What have you tried for anxiety?

[Stuffragette]

I have tried
pregablin,
clonazepam,
cold water swimming (which I am still doing),
yoga,
mindfulness,
breathing apps.

I am still so anxious. I wake up with it, I go to sleep with it. It's exhausting, I'm exhausted. Just interested what anyone else has tried.

Have you had any blood tests? Thyroid problems can cause anxiety.

Im on propranolol 40mg three times a day, and citalopram 20mg. I find keeping busy helps, as well as having a morning routine. I'm always up really early, have my coffee in peace, then say my prayers (meditation or mindfulness if you're not religious) , then shower and dressed.

Anxiety is awful - it can take over your life. I find mines related to my cycle too, its worse just after my period.

Is there anything causing your anxiety? Addressing the cause could be helpful if there is something behind it.
Counselling/therapy.
Changing your life where you can e.g. reducing work stress.

Also, limiting caffeine and maybe alcohol if these are things you would otherwise consume.

Looking at sleep hygiene type measures eg not taking your phone to bed.

I do do weekly therapy to get to the root cause of this. I think it's quite ingrained and will take a while to shift. But sometimes I just want a Valium to knock me out of all of this

Read Claire Weekes.
The trick is to do absolutely nothing to try and get rid of it.
It sounds ridiculous but it has worked better than anything else I've tried.
I still have bad days but I'm nowhere near as bad as I was.

Lower the temperature at home, have a tepid shower when you have a bout of sudden anxiety. Strangely, does help.

Agree about doing nothing about it, over rationalising it, especially if there is no clear reasonable cause you could resolve, would make you feel worse. Accepting it and wait for it to pass has been a life changer. It goes on its own within an hour or two if you don’t give it much headspace.

Meditation. 20 minutes of deep breathing twice a day. I went on a cold water mindset retreat and felt so good for 2 weeks after and got given the daily practices to put into my everyday life . I've put a link to what I went to but there will be others.

www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-mindshift/gerald-neil-F_GKp6kNCYm/

I struggled with anxiety for years, and tried to manage it myself for a long, long time (12 years). Eventually early this year it got too much and I finally went to see my GP. She prescribed Sertraline and it's changed my life.

It evened me out, and gave me the motivation to do other things that would help - including exercise and improving my diet massively. I also do things like colouring and diamond painting to keep me occupied, as it's always when I have too much time on my hands that the thoughts take over.

I am a strong believer that if you're suffering that much, finding the right meds is well worth it. I hit lucky the first time with Sertraline, but some people have to try a few things before they get something that works for them.

I also agree with the PP who mentioned a blood test, as there are various health conditions/deficiencies that can cause anxiety. If it turned out to be one of those, it could be a super easy fix!

Wrote this long post on another thread but thought it might help you too.

Rather than trying to avoid anxious or negative thoughts (which simply suppresses them, only for them to pop up another time) you could try addressing them instead.

As soon as you have a negative thought, stop thinking and write it down.

Then write down the following;

1. What was the trigger for the thought? Was a memory, a conversation, a physical event (i.e. I just tripped so I'm likely to break my hip one day)?

1. How do I feel both mentally and physically now I've had this thought? List your emotions and physical reactions. (As a separate exercise, google the sympathetic nervous system to understand how you body reacts to stress and - importantly - how it can't differentiate between stress caused by thoughts or mental images and stress caused by actual danger).

1. What exactly was it that upset me about the thought? Where would I normally end up when I have this thought (for example, with the broken hip above you could imagine yourself catching MRSA in hospital or being permanently disabled)

1. What are the objective facts that prove your thought is true? Try to step outside yourself to really critique the thought.

1. What are the objective facts that prove your thought is untrue? Thoughts are not facts, they are just random ideas.

1. What would you say to a friend who voiced your thought? Would you agree that a simple trip would be a fast track to pain and suffering or would you suggest that they buy some better slippers?

1. Now you've taken the power from the thought and dissected it, is it still valid? How do you feel now?

This is a longish process to begin with but if you do it every time you have a negative thought (when you can) you will find it becomes quicker and easier. Taking control of what you do with your thoughts will allow you to respond appropriately rather than to react.

Thanks everyone. Today has been a shitty anxiety day and I am so sick of it. I saw my psychiatrist today and he is convinced the key to it is to find something to do that I really care about to do (I'm a sahm at the mo). But that is so hard when all you feel is anxious.

I'm going to try all everyone has suggested. Something's got to work!

Are you getting enough sleep? Mine is worse if I'm lacking sleep. I recently spent a whole night awake nauseous with anxiety and I think it's because I had very little sleep the previous night.

Some anti-depressants can also help with anxiety - worth a try?

Other than that I don't have any ideas that haven't been mentioned, but just wanted to say I am doing some 'unpicking' myself and I think sometimes trying to address ingrained stuff from the past can make things worse in the present... but hopefully it will improve things in the long term.

Great post from @Sarahlou63 above.

Another sufferer here. I read a book by Joshua Fletcher Panicking about Panic and it helped so much. Along with what @Whitechocpizza said, not fighting it as it makes it worse and seeing it for what it is. I was on sertraline and then citalopram but in all honestly it did not help as my anxiety came in waves, triggered by certain events. When I get really really bad I have diazepam and it just brings me down enough to see things rationally, I have not had to take meds for over a year now though. I would urge you to read the book as the author suffered with it after a terrible event.

This has all been so helpful. I'm going to really try to not run away from the anxiety like I normally do. I find it hard. I'm diagnosed adhd and bipolar so I'm already on a few meds. I have some clonazepam for emergencies. It might be an emergency day today and start again tomorrow.
@moirarosebabay that podcast looks really interesting.
@Sarahlou63 that is a really helpful post. Think I might screenshot it

I went through a long journey and ended up turning to alcohol and had to have a detox. I was put on Baclofen (off licence) and it changed my life. I've been medication and alcohol free for a few years. But the Baclofen significantly lowered my anxiety, and allowed me to have exposure to situations I previously avoided. I didn't find tapering off the drug difficult.

Medication - citalopram daily and buspirone x3 daily for when it’s bad
Meditation
Sea swimming
Gone caffeine free (weeks of head aches but even a small cup of tea gives me jitters)
Running
Journaling
Counselling
Group therapy CBT

Mines manageable now but always there

Hope you find something that helps

Coming at this from a completely different angle, OP, I am trying the Alexander Technique. I haven't gone to it to get rid of my anxiety issues per se, but because I want to improve my posture. I've only had one session so far, but my practitioner has already helped me to identify the many ways in which I hold my body which reflect - and cause - tension and anxiety. I can't quite remember the wording that she has used, but Alexander Technique is holistic, so to body so as to mind. Just relaxing my hands when I feel them clenching already feels as though it is having an impact on 'relaxing' what is going on in my head.

Maybe some else reading who has tried Alexander Technique might be able to comment as to whether it helps to manage anxiety.

Reducing caffeine was a game changer for me. I had no idea how much of it was attributable to that.

Alexander technique sounds interesting. I like the sound of that. It also sounds v calming.

If you give up caffeine do you have to give up tea? I love my morning cup of tea. I don't drink coffee, occasionally a decaf frothy coffee but not much.

Has anyone tried buspirone?

I've not tried that one. Has anyone else?

I have health anxiety mainly, with social phobia and agoraphobia. - I found face to face therapy worked well in understanding how the kind and body work during anxiety and panic attacks. I do do breathing exercises and I can’t remember the exact way to execute the senses excercise but it’s something like: 5 thing you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can touch, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste.

I tried online therapy during covid but it just felt like school homework and didn’t help at all.

I can recommend a book called “Calming the Anxious Brain”, by Tori Warner. It’s packed full of practical advice on how to reduce anxiety. I’m reading through it at the moment, so haven’t implemented a lot of it yet, but it’s given me hope that there will be something out there that makes a difference.

Also, I’ve found CBD oil a bit of a game changer as it works really quickly so I can just take it when things are getting a bit much. Not sure if/how that interacts with proper meds though.

What’s also helped me is a lot of the usual stuff:

• getting enough sleep (cbd oil helps with that, without messing up my sleep cycle)
• exercise & spending time outside
• meditation
• sorting out my diet, including reducing caffeine. I just have two cups of tea in the morning now and herbal for the rest of the day.

I've made a few changes lately that have really helped out my anxiety. For me at least my anxiety has been worse at night and has kept me up, so my sleep's been impacted, which can just spiral and make anxiety worse.

• Meditation has helped clear my mind a bit in the evening, or during the day if things get a bit over the top
• Diet. Eating regular meals, make sure they're well balanced, it helps to keep your energy levels stable
• CBD has also helped me quite a bit, it keeps me focused during the day and stops me freaking out, and it's helped me drift off to sleep in the evening (there are some good articles about CBD here
• Talking. As basic as it is, having someone to talk to about what's running around your head can really help out a lot.