Challenge of living with the ‘feeling’ of anxiety

[16purplecolour16]

What are the top tips please. Mine are:
This too will pass.
It’s just a feeling needing to be felt.

I can rationalise the thoughts that are triggered by the feeling but it takes a lot of energy to manage the feeling.

Sometimes I wonder whether I would now benefit from the medication?

For me the best method I've found is to actual speak out loud.. 'all will be well' 'everything will be okay' etc. There's something in taking it out of my head and putting it into the real world that helps me.

I've also really benefitted from using the calm app at night.. listening to old men talk about sheep or just playing the sound of rain loudly etc works in stopping me from being able to focusing on the feelings of dread and weight and therefore stopping the build up.

@spudsuliked - thanks.

Describing the experience as a ‘build up’ is really helpful. Thank you.

I go for a walk in the morning before I start work. I was feeling this was a lot of pressure to prevent the feeling. But instead consider the walk as ‘an intervention’ is a much better way of thinking about how I manage ‘the feeling’.

I wake in the morning or I’m woken up in the night with the feeling. I will start to see the walk as ‘the medication’.

Just thought of another strategy when the feeling grinds me to a near halt. “Better go really slowly than than not move at all.” A kindness that is sometimes hard to feel when ‘the feeling’ is grinding me down - like now.

I know what you mean by this feeling, I wake up most mornings feeling a sense of dread or just feeling scared and not really knowing why. My mind then almost starts searching for what it is that is making me feel that way, so this then drags up things for me to worry about.

I find it’s worse of a weekend when I have nothing to get up and do immediately so I try to just keep my mind busy. Reading helps for me. I also quite often talk myself through the feeling, sometimes out loud, I tell myself you are ok, you are doing well many times throughout the day!

In a way it is reassuring to know that other people have the same feelings.

I'm feeling it now and struggling so much. My physical health isn't great at the moment, which is disturbing my sleep and probably isn't helping. I feel paralysed and just want to avoid all interaction, which is difficult when I have work and life admin to do.

This sounds strange but I explained the feeling to my partner. Like the physical feelings, sense of dread etc. Then every time it happened I said out loud to him that I had the feeling, and he said "ok, let's carry on and you can tell me when it's gone". We would carry on with whatever we were doing and usually I would forget about it and never tell him it had gone as I wouldn't realise I don't know why but it helped me to tell him. It was like the feeling was a separate thing to me then.

This is me atm too.

I'm sorry you're struggling at the moment. I've found the last few months a constant underlying panic to be honest.

Completely understand about the walk though, if I can drag myself out and change the scene I find it really helps. I can also really relate to the feeling of 'grinding to a halt' and agree that moving slowly is better than stopping totally. When life allows I try to give myself one or two small jobs to complete and find it helps focus and feel like I've achieved something. I do have to be careful to keep to small achievable goals though as life and kids tend to get in the way and then I feel worse. Similar to the speaking out loud I find making a very simple list that I can physically (on my phone at least!) tick off helps, i often even add things I've already done. It means I can look back and see that I'm moving forward even if it is slowly!

You're not alone in any case. For me the hardest part is trying to explain 'the feeling' to somebody who doesn't get it. The loneliness in it really makes it worse for me.

So appreciate you sharing your experience. I’m 57 and realise I’ve had this since childhood but it really ramped up having children. Now I post-menopause, that does add to the mix.

I will really value my morning walk from now on. Always instinctively tried to find a job where I was able to at least incorporate a long walk. Now I know why.

to all.

beta blockers

Stop adrenaline being produced - won't stop anxious thoughts but stop your body reacting to them. No racing heart, no churning stomach,.clenching teeth etc.

A few days without the physical symptoms really helps break the cycle of anxiety.

@Janevaljane - That’s useful information. I know it’s the feeling triggering the thoughts, as @MrsWhites says “as though my mind goes looking for” the reason for feeling this way. I will have a chat with my GP.

Doing something more vigorous or calming than the feeling of anxiety...e.g. a brisk walk, long bath etc. to 'dissipate' it. The issue is these take time, something we don't always have. It is very easy to say what to do but when you are in it...having a range of strategies is good. There was a book 'everything i ever did that worked' that I liked.