Hi! I am a banana who has the occasional anxiety issue. It usually happens when I think I have failed someone or done something someone disapproves of. That someone generally needs to be a person in a position of power towards me. Sometimes it also rises from anticipation of conflict (why I got off tumblr eventually). Physically what happens is that I get tightness in my chest and my throat gets a little tight as well. My brain starts telling me that I am a horrible failure and suck at everything and this person hates me because I did the thing/did not do the thing. While rationally I know it is fairly unlikely this person will hate me. At most they might feel a sort of patronising "ah, why don't youngsters do things like I want/need them to". That I can manage as an opinion towards me. I am going to raise this as a general issue to my therapist when I see her in a few weeks (?). It is not an issue that could get me fired or penalised strongly at the moment, so please do not worry about me. What I am looking for is concrete physical things people use to reduce or manage their current feelings of anxiety. For more information: I am personally not on any medication at the moment and I am not seeking to be, though I am curious what levels of anxiety are needed before medication becomes a viable option. I possibly also have light depression (?) or seasonal affective disorder, but I don't know. At work I don't have the option to leave, but most other things I can do. Don't treat this as my personal thread, if anyone else has anxiety issues and needs tips too, they're entirely free to chime in.
A few basic/oft-trotted-out tips: engage your senses. focus on what you you see/smell/physically feel/hear/taste. try making a list of five things per sense. alternatively, reduce sensory input - close your eyes, hold tightly to a table/chair, listen to white noise. (i find this works best in panic-attack mode, rather than general anxiety mode.) treat your anxiety like a little friend. "yes Tim, I know you're frightened, but it's gonna be okay, and here's why." this is basically the anti-negative-self-talk step. brain says "they're gonna hate me" but you know it's not true? tell it so. it may seem stupid but it really does chip away at the synapses. deep breathing. in for four counts, hold for seven counts, out for eight counts. If you've got more time: Stop, Breathe, & Think. this site has 3-20 minute mindfulness exercises/meditations that I personally find super helpful for grounding and focusing. I have a meditation/background music playlist. i find that the Tibetan singing bowl tracks are particularly good at calming down the anxiety. i have heard of people taking time every day to write down what is bothering them longhand, and put it aside - a sort of "worry time". I don't do this as a habit, but when I'm freaking out I definitely open a Notepad document and just word vomit everything that's flying through my head, no censor or filter, no editing. if I'm feeling particularly out of it I will do it longhand in my journal.
When I'm having anxiety but am able to be on top of it, I knit. Soft things plus concrete productivity on things that will make other people happy soothes my brain. When I'm having anticipatory anxiety, I sometimes run through worst case scenarios. Like, what's the absolute worst thing that can happen as an immediate result of this thing? Has to be immediate, because otherwise my brain makes it too easy to jump to 'I will die alone.' But, like, if I am socially awkward on a phone call? Worst that can happen is that they hang up on me, in which case I call back. If they're rude to me, I don't actually care as long as I can accomplish my goals. If they think I'm an awkward horrible person . . . I don't actually care, because my friends think I'm great, and their opinion doesn't get in the way of my goal. Probably not anywhere close to good for a lot of people, but if one can logic one's way to a place of not actually caring about any of the possible negative outcomes, the anxiety becomes just sort of an annoying physical symptom.
