Share your coping strategies with me

[Biston]

Hello, I just made this account because I really need someone to talk to about this! Any occasion I remember I’ve always been the one trying to morally support my friends but now I want the reverse of that...

To begin with I’m not diagnosed with anxiety, and that is not possible currently where I’m living. I’ve been having anxiety symptoms since I was 13. I also began to be afraid of leaving my house at this age but I’m able to do it on my own now. It took me a really long time to acknowledge it for what it is because my anxiety attacks in many ways did not coincide with other people’s experiences. My anxiety is almost entirely physical signs and symptoms, especially now that I’m no longer living in a stressful environment, and almost always I’m not consciously worried about anything when it starts, to the point that I rely on these signs to tell if I’m in a negative state of mind.
If I’m stressed for any concrete reason, (most recently having been college entry exams,) then these symptoms hit me all at once, every day, even if my mind is calm at the given moment.
Dizziness, arms going numb, loud tinnitus, increased heartrate, fatigue, some kind of pre-epileptic symptoms from flashing lights (and most strangely from black/white stripes, though I don’t have epilepsy). The heavy feeling in your stomach which for me is the worst part of it and it can last for hours. Muscle spasms, rashes, nausea, indigestion, you name it. Feeling sick like this in on itself does not give me anxiety.

So, doing exercises to calm the mind seems pointless to me because it’s like my body is going through this instead of me, and it’s all very internal compared to how some other people experience full-on panic attacks, but I believe just as bad because it goes unexpressed. Does anyone relate to this? I would really like to hear your own experiences and coping strategies as individuals.

Lastly, drawing used to be the best and only outlet for me especially when talking was not an option, but now it’s one of the main things to give me anxiety...

 

[Brad66]

Exercise is important for a lot of reasons. It comes in just below making sure I get enough sleep as the most important thing that I have to do to keep my anxiety in check. I exercise at least a half hour every day no exceptions and no excuses.

Here is my list of things that I do in order of importance:

1. Keep a proper sleep schedule (awake and asleep same time every day)

2. Exercise (at least 30 minutes of cardio a day)

3. Meditation: 10-30 mins a day most days

4. Proper diet: limited sugar, no binging, no caffiene, no alcohol, and drink a gallon of water a day.

People tend to think and say these things do not work for them because they are hard to do, require discipline, and typically call for you to change up unhealthy coping mechanisms like comfort eating.... Which leads to a temporary increase in anxiety, so people quickly give up and never get to the point of seeing the benefits. People are also typically looking for a quick fix or miracle cure, which do not exist.

Even when doing all these things I still have bad days/weeks like everyone else but I stay disciplined and rebound quickly. Setbacks used to last months for me, now I have at most a week and typically just a day or two of high anxiety/depression. I no longer fear set backs and they mean less to me now. I view them the same as I would getting a cold.

If I slip at all on any of the 4 things I listed above I quickly get into a setback though. So I don't.

 

[Biston]

Thank you. (I should have probably specified that it's mental exercises that I find ineffective : ) )
Meditation takes time to learn, doesn't it? And I've read that there is different kinds of meditation as well. One where you try to focus on all sounds and senses at once, one type where you need to focus on one thing only (preferrably a mantra), among other types I'm not aware of. Could I ask where you've learned of the correct way to meditate and how long did it take you to start getting it right?
The effects of sugar is definitely something I notice straight away (excluding caffeine and alcohol since I take neither of these). Does it happen I eat a few too many sweets...I'll be on edge all day.
So you exercise outdoors? I would much rather die before I had to do that, living in a crowded city centre where no one else does cardio like this, and I'm also very, very self-conscious about my figure so this is definitely something I need to think about... In the meantime, is there any exercises you'd do indoors? I know it won't make much of a difference, but still.. since I've always led an inactive lifestyle I've been having difficulty finding what I /could/ do now
I should note that with the questions I'm asking-- I've already done my fair share of googling and research prior to this...

 

[Brad66]

For meditation:

Meditation is often misunderstood. People think it is all about having a blank mind but that isn't it. It's about training your mind how to focus. You also can't go into meditation hoping to gain something, it's about letting go of things. It won't make you happy but it will help you let go of things making you sad. It won't help you feel better but it will help you let go of things keeping you ill. It won't make you always be in the present moment but it will teach you how to let go of the things holding you back from it.

With that I mind when I first started meditating I used visualization and counting to help me refocus. I would start at 1 and count up and attempt to visualize each number. When my mind wondered away I would bring it back to the counting. This teaches the mind to let go of thoughts and emotions and refocus on something. In turn this leads to lessen anxiety in real life because you learn to dismiss the thoughts and emotions when they arise and refocus on something else. So as I said before it doesn't keep the thoughts and emotions from coming it teaches you how to let go of them when they do come.

Now I no longer use the counting or mantras. I can calm my mind most days without them.

One of the biggest hurdles in meditation is not giving up at the beginning and to practice a lot. Some times you won't be able to keep your mind from wondering. Some times you will feel calm after you do it and some times you wont. It's not about an immediate effect of calmness it's about learning to cope in the long term with your thoughts and emotions.

If you have an unsuccessful sessions, it's ok, everyone does. If you have to use a mantra is fine. If you have pull your wondering mind back every 2 seconds it fine, that's why you are doing it.


For Exercise:

For cardio it's hard to do it indoors with out a treadmill. I usually run outside but I also live in the northern part of the US and some winter days are too cold. Those days I ride the stationary bike and run my stairs, which doesn't typically sustain a high enough heart rate as a good run but it's way better than nothing.

Punching bags are good but they are extremely tiring and again it's hard to maintain your heart rate.

Lifting weights is good for stress relief too, so I'll do a little of that.

 

[solaine]

I'm exactly the same as you! My anxiety is so subconscious that I mostly just feel the physical symptom but have no idea where it came from. Meditation for me always made things worse, because it automatically made me more conscious of the symptoms.

What does help me is having a hobby that I can fully escape to and that makes me not think about the anxiety symptoms. What's funny, for me it also used to be drawing but it's not as engaging anymore. But playing computer games helps a lot. I really hope you'll be able to find something to occupy your mind and take you away from the debilitating symptoms!

Also, while exercise helps in the moment I perform it, it naturally causes higher heart rate and that gives me anxiety because it happens to be one of my most frequent symptoms, uh. But I found swimming to be the most relaxing and it's not as demanding, therefore doesn't make my heart racing too much.