Anxiety. Please be kind.

[YoureBreakingMyHeartCecilia]

I’m losing my mind with anxiety.

I can’t shake the feeling of total panic about what’s happening with the invasion of Ukraine.

I am spiralling into worst case scenario for the whole world.

I can’t eat and feel physically sick.

I never felt this way about covid, I was calm as anything. I have suffered bad anxiety in the past but with covid I was cool as a cucumber throughout.

I don’t know what’s happened to me and I need practical help to get my head out of this space.

The advice is going to be to stop constantly checking the news, right??

Anything else I can do?

I can’t function.

Fwiw I know I know I know I am lucky not to be suffering actual harm like those poor Ukrainians. I know I’m being stupid beyond belief. But I am in a state and need a way to dig myself out of this absolute hole.

Please be kind, I’m having a real shocker this past couple of days, it’s hit me like a brick

Trying to engage my thinking brain: I think this is a real throwback to early 80s childhood terror tbh. So many memories of conversations and books about nuclear war when I was 8/9ish. I think I’ve regressed to the abject terror I used to feel back then

The Raymond Briggs book was very terrifying, I remember being very scared at the time. Stop looking at the news and think rationally - no one wants world war 3, the chance of it happening is very remote and just try to make the best of all the freedoms that we have xx

I'm with you. I was a teenager in the 80s and most of the time I was in constant state of worry. I've since suffered with anxiety. Totally fine with Covid- no worry at all. Today I'm unable to eat, can't stop going to the loo and feel panicked.
My only advice is to step away from the news and concentrate on things which calm you. I have resorted to beta blockers today - was taking them regularly, but had stopped.

No advice but I feel the same. I think the entire world is on tenterhooks.

Nothing will happen tonight, so make yourself a hot chocolate and put on a film.

If tomorrow you wake up and still feel anxious, then I would make an appointment with your doctor.

I say this as someone who has had cancer which was so terrifying that it put everything else into perspective- I thought it was a death sentence but here I am still here. It definitely made me just want to live the best life I can and not take anything for granted or worry about things not important or out of my control. Sending a reassuring hug x

I'm an anxious person and 💯 stop checking the news.

I heard someone on the radio talking about anxiety and covid and they pointed out when you are anxious and feel out of control re a situation the compulsion is to keep checking the news or reading about it to try and gain some control over a situation you logically can do nothing about.

It really resonated with me and since then I've made a conscious decision to step away and it does help. I found myself watching the news a lot today and beginning to let those anxious "what if" thoughts back in but I'm stepping back a bit now and will just check once per day.

I was thinking the same - how memories from the 1980s came flooding back. I was a teenager and was convinced we would all die in a nuclear war. My parents felt the same with the Cuban Missile Crisis, my grandparents survived the blitz.

It will be ok, we have to believe that. You are not alone.

You'd benefit from regulating yourself through some breathing techniques for example. In no way am I dismissing your anxiety. I'm more saying to find a way to manage how it makes you feel.

You can't control the Ukraine invasion and so you need to focus on what you can control. And thats your own body.

Try googling regulation activities and see what resonates with you.

I am absolutely the same as you. I am terrified

Stop checking the news and distraction. Fill your brain with something else more positive. A compelling book or tv series. Feel good films. Music is good too. Have a cheerful song to be always humming. Hum it, sing it. Learn the lyrics every time you feel yourself start to worry. Engage in a new hobby. Cook your way through a recipe book, for example. Don't feel guilty either for not thinking about the state of the world because worry is just not productive. Make the world better in your own jurisdiction instead. Be kind, helpful and generous within your immediate surroundings.

I was just having this conversation with DH - I have no memories of anything nuclear related in the early 80s - I would have been old enough.
I was in a nice bubble I think!

This book is really good on techniques, and practical small things you can do to help you cope better.

www.amazon.co.uk/Challenging-Anxious-Brain-practical-overcoming/dp/B08QFCR9H8/ref=asc_df_B08QFCR9H8/?hvlocphy=1007423&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=500798696358&hvpone&hvlocint&th=1&hvpos&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-1230124119002&hvrand=14971061548359855454

Oh gosh thank you so much everyone. Kindness always makes me emotional!!

Thank you thank you, just simple easy good advice is what I need.

I will step away from the news. I know this. It’s totally a compulsion and part of the anxiety cycle.

Deep breathing is good advice. I will do some yoga tomorrow, that always helps, I just need to calm down enough to get onto the mat!

I’m reassured to hear it’s not just me with the 80s memories. I was such an anxious child, all that stuff made me panic stricken but my (well meaning but clueless!) parents never thought to regulate any of my intake of news or fiction about it. I used to read every book I could find about nuclear holocaust (and back then, weirdly, there were a lot of kids books about it, of course the Raymond Briggs which I had forgotten! But many others too. And I read them ALL, making myself more and more convinced the world was ending every time. Never thought until now how much I must have sublimated all that)

Thank you everyone. I am going to watch some crappy distracting tv and have a herbal tea.

Thank you

You have to go cold turkey. I’m not reading any of it at all and refusing to think about it. Whenever an anxious thought about it pops in my head I force myself to mentally recite poems I had to learn at school until they push the thought out.

And to everyone who feels the same way.

And prayers for Ukraine.

I get this, and I did feel like it 2 years ago too. Stop reading/ listening to the news and be selective what you read on MN. Don’t click on any threads that the title suggests might be related. Try and think about something else or try not to think, so films, books to think about something else, or I have games/ puzzles online or as apps on my phone that I have to concentrate on so can’t think about whatever my anxiety is fixated on. This might sound weird, but I remember 2 years ago, faced with the anxiety of early Covid times, literally repeating out loud “right now, things are ok, the sun is shining, nothing terrible is happening,” talking myself down from my over-anxious state.

Honestly I’m the same so I can only offer what’s helping me. If this isn’t okay, I’m sorry.

I am literally scrolling past threads which lay claim to being obviously related. Ironically yours didn’t or I wouldn’t have read. I’ve got some stupid phone games which I’ll use instead of looking on MN or news sites going forward. This is literally the only related post I will reply to as it feels relevant. After that, that’s it.

And in terms of feeling I’m in control (and nobody bloody flame me please) I am a prepper, so to feel in control as it HELPS ME (even if illogical, pointless or against others ideas) I have my constantly well stocked pantry of dried goods, prescription meds circulated in date, self sufficient fuel and car topped up. By doing that I’m as in control as a I can be and that calms me somewhat.

As for the poor people at the frontline, I’m not religious, but I have them in my own thoughts sending as much positive strength as I can their way. I truly hope that if enough people believe this is wrong, somehow, it will be stopped.

@YoureBreakingMyHeartCecilia

Trying to engage my thinking brain: I think this is a real throwback to early 80s childhood terror tbh. So many memories of conversations and books about nuclear war when I was 8/9ish. I think I’ve regressed to the abject terror I used to feel back then

Oh I totally understand.

I have been thinking about all that fear and how it didn't happen - so maybe this won't happen too.

Our experience is that they step back from the brink.

All you can do is be grateful you are here and not in Ukraine and try very hard to think of something else. You will change nothing by reading about it.

Thank you. And sorry my thread title didn’t have a warning!! But I get it and I too think I will feel better with a bit of control over the small things I can control rather than the huge things I can’t.

labyrinth, at least we aren’t the only 80s kids stress-heads, it seems!

Adored Raymond briggs but he has a lot to answer for!

@YoureBreakingMyHeartCecilia my daughter is the same. Today I had to talk her out of taking an overdose she said she might as well be dead. Her anxiety is through the roof. She has mental health issues.

Please please turn off the news, distract yourself in anyway you possibly can.

Deep breathing is good advice. I will do some yoga tomorrow, that always helps, I just need to calm down enough to get onto the mat!

Get yourself on that mat! I've just done a 30 min session and feel so much better already, it literally grounds you 😊