What helps anxiety

[OrangeSunsetSkies]

What helps anxiety? Just that really. No hormone related stuff, what else?

Knowing that anxiety is normal and you are meant to feel it helps. It's the emotion that gets triggered when there's something going on that's too important to ignore.

That could be something as trivial as remembering to put the bins out the night before bin day – so (say) a level 2/10 trigger. Or checking that you've actually got your passport when you get to the airport – 5, jumping to 9 when you can't see it immediately and have to upend your bag to find it! That's anxiety doing it's job and very handy it is too.

There are times when anxiety is present but not helpful – when you can't earn enough, or you feel you're trapped in a bad job or abusive relationship. Anxiety is telling you to take action but you can't so it goes from a whisper to a scream.

Anxiety can also be misguided sometimes – almost invariably because it learnt something when you were little and it still believes that to be true. So you might have been told 'don't draw attention to yourself, you will look an idiot' which would have been true when you wanted to practice cartwheels in the middle of a church service, but it's not helpful when you are auditioning for a role or in a job interview and need to stand out.

HTH!

In my case a project to work on or alcohol.

I was once prescribed amitriptyline which was 10/10 but it’s difficult to get and a wonderfully powerful sedative.

Breath work - conscious breathing, deep breathing, various forms of it
Dancing and movement
exercise
rage release - shout, scream, cry, shake, see it as purging your emotions
writing it out, all your thoughts
listening to guided meditations
a sport of hobby that takes all your focus and attention, for me pottery and cooking, horse riding and motorbikes.
walking in nature
children and dogs / animals can also be a great distraction and help shift energy