What can I do for anxiety?

[Makingmywaytowndown]

I think I have anxiety. I have made an appointment with the GP but their earliest appointment is 2 weeks away. What can I do until then to try and settle it?

Hi Making
How does it manifest in your daily life?

Try Kalms (check with Pharmacist if you are on any meds) or Bach’s Rescue Remedies
Take a multivitamin ( low Vit B levels especially B12 can lead to anxiety)
Listen to calming classical music. Try to eat even if you don’t feel like it.
Get out for a walk near some greenery if you can.
Michael Rosen has a new book coming out called Getting Better. Worth a look.

Download an app like headspace and use meditations, i also find it useful for sleepcasts when struggling to sleep.

I find that going for a walk helps. I stick on music or a podcast and walk as fast as I need to (a slow walk doesn’t usually help).

Hoovering the house works too. I hate cleaning but my house has never looked as good as it has since I started experiencing anxiety (as a bonus I feel calmer because the house is clean). Using hoovering and scrubbing to distract me from my thoughts really helps, especially when I have to go over the same areas lots of times.

If you can’t get up and do something, counting things or identifying sounds helps. In the car, count how many white cars you see. If that’s too easy, count the white cars but subtract each time a red car passes. At a restaurant, count how many things start with T or something like that.

Meditation has helped too. Not in the moment but more that the longer I continued to do it, the less I felt anxious overall.

Thank you!

@Philothea well a couple of weeks ago there was an incident that caused a panic attack. I have never had a panic attack before but I knew straight away that’s what it was. Since then I have had just general anxiety. My heart feels like it’s racing, it’s like I’ve just done exercise even though I haven’t. Or like I need to take deep breaths. Then last week I was just watching TV and I suddenly had a panic attack again for no reason. After that it went away for a few days but today it’s back where I just feel that worked up feeling in my chest and today I have pains in my chest. I called my doctor because I thought I should probably get it checked out just in case, but it seems like this event that happened has triggered something and now I am getting anxiety for seemingly no reason or due to the smallest amounts of stress

High quality therapy (integrative or core processing) + regular yoga and meditation. These two things helped me the most. Also eating less sugar !!

Panic attacks can occur for seemingly “no reason”, sometimes after a time of stress or when doing/thinking about too many things at once. Remember it’s only a feeling and will pass, like any other uncomfortable physical sensation, and you’re not in danger. It’s your adrenal gland firing off when it shouldn’t. You’re sensible to contact the doctor though. Your situation sounds very much like my own which began a few years back, seemingly out of nowhere.

I would recommend a book called Dare by Barry McDonagh. His voice is quite soothing if you download the audio version! He also has an app - I used it when I was worried about flying recently (I become panicky when I can’t leave a situation). It massively helped.

Agree with PP re less sugar… also less caffeine, less alcohol. Barry McD mentions how it always surprises him how little people realise about the effect of caffeine in anxiety. He also recommends not skipping breakfast (difficult when you’re trying to intermittent fast!)