What do you do to relieve stress and anxiety?

[Rustydog1973]

I have had a lot of stress over the last 5 years ranging from my own and ds mental health issues, my mum diagnosed with dementia, my mother in law passing away during lockdown and losing my precious ddog last year.
It has all taken a huge negative toll on my already frazzled mental health and has a big impact on my physical health (awful digestive issues and Perimenopause).

I do try and look after myself with exercise, no alcohol, caffeine etc but I need help finding a new strategy to help my mind, body and my soul because the foreseeable future with a parent suffering dementia will not be a great journey.

What do you you do to help yourself when you are going through a very stressful period of your life?

Btw, I have tried many antidepressants but they all make my digestive issues so much worse which is just counterproductive.

Walking helps.

Hrt, beta blockers and citalopram used to work for me. Still on the wonderful hrt and now on adhd meds that have killed the anxiety, in turn banishing my gut issues!

Walk my dog
Swim
Sleep
Get to the sea as often as i can

Notplayingball I agree, walking is great, I walk every day with my dog.
Thats interesting Mabelface I definitely need to try hrt, I am 50 in a few weeks and the peri symptoms are stacking up. My dd is on a waiting list for an ADHD assessment, the more I look into this the more I can relate to it. Really not sure what to do with that though, I can’t afford a private assessment and the NHS waiting time in my area is around 4 years!
HerbalTeaAndCake I am lucky to live near the sea, a good beach walk definitely clears the cobwebs at this time of year.

Swimming outside lido, lake, river, sea.

Exercise
Meditation
Self care - taking time for myself to have a bath, moisturise my body, stuff like that

Also find cooking and baking stress relieving. Which is why my manager gets concerned if I turn up at work with 100 homemade biscuits (I bake when I can't sleep)

I've offered it before on here but if you want a 60 day free peloton app trial (it gains me nothing) then PM me. There's 10 min meditation/yoga on there as well as walks, weights, runs etc

All the above plus TV, Sudoku.