understanding and took it very seriously. X

Your anxiety is prob caused by a DH problem

Things like CBT strategies help me, a worry tree (is it a hypothetical worry or an actual worry - if it’s hypothetical what’s the point in worrying it might never happen, deal with it if it does, if it’s actual, can you do anything about it, if yes, do it, if no what’s the point in worrying, deal with it if and when it happens and look for strategies to help cope with the eventuality) a designated time to think about worries so you’re not ruminating all day, write them down and analyse your thoughts, are you catastrophising, is the worse case scenario actually likely to happen, what might be a more likely outcome? If you’ve got an iPhone there’s a fab meditation app called Mantra, or even just try slow controlled breathing. Music, a walk in nature, those colour changing light boxes are very soothing, doing exercise, dancing in your kitchen to your favourite song all help. Sometimes distraction is enough if I’m heading for a panic attack, I distract my brain by tidying out my bag, or my car (if I’m in a traffic jam for example) or tidy out and delete stuff on my phone, etc. it’s about retraining your focus so you don’t keep going down the same negative paths. It’s a skill to learn and practise. Good advice about saying out loud I’ve turned the oven off etc. and to speak to an understanding and kind GP. Good luck, you can do it xx

Therapy and medication. Life is too short to be struggling without seeking help.

Pills, therapy and insane amount of cardio

It’s a discipline to be honest. Being very conscious of your thoughts and feelings and knowing your brain lies to you. So I’d “mark” turning off the oven in some way and then when I started ruminating remind myself I did it and marked it (eg by remembering the song on the radio at the time, or saying out loud “I’m turning off the oven”), then I’d actively push the thought out of my head. I might still feel physically anxious and need to use some grounding techniques to self regulate.

Also breathing exercises, do them first thing in the morning and last thing at night to get into the habit and then when you’re aware of feeling anxious. The practice gets you into the way if doing them, how it feels when you do them etc.

Remember what you can control and what you can’t control - worrying never changed a thing but it robs you of your joy in the moment, and you still need to deal with the “thing”, but are less well resourced to do so. Cross that bridge when you come to it.

Sorry you are having a tough time. As already stated go to your GP for advice re. medication Anti depressants can be prescribed to help with anxiety and really help to controll it. Also you can do courses in anxiety management which your GP may be able to refer you to. There are also some good self help books which teach strategies for managing anxiety.