Anxiety - what has helped you manage your anxiety?

[Snog]

Reading the ideal life thread surprised me with how many people are affected by anxiety issues.
I know that anxiety is supposed to be very treatable/manageable - what has helped you manage yours? Maybe we can start a list to help each other.

This helped me www.anxietyproblemssolved.com I still get the newsletters but I seem to be in a more relaxed place now.

Did you just read the newsletters Ellimam or did you buy any of the recommended products?
Do you think anything else has helped you find your more relaxed place?

I just read the newsletters :) I'm way to cheap to buy things. The main thing that solved my anxiety was having my DS, I don't know if it was maybe a hormonal thing but my anxiety settled after I got pregnant.

Marking place, I've beaten anxiety and OCD a few times over the years but now that it's back with a vengeance, I've totally forgotten how I beat it. Only once was with meds (carbamazepine, when misdiagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy.)

I think the first time I just grew up and was distracted by boys and makeup. The OCD I did challenge and refused to do my rituals to prove that nothing bad would happen as a result. The insomnia cleared up when I moved job and house, I felt less stressed as a result but also was then just off the Heathrow flight path which helped massively.

I've had 5 losses in 2 yrs and have tried every cognitive trick in the book to help. It's now affecting me almost daily after a year long struggle, I'm pretty sure only meds will help now.

I tried eft or "tapping" and found it helpful. Also stopped watching more than 5 hours of TV a week.

How does that work, Snog?

For what it is worth here are my thoughts:-

Lying down on the bed and taking time out and staring at the ceiling and thinking right brain thoughts if only for 20 mins. a day.
Drinking home made strong parsley tea from fresh parsley.
Eating alkaline foods.
Staying away from toxic people and toxic situations wherever possible.
Ringing a support line if desperate.
Writing in my journal once a week or more if I am extra stressed.
Playing the piano.
Staying away from too much news and too much TV
Listening to our favourite music (currently Dolly Parton!)

I find anxiety a big thing in my life as I have borderline Asperger's which isn't curable only treatable. I also do Buddhist chanting but to achieve maximum effectiveness meeting attendance is also crucial and in the real world I simply don't have much time for endless meetings as I am a busy working single parent with no ex help and no family support either.

I also find it helpful to have a full body massage monthly but I can't always afford it that often. I still try to have one no later than every 6 weeks maximum 7 weeks it is so nice to get something indulgent for a change and that really helps sleep too!

HTH

Thanks for the suggestions, Equinox. I'm a pacer, I noticed yesterday that it helped but also going to bed and lying in silence did too. I write as a job and funnily enough my latest character is having stress issues. I hope I'm projecting them away!!

You are welcome fackinell. Pleased to think my suffering can help the universe a little lol. When I have those mini lie down experiences I often find my free floating thoughts bring on great ideas and bring up solutions to situations without worrying about them too.

Oh I get that from dreams, I'm a real vivid dreamer and love them; particularly my ones about houses with endless rooms. I sometimes even find my dear family in spirit in one of them.

Yes I find dreams with lots of rooms very profound and have had that experience too.

Fackinell check out tapping.
com - it's completely free so worth checking out. It works by getting rid of the power of bad feelings connected to past events.

yy to avoiding the news, I'd add internet to that too (rather hypocritically at the moment)
That and medication has made me a different person

Love those dreams, Equinox. I'm always disappointed when I wake up and the house isn't real. They're always so amazing.

Thanks, Snog, I'll take a look at that.

I often find TV too stimulating and prefer to laze around on my bed in the evening cuddling up with the cat. I also ditched watching the news as it just adds to my mental list of stuff to worry about.
I am getting into mindfulness too which helps me redirect my thoughts from worrying.

Oh yeah and I gave up alcohol...considering giving up caffeine too...

giving up coffee, or as good as, did help me too.

As did, oddly House magazines distracted me, gave me envy and self pity which was a nice break!

Exercise

Doing, rather than thinking (and getting anxious) about doing

Both of the above are things I struggle with, though, since my anxiety is a terrible source of self-sabotage

Weirdly, sometimes I find the only thing that really shuts off the anxiety spiral is the 'cold hard stars' approach - I stop myself in my mental tracks and say 'in a hundred years' time you and everyone around you will be dead, so does it really matter?' or even 'look, you could drop dead tomorrow so is it really worth giving a fuck?'

Cutting out caffeine
The Linden Method
Hypnotherapy

It took me 8 long years to find anything that helped.

i made a diary over a week, at the end of each day i tried to chart my anxiety levels and what may have triggered it, i also wrote down how many hours sleep i had each night and a rough idea of what i ate
that REALLY helped, i cannot reccommend it highly enough. i have low level anxiety but mapping the triggers out like that has helped me avoid situations that bring it on
so for me this has meant
being honest with people and more assertive (not lying to protect ppls feelings then being anxious about what i think they're thinking etc. just say it like it is and move on)

avoiding high sugar binges, no caffiene, as much sleep as possible, no tv after 8.30pm, writing a list before i go up to bed and then refusing to think worry about things on the list-once it's down it's down and i can deal with it when im ready
trying not to be late to things

working out what things make me happy and what gives me a sense of achievement, and finding ways of doing those things. (eg i love helping people, it makes me happy, gives me a sense of achievement and that my life is worthwhile, which in turn lowers my anxiety)

exercise. it really helps. find something that works for you. i tried aerobics and had to leave the sessions to cry. netball was brilliant though, and im still going years later. so, try lots of different things, dont panic if one doesnt work.

hope that helps.the diary is the main thing to start with

mine was/is low level anxiety, but i've also found that knitting is helpful?!? in that, it takes ages but while im doing it i get calmer, and long-term i make pretty things. so it helps me to get perspective, has taught be patience. it's crazy, but i think "it took me two years to make this blanket but i've nearly done it. so no, i can't achieve all my goals tomorrow but i WILL over my whole lifetime so i DONT need to be anxious about it".
slightly embarrassed to admit this one.

These are all really useful tips. Don't be ashamed of knitting, Waffling I wish I could.

My anxiety has been shocking all week but I've had two lots of allergic reactions to seperate medications. Both proton pump inhibitors for acid reflux. It was horrendous, really struggling to breath, dizzy, rashes and itching. I never called out of hrs as they have been so awful before when I felt I was having asthma attacks due to reflux. They made me feel like a total time waster.

I'm at the GP tomorrow and looking forward to getting something to take the edge off (if I'm not bloody allergic to it!!)