What are your top 3 coping strategies/tips when anxiety hits?

[Sunshine00]

For me it often depends on where I am but also if someone is with me, like family and friends that know about my anxiety.


1. Take 10 deep breaths, in through my nose and out through my mouth.


2. Walk outside and get fresh air, maybe walk around the block.


3. A focus exercise where: I find 3 things in my immediate surroundings that are Blue, then 3 things that are Red. This has been an amazing exercise for me to the point that my husband has helped me use it when I start to disassociate. He will ask me: "Tell me something that is red...that's great! Now tell me something that's blue..." and he'll keep going until I do it on my own.

 

[Laneorexorcist]

I agree with you, it depends on where am I and if I'm surrounded by s lot of people or if there's any private spaces where I can relax, I think,


1.- If I'm close to a bathroom, I wash my face with cold water, it kinds of puts my feet on the ground again.


2.- Breathing deeply until I feel better.


3.- Doing small physical exercises, it helps me to canalize the anxiety to somewhere else.

 

[taco]

Breathing exercises are something that has worked very well for me. When I find myself feeling like things are coming apart and the world is collapsing on me, just stop where you are, slow my breaths down to a pace, three seconds in, three seconds out, and concentrate on it.


Unfortunately medication :/ - I am not the biggest fan of meds, but if I go into full on panic mode I have disolvable Ativan that will start working in about 5 minutes.


I will hug my wife (or usually she will hug me) something about that close physical contact really helps and makes me substantially less anxious.


@Laneorexorcist I like the exercise idea, do you do these exercises every day or only when you get an attack?

 

[polkadot]

I do a breathing exercise called 478, I breathe in slowly for a count of 4, hold my breath for a count of 7 and breathe out slowly for a count of 8. I repeat this as much as I need to and it really helps calm me down, this is quite a well known exercise that my therapist told me about, and I highly recommend it! Other than that if I'm able to I will try to distract myself somehow, sometimes with a game on my phone for example. If I'm driving I'll often open the window or put the air con, as when I feel anxious I tend to get very hot, it doesn't sound like much but sometimes the cold air can really help!

 

[Laneorexorcist]

Breathing exercises are something that has worked very well for me. When I find myself feeling like things are coming apart and the world is collapsing on me, just stop where you are, slow my breaths down to a pace, three seconds in, three seconds out, and concentrate on it.

Unfortunately medication :/ - I am not the biggest fan of meds, but if I go into full on panic mode I have disolvable Ativan that will start working in about 5 minutes.


I will hug my wife (or usually she will hug me) something about that close physical contact really helps and makes me substantially less anxious.


@Laneorexorcist I like the exercise idea, do you do these exercises every day or only when you get an attack?

I try my best to do exercise everyday, but it actually depends on how am I feeling that day. There's days where I think that exercise is the best thing ever and I couldn't see my life without it, but there's days where I just can't stand my body and I don't want to do anything. But I usually do 4-5 days per week. What about you?

 

[taco]

What type of exercising and what time of the day are you doing them Lane? My wife does crossfit but that is a little too extreme for me, plus that whole environment tends to make me a bit anxious. I used to jog around every other day, but I have sort of let it fall to the wayside about a year or so ago. I know I really should start to do it again, or maybe ride a bike which actually sounds more fun, its hard for me to sometimes get motivated, especially after a long day of work. Maybe if I would do it in the morning before I get tired from a day's work I would be more apt.

 

[kelden]

Three? I only take several deep breaths and it mostly helps with it. It makes troubling thoughts go away, plain and simple, and leave with a better focused mindset.

 

[Sue]

As soon as I feel an anxiety attack coming on I try to breath my way through it. Taking deep, slow breaths. If I am able to I will go out for a walk. Getting outside and away from everybody helps settle me down. Those the really the only two things that I do when I start to feel anxious. For the most part they work but then there are times that they don't depending how severe the anxiety attack is. My doctor prescribed some anti anxiety drugs for me to take when I need but I barely take them. They make me too relaxed and then I have a hard time staying awake.

 

[Sunshine00]

What type of exercising and what time of the day are you doing them Lane? My wife does crossfit but that is a little too extreme for me, plus that whole environment tends to make me a bit anxious. I used to jog around every other day, but I have sort of let it fall to the wayside about a year or so ago. I know I really should start to do it again, or maybe ride a bike which actually sounds more fun, its hard for me to sometimes get motivated, especially after a long day of work. Maybe if I would do it in the morning before I get tired from a day's work I would be more apt.

I think motivation is the big speed bump on some days because once I convince myself to go to the gym, I feel better just warming up on the treadmill. I usually listen to audiobooks while working out and that keeps my mind focused on those two things - the workout and the book. At the same time there are days where I don't think anything could motivate me to go anywhere and those days it also seems that everything I do is exhausting.

 

[yeppeo]

Something that has been helping me lately is this Android app called What's Up. It has a ton of breathing exercises as well as a lot of tips that you can read everywhere. But I find the breathing exercises the most helpful of them all since I couldn't really focus on breathing without a "guide" and this app does its work amazingly. It even has a "game" like @Sunshine00 mentioned, that "asks" you to mention 5 things in red, things near you, etc. I recommend it. It also has a diary kind of thing where you can write anything you want.

 

[taco]

Hah! yes motivation! that is definitely the key, some days it is just hard to get motivated to anything other than what is absolutely necessary. I like the idea of books while exercising, I have always listened to them on long road trips, so hopefully it should work well for something like exercising that is equally unpleasant. I also think I am going to try to exercise in the morning when I am sort of fresh and not already tired from having to work all day. When I get home from work I just feel so blah I usually don't want to do anything. Also hopefully the exercise and the waking up early will help with my insomnia.

 

[Laneorexorcist]

Breathing exercises are something that has worked very well for me. When I find myself feeling like things are coming apart and the world is collapsing on me, just stop where you are, slow my breaths down to a pace, three seconds in, three seconds out, and concentrate on it.


Unfortunately medication :/ - I am not the biggest fan of meds, but if I go into full on panic mode I have disolvable Ativan that will start working in about 5 minutes.


I will hug my wife (or usually she will hug me) something about that close physical contact really helps and makes me substantially less anxious.


@Laneorexorcist I like the exercise idea, do you do these exercises every day or only when you get an attack?

I'm currently trying to get rid of my belly so I do them every single day... Or at least I try to. It's actually incredible how it has helped me to be more confident about my body, and I also feel mores strong. I think that the hardest part of it is to deciding whether or not to do it,lol.


You should give it a try!

 

[Panic57]

I try to get to a private spot that is out of the way from traffic so that I'm not pushed or in the way of anyone else.  I try to sit down when I can but having a wall or something to lean on helps.  Then I focus on taking deep breathes and letting them out even if I want to breath quicker.  Sometimes just focusing on the physical aspect of the anxiety attack helps minimizes them.  Then I try to figure out what is setting me off, if I can recognized it I can analyze my fear away into a list of smaller tasks that can be finished.  If I can't find something, I just wait it out.

 

[sidney]

I felt anxious lately due to some "distressing situation", and I really can't focus on doing anything else. I even postponed washing my clothes that day due to my anxiety! So what I did first was I just try to sleep it off, so that my mind is "restarted" when I wake up. Then I try to distract myself by playing with my cat or even walking outside. Then as a last resort, I turn to the TV or the PC to divert my mind from my anxiety.

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

I think I have a strange way of coping with anxiety. I eat. Yes, I do that. Somehow the process of eating makes me feel better. If that doesn't work, I go to sleep. Things, for me, always look better after a good sleep. I think anxiety is amplified when the physical body is running low on energy. That's probably why eating and sleeping has a positive effect on me.

 

[Bllexy]

I try not to have anxiety in the first place. I always try to reflect on the positives in my life, and there are always positives. Sometimes I just get out on my bike and ride, exercise or just in general stopping everything and thinking for a moment helps me prevent the attacks.

So I would say my top 3 tips on dealing with anxiety are: Focusing on the positives, filling your day up with activities, stop and think method aka just analyze what it is that's making you flare up and calm yourself down. I advise everyone if you can, refrain from taking medication, because it only makes the matters worse.

 

[janemariesayed]

The crisis team recently gave me some tips. They are grounding techniques which help for PTSD and anxieties.

You look at yourself in a mirror and say something that is factual. Like for example, 'my name is Jane' or 'I live at such and such an address.' 'I am 'whatever age.' The point is to look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself factual things about yourself. This grounds you and brings you back to the present.

Another tip is to clench your fists and then stretch your fingers. Then clench the muscles in your hands and work all the way up clenching the muscles in your arms up to your shoulders. Then unclench and relax the muscles in your arm, starting from the shoulders and working your way back down to your fingers.

This grounds you as well, by using a physical grounding technique. Whereas the first tip is a psychological grounding technique.

 

[Emma_s]

First, I need to step away. I need to be alone to begin to calm down. Second, going on a long walk. Walking helps me relieve the stress and relax. Third, listening to music or a podcast to distract myself. If I let my mind run wild I'll probably end up having a panic attack. I've tried the breathing exercises, but they don't seem to work if I'm really anxious.

 

[janemariesayed]

I advise everyone if you can, refrain from taking medication because it only makes the matters worse.

I've never been one for taking chemical man made meds. Recently though I caved in and accepted taking them prescribed to me. I can say, I do actually feel better.

Some people, (not myself) have a lack of serotonin in their brain. This causes depression and anxieties. My step dad for one. He has a chemical imbalance in the brain. He isn't depressed for any reason other than his serotonin levels are very low. So he takes meds and he is able to cope because of taking them. He was suicidal before taking them on a regular basis so it is a good thing for him to be taking them.

I agree that some people may feel all the worse for taking them, but maybe they are on the wrong pill and need to change it.

People are anxious for different reasons. If it is a chemical imbalance then I think it is wise to take them for the time that they are needed. I don't expect to be on my meds forever. But they will help me while I go through therapy which is what I need. My counsellors wouldn't give me therapy unless I took the pill. As I really need the therapy, I'm taking the pill and will then stop when my therapy is over and I am healed.