Your experiences with anxiety.

[Steel Maiden]

I suffer from quite severe anxiety, especially when I go outside or am at uni.

I would like anyone suffering from anxiety to share their stories and what helps them with anxiety.

I find hiding under my weighted blanket in a dark-ish room helps.

If I have really bad anxiety I take PRN, but I don't like using PRN too often.

[keep_it_together]

I suffer very badly with professional anxiety, anxiety about my job, losing my job etc.

My doctor prescribed Buspirone initially which I didn't have a good experience with. Next I was put onto a tri-ciclic antidepressant that I'd been in previously for a few years which has a fairly decent anti-anxiety effect which helped a bit (Clomipramine) and finally it was looked into a bit further and apparently anxiety was causing psychosis (or psychosis was found to be causing anxiety depending on who you ask) my psychiatrist found me suffering hallucinations and paranoid delusions and prescribed an anti-psychotic which has helped immensely with the paranoid delusions, hallucinations and anxiety. It really calms me down too.

I didn't find general relaxation techniques all that effective because my anxiety levels were so high. I'd see conspiricies against me everywhere at work and was terrified all the time. Now having meds for a while and I've been secure in my job for a while I feel more relaxed and calm. I don't think any calming teqniques would have helped me.

I guess what I take away from this is that you have to understand where your anxieties are based and what they're coming from to treat them most effectively. If they're caused by psychosis or are so severe they're causing psychosis something needs to break the cycle.

[edwardcejka]

I am sorry for you. Anxiety is very bad and if it is from a long time it affects on mental health. Quality treatments and therapies are effective on anxiety disorder. Yoga and meditation are also useful.

[Cryptic.]

I have both generalized anxiety disorder(GAD)/Anxiety, & OCD.

Both quite severe.

I know you too suffer from OCD, so I added some things about coping with OCD too as well as GAD/Anxiety.

I've found some useful tips and advice for both of these things,
for OCD I found this -

The following content has been hidden - Reason : LONG.

• RELABEL – Recognize that the intrusive obsessive thoughts and urges are the result of OCD. For example, train yourself to say, "I don't think or feel that my hands are dirty. I'm having an obsession that my hands are dirty." Or, "I don't feel that I have the need to wash my hands. I'm having a compulsive urge to perform the compulsion of washing my hands."

• REATTRIBUTE – Realize that the intensity and intrusiveness of the thought or urge is caused by OCD; it is probably related to a biochemical imbalance in the brain. Tell yourself, "It's not me—it’s my OCD," to remind you that OCD thoughts and urges are not meaningful, but are false messages from the brain.

• REFOCUS – Work around the OCD thoughts by focusing your attention on something else, at least for a few minutes. Do another behavior. Say to yourself, "I'm experiencing a symptom of OCD. I need to do another behavior."

• REVALUE – Do not take the OCD thought at face value. It is not significant in itself. Tell yourself, "That's just my stupid obsession. It has no meaning. That's just my brain. There's no need to pay attention to it." Remember: You can't make the thought go away, but neither do you need to pay attention to it. You can learn to go on to the next behavior.

Refocus your attention

When you’re experiencing OCD thoughts and urges, try shifting your attention to something else.

• You could exercise, jog, walk, listen to music, read, surf the web, play a video game, make a phone call, or knit. The important thing is to do something you enjoy for at least 15 minutes, in order to delay your response to the obsessive thought or compulsion.

• At the end of the delaying period, reassess the urge. In many cases, the urge will no longer be quite as intense. Try delaying for a longer period. The longer you can delay the urge, the more it will likely change.

Write down your obsessive thoughts or worries

Keep a pad and pencil on you, or type on a laptop, smartphone, or tablet. When you begin to obsess, write down all your thoughts or compulsions.

• Keep writing as the OCD urges continue, aiming to record exactly what you're thinking, even if you’re repeating the same phrases or the same urges over and over.

• Writing it all down will help you see just how repetitive your obsessions are.

• Writing down the same phrase or urge hundreds of times will help it lose its power.

• Writing thoughts down is much harder work than simply thinking them, so your obsessive thoughts are likely to disappear sooner.

Anticipate OCD urges

By anticipating your compulsive urges before they arise, you can help to ease them. For example, if your compulsive behavior involves checking that doors are locked, windows closed, or appliances turned off, try to lock the door or turn off the appliance with extra attention the first time.

• Create a solid mental picture and then make a mental note. Tell yourself, “The window is now closed,” or “I can see that the oven is turned off.”

• When the urge to check arises later, you will find it easier to relabel it as “just an obsessive thought.”

Create an OCD worry period

Rather than trying to suppress obsessions or compulsions, develop the habit of rescheduling them.

• Choose one or two 10 minute “worry periods” each day, time you can devote to obsessing. Choose a set time and place (e.g. in the living room from 8:00 to 8:10 a.m. and 5:00 to 5:10 p.m.) that’s early enough it won’t make you anxious before bedtime.

• During your worry period, focus only on negative thoughts or urges. Don’t try to correct them. At the end of the worry period, take a few calming breaths, let the obsessive thoughts or urges go, and return to your normal activities. The rest of the day, however, is to be designated free of obsessions and compulsions.

• When thoughts or urges come into your head during the day, write them down and “postpone” them to your worry period. Save it for later and continue to go about your day.

• Go over your “worry list” during the worry period. Reflect on the thoughts or urges you wrote down during the day. If the thoughts are still bothering you, allow yourself to obsess about them, but only for the amount of time you’ve allotted for your worry period.

Create a tape of your OCD obsessions

Focus on one specific worry or obsession and record it to a tape recorder, laptop, or smartphone.

• Recount the obsessive phrase, sentence, or story exactly as it comes into your mind.

• Play the tape back to yourself, over and over for a 45-minute period each day, until listening to the obsession no longer causes you to feel highly distressed.

• By continuously confronting your worry or obsession you will gradually become less anxious. You can then repeat the exercise for a different obsession.

For generalized anxiety, anxiety in general;

The following content has been hidden - Reason : LONG!

Look at your worries in new ways

The core symptom of generalized anxiety disorder is chronic worrying.

It’s important to understand what worrying is, since the beliefs you hold about worrying play a huge role in triggering and maintaining GAD.


Understanding worrying

You may feel like your worries come from the outside—from other people, events that stress you out, or difficult situations you’re facing.

But, in fact, worrying is self-generated.

The trigger comes from the outside, but an internal running dialogue maintains the anxiety itself.

When you’re worrying, you’re talking to yourself about things you’re afraid of or negative events that might happen.

You run over the feared situation in your mind and think about all the ways you might deal with it.

In essence, you’re trying to solve problems that haven’t happened yet, or worse, simply obsessing on worst-case scenarios.

All this worrying may give you the impression that you’re protecting yourself by preparing for the worst or avoiding bad situations.

But more often than not, worrying is unproductive—sapping your mental and emotional energy without resulting in any concrete problem-solving strategies or actions.



How to distinguish between productive and unproductive worrying?

If you’re focusing on “what if” scenarios, your worrying is unproductive.

Once you’ve given up the idea that your worrying somehow helps you, you can start to deal with your worry and anxiety in more productive ways.

This may involve challenging irrational worrisome thoughts, learning how to postpone worrying, and learning to accept uncertainty in your life.


Practice relaxation techniques

Anxiety is more than just a feeling.

It’s the body’s physical “fight or flight” reaction to a perceived threat.

Your heart pounds, you breathe faster, your muscles tense up, and you feel light-headed.

When you’re relaxed, the complete opposite happens.

Your heart rate slows down, you breathe slower and more deeply, your muscles relax, and your blood pressure stabilizes.

Since it’s impossible to be anxious and relaxed at the same time, strengthening your body’s relaxation response is a powerful anxiety-relieving tactic.

If you struggle with GAD, relaxation techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing, and meditation can teach you how to relax.

The key is regular practice.

Try to set aside at least 30 minutes a day.

As you strengthen your ability to relax, your nervous system will become less reactive and you’ll be less vulnerable to anxiety and stress.

Over time, the relaxation response will come easier and easier, until it feels natural.

• Progressive muscle relaxation. When anxiety takes hold, progressive muscle relaxation can help you release muscle tension and take a “time out” from your worries. The technique involves systematically tensing and then releasing different muscle groups in your body. As your body relaxes, your mind will follow.

• Deep breathing. When you’re anxious, you breathe faster. This hyperventilation causes symptoms such as dizziness, breathlessness, lightheadedness, and tingly hands and feet. These physical symptoms are frightening, leading to further anxiety and panic. But by breathing deeply from the diaphragm, you can reverse these symptoms and calm yourself down.

• Meditation. Many types of meditation have been shown to reduce anxiety. Mindfulness meditation, in particular, shows promise for anxiety relief. Research shows that mindfulness meditation can actually change your brain. With regular practice, meditation boosts activity on the left side of the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for feelings of serenity and joy.

Learn to calm down quickly

Many people with generalized anxiety disorder don’t know how to calm and soothe themselves.

But it’s a simple, easy technique to learn, and it can make a drastic difference in your anxiety symptoms.

The best methods for self-soothing incorporate one or more of the physical senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

Try the following sensory-based, self-soothing suggestions when your generalized anxiety disorder symptoms are acting up:

• Sight – Take in a beautiful view. Go to an art museum. Walk around a pretty neighborhood. Look at treasured photos or an interesting picture book.

• Sound – Listen to soothing music. Enjoy the sounds of nature: birds singing, ocean waves crashing on the beach, wind rustling through the trees.

• Smell – Light scented candles. Smell the flowers in a garden. Breathe in the clean, fresh air. Stop by a bakery. Spritz on your favorite perfume.

• Taste – Cook a delicious meal. Slowly eat a favorite treat, savoring each bite. Enjoy a hot cup of coffee or tea.

• Touch – Pet your dog or cat. Take a warm bubble bath. Wrap yourself in a soft blanket. Sit outside in the cool breeze. Get a massage.

To Cope with Anxiety, Remember A-W-A-R-E

The key to switching out of an anxiety state is to accept it fully.

Remaining in the present and accepting your anxiety cause it to disappear.

A:
Accept the anxiety.
Welcome it.
Don’t fight it.
Replace your rejection, anger, and hatred of it with acceptance.
By resisting, you’re prolonging the unpleasantness of it.
Instead, flow with it.
Don’t make it responsible for how you think, feel, and act.

W:
Watch your anxiety.
Look at it without judgment – not good, not bad.
Rate it on a 0-to-10 scale and watch it go up and down.
Be detached.
Remember, you’re not your anxiety.
The more you can separate yourself from the experience, the more you can just watch it.

A:

Act with the anxiety.
Act as if you aren’t anxious.
Function with it.
Slow down if you have to, but keep going.
Breathe slowly and normally.
If you run from the situation your anxiety will go down, but your fear will go up.
If you stay, both your anxiety and your fear will go down.

R: Repeat the steps.
Continue to accept your anxiety, watch it, and act with it until it goes down to a comfortable level.
And it will.
Just keep repeating these three steps:
accept, watch, and act with it.

E: Expect the best.
What you fear the most rarely happens.
Recognize that a certain amount of anxiety is normal.
By expecting future anxiety you’re putting yourself in a good position to accept it when it comes again.

Hope this has been helpful lovely.


xx

[keep_it_together]

Wow that's a lot of helpful techniques I've not heard of before.

Thanks!

[Cryptic.]

Is that sarcasm?

[keep_it_together]

No not at all I appreciate the techniques. I've not read such a comprehensive set of things to try.

Sorry if it seemed insincere. That certainly wasn't my intention

[Cryptic.]

Oh sorry. It was the emote. It's the emote for sarcasm lol.

You're welcome :) Glad it was useful!

[keep_it_together]

It said it was the emote for wow. Sorry. I've suffered with anxiety for a while as I said and previous things I've tried weren't helpful but weren't as in depth as that.

I'll remove the emote if it makes the post seem sarcastic. That's the last time I try to be trendy and use emotes...

[Cryptic.]

Haha, trendy! :P Don't worry, carry on using them!!! I just get paranoid and anxious! Sorry lovely xx

[Harbour]

Thanks so much Cryptic, those are so helpful.

[Cryptic.]

Aww, that's okay! I'm so happy they're useful for you all!
xx

[MissWay]

When I get anxious, I start hyperventilating and catastrophizing stuff.

[Snow White.]

I've been practicing deep and slow breathing when I notice the very very early signs (usually a funny feeling in my tummy) and that is helping, but works best if you start early.

I have a PRN that I don't like using too frequently also so I understand.

[talaiporia]

I don't know if this is helpful for you Oly (I don't know if you're number-orientated), but I find counting or reciting numbers helpful, especially to keep myself partially distracted at things like dentist, hairdresser or in difficult social situations.

I find walking and music helpful too - though I know you have your noise-cancelling headphones. I find having a low-level noise from music more helpful than silence because even with supposed silence there are always those little irritating noises and music is much better at covering up those noises.

Are you thinking about anxiety in a certain situation or circumstance?

[Doikers]

I've been known to be in bed for days through anxiety , loo breaks permitting , like drink water , piss , and go too bed until I need to piss again , I hope I embathise :)

[Steel Maiden]

These suggestions are really helpful. I'm going to print the long bits out.

I am number-orientated. I will use counting. I've counted my way through things in the past, like when I had that awful greater occipital nerve block.

Thanks all.