If you've overcome generalised anxiety, what helped?

[GinandGobbledegook]

I'm working from home this week and I keep getting pangs of anxiety for no particular reason.
It's often irrational thoughts about tiny issues but the physical feeling of anxiety leaves me not able to concentrate and feeling sick.

I suffer with anxiety and depression on and off but when there is no reason for it, I find it much harder to deal with.

If you've been able to overcome generalised anxiety, please could you share how?

I was given a mindfulness CD and doing the mindfulness exercises helped more than I thought it would. I actually didn’t think it was going to help but it really, really did.

Mindfulness is about being in the present, aware of your thoughts, feelings, sensations, sounds etc without any judgement of it being good or bad.

One of the exercises is not to fight the feeling or thought, just acknowledge it, allow it to pass by (if it was a thought) accept it if it’s a feeling or sensation, and continue to focus on the present. Some exercises guide you through focusing on your breathing, or focusing on the sounds you can hear or focusing on your different body parts.

It is not only relaxing but I have developed the ability to immediately look objectively at what is happening right now and observing and acknowledging that I am safe and not in danger and the feeling of anxiety is just a feeling, nothing to worry about and then it subsides or passes. If it doesn’t I engage in an activity that focuses my attention and it eventually passes.

When we don’t fight those feelings or judge them as bad or negative we experience less distress and experience s sense of calm, acceptance.

Of course if you are in actual real danger you need to act on that and protect yourself. Fight or flight response.

Can anyone recommend what mindfulness app etc they've found good please. There is so much out there it's a bit overwhelming. Im trying to help my teen DD with anxiety.

Feel for you OP as have GAD and more recently such severe health anxiety that it completely floors me (off work, not seeing friends etc). when it’s bad. Haven’t found a medication that has lasting effects although am going to try Venlafaxine again on GP’s recommendation. Walks with dog help a lot, being in nature and talking to a couple of trusted friends.

Adhd diagnosis, prozac and adhd meds. My life is so much better.

Reading and walks/exercise.

Cardio. Yoga. Breathing exercises. CBT.

I never had particularly severe anxiety, in fact I never went to the GP or got diagnosed with GAD or anything along those lines.

I work in MH as a CBT practitioner and during my training realised I have a lot of GAD tendencies (high intolerance of uncertainty, believed that worrying and 'planning' for every eventuality was a way to feel in control as I feared I wouldn't be able to cope with problems and perceived I had poor problem solving).

Understanding the CBT model for how GAD was maintained was incredibly enlightening and small techniques and challenges I have put in place over the years have really helped me get anxiety under control.

If you're interested in CBT there's some great free work books online via CCI Health - under the 'looking after yourself' section.

There's a new self compassion app that's really helped me with anxiety, I'd recommend that. acceptance and commitment therapy also helped me more than cbt in the end.

@Cocoabutterformula

Cathyt90 how much magnesium do you take please?

Interested too please and which brand?

I take the Holland and Barrett 375mg daily as well as a daily general multivitamin (from Tesco!) that has 100mg of magnesium in. I started taking the extra magnesium in the summer as I was getting horrible physical symptoms of anxiety, without really being able to pinpoint a specific cause - I thought it might be the onset of perimenopause. It was so bad I was on the verge of phoning the GP for medication. I read on here about magnesium for anxiety. Since taking the supplements those physical symptoms have stopped and I'm on a much more even keel. It won't work for everyone and maybe it's just placebo effect but it's a cheap and easy thing to try that may just help.

@Ouch44 The mindfulness CD I used was called Mindfulness skills vol 2 Dr Russ Harris. He has a website that includes some free audio recordings and podcasts that will take you through some guided mindfulness exercises. He also has paid for mp3 available and books. I’ve copy and pasted a bit about him on his website and a link.

Russ Harris, author of the international best-selling self-help book ‘The Happiness Trap’, is a world-renowned trainer of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT). Russ’s background is in medicine. As a GP he became increasingly interested in the psychological aspects of health and wellbeing, and increasingly disenchanted with writing prescriptions. Ultimately this interest led to a total career change. He now works in two different, yet complementary roles – as a therapist and as a coach.

www.actmindfully.com.au/

Citalopram
Vegan diet (life changing - I have so much more energy!)
Park walks - really helps clear the mind
Less social media

Imustlearn2cook thank you I will check out that website

I am just getting to the end of 6 months of CBT. That along with setraline and propanol have me in a better place than ever.

Things like exercise and mindfulness without a doubt have a place and help but for me they are just a small part of the overall package needed.

Hi,

I'm so glad I gave seen this post. I've always been a worrier but normally can keep it u fee control. Last week I start getting pins and needles in my feet and obviously went on google and have totally freaked myself out and go it in my head I have ms. I can't stop crying. I can't think about anything else. I'm not sleeping well. I genuinely feel petrified that I'm dying. I hate feeling like this. I have two young children and keep thinking I'm going to die and not be with them and can't stop crying

There is a book (paperwork or kindle) called DARE and there is also a free app you can download to go with it with stuff to listen to; some free and some you can pay for. I have suffered from very severe anxiety and it has really helped me tremendously. It teaches you to embrace anxious thoughts and feelings rather than rejected them which usually makes it worse. Cannot recommend it enough! I still listen to bits of the app when I am feeling a bit anxious to help reinforce the principals of DARE.

Here it is

@ThirdElephant I love what you’ve said, it’s sounds like a great strategy

Understanding anxiety through books - Dare response and At last a life.
Personally, i take medications. I started out with paxil when i was 16 then weaned off it after an year.
Restarted with Prozac when i was 19 and took it for another 4 years.
Had to go again on Prozac when i was 25 and since then I have been taking it till date. I am now 32 so almost 7 years without breaks.
I am fit, go for running, gym but still have found myself better with medications and so take them

Propranolol. I don't even take it any more but knowing I have some there that I can take if needed is enough to stop me going into full blown panic mode

20mg Citralopram. Distraction by playing the word trip game on my phone or using the adult colouring in books. Nothing is working today though as had to take a rare sick day as eldest dd has a sick bug and feeling dizzy. So of course now i'm catastrophising that i've let everyone down and going to be talked about badly. Of course this will lead to disciplinary action and I will lose my job. I know rationally this won't happen but doesn't stop the anxiety train in my head from leaving the station and racing at top speed round the tracks!! .

So probably not much help but showing solidarity.

The five senses technique. Google it it's brilliant. Do normal breathing with it. Can say in your mind or out aloud. Also any kind of mindfulness.

My pervasive, nagging anxiety mostly went when I started paying more attention to what I was wearing as a bra.
Not being able to take a full breath and expand my ribcage properly, so forced to breathe more shallowly was emulating the physical symptoms of anxiety - which led to actual feelings of anxiety.
I've given up on bras.

Giving up caffeine and alcohol. If you could have seen me just four years ago you would be amazed at the difference in me now. I also did a CBT course and fully embraced it. I had done one previously in a half hearted way and given up.
I suffered with anxiety for years. So many things I missed out on. Now I am a different person.

Learning to recognise the anxious thoughts and question them. Basically looking at them objectively removes a lot of their power.

Doing things that scare me/make me anxious - I went through a long period of avoiding things, trying to make my life as stress free as possible. All that happened was my life became smaller and smaller until I could barely go to the supermarket without panic. Gradually I started doing things despite the anxiety and now when I start feeling reluctance to do something I always question if anxiety could be behind it and if it is, just do the thing. It’s hard at first but honestly so much easier and more fulfilling than living a life in fear.