To ask for your number 1 tip for anxiety?

[KM99]

Me = menopausal, separating from my husband, looking for a new job. Needless to say, some days I'm riddled with anxiety.

What is your number 1 go to thing you do to help manage it?

Medication, distraction and when calm enough trying to look at the evidence for whatever is making me anxious.
Mindfulness makes my teeth itch and I do not find it helpful at all.

Put your problems into separate boxes. Allow yourself time to worry and ponder on each one ie 10 mins each, work out what you might be able to do to solve the problem. Then put it to bed till the next allocated ‘worry time’. This will enable you to have headspace for nicer things

My number 1 is accepting I’m a bit poorly at the moment and giving myself patience. After that - walks, hot showers, fighting the urge to avoid all social situations (because some will make you genuinely smile or laugh, even when you don’t think that’s possible).

If you are menopausal, OP, definitely HRT before SSRIs. It's covered in the NICE guidelines.

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng23/ifp/chapter/Managing-your-symptoms#low-mood

Exercise in a group.

HRT, stopping drinking alcohol, and running

Breathing mindfully, going for a walk (even a short one), escitalopram, moisturising after a shower (the physical rubbing it in feels like you have kind hands on you).
This too shall pass

Reading, work outs x3 a week, walking, power cleaning all help me

Wim Hof, yoga, candles, nature, exercise. Avoid caffeine and alcohol. Netflix.

Exercise
Stay off the internet
Speak to friends
Write things down so I don't worry about forgetting things
Don't think too much just get ready and go out and do things, apart from social things if I really don't want to.
Remembering how much better off I am than many or even most people around the world, being glad I don't live in Gaza or a slum in a developing country or have a serious health condition etc etc.

Maintain a low carb diet. I find when I'm metabolising carbs it increases my heart rate which feels, physically, like anxiety.

Just do it (whatever it is).

Tepid showers, believe it or not.

if you lower the temperature of the body a bit the anxiety feeling goes.

Avoid DC who tell you the doctor said they need to have their leg cut off - which my 50 year old son told me today - it was supposed to be a joke!

If I'm anxious about something, it festers away in the background until I just tackle it head-on. If I just deal with it, it's not as bad as I expect, and then I can relax afterwards.

Whenever times are tough for me, I constantly tell myself ‘this too shall pass’ nothing stays good or bad forever & I just ride through it with kindness to myself. If I want to watch a film, drink Prosecco & eat choc, I do.

I also think about (probably too much) how grateful I am to be able to live my mundane & sometimes boring/sometimes stressful life. To get up each day & be able to go about my day, school drop
off, shopping, gardening, all the stuff that needs doing - there are people v ill that would treasure my ‘boring’ life.

But mostly, I remind myself that life is full of ups & downs & therefore I will be ‘up’ at some point.

If you are feeling overly-anxious / verging on a panic attack pick a number in the hundreds and count backwards in 3's. You could always count backwards in a bigger number if it's a bit easy for you. It keeps my mind focussed on something which doesn't give me anxiety, and gives me time to calm down.

Drink water. Avoid alcohol, coffee, fizzy drinks etc.

Have a walk every day either on your own to sort out your thoughts or with a friend (in person or on the phone) to have a sounding board or a distraction from your own issues.

Take a step back. Take a helicopter view of the situation and view it from a distance/from the outside.

Ask will it still matter in 6 months? Will you even remember it then?

Listen to meditation, it really does help.
Try to go a walk

Mentally pencilling time to worry about it later. Telling myself not to worry doesn't work, but postponing it does sometimes. Usually by the time to worry comes I don't care as much.

Pretend you are in a tunnel, what are your options to get out of it? You have to keep going, then it will pass, and you will be put the tunnel

Grounding techniques
Focus on
3 things you can hear
3 things you can touch
3 things you can see
3 things you can taste
3 things you can smell

Try looking at decider skills and cbt :)

It will pass, all the best to you

I love this.