Within the last few years, I have finally come to terms with the fact that I have anxiety. Here is how I’ve been helping ease the anxious mind.
Honestly, I didn’t realize how bad my anxiety was until I started treating it. It’s one of those things that you somehow live with and as it gets worse and worse that just becomes your new normal until you can’t remember what life was like before you were operating at maximum distress. Fear was ruling my life and stopping me from doing regular, everyday things that should be a non-issue. I was over analyzing every single thing I did or even thought about doing.
Things that cause me extreme anxiety, in no particular order: driving, my email inbox, hanging out in large groups, posting to social media, plane travel, visiting the doctor, work deadlines, group chats, grocery shopping. Things that were once joyful or mundane were suddenly a burden. I was in a constant state of overwhelm. It was exhausting.
Once I started feeling better, I realized how much physical and mental anguish I’d been experiencing, day in and day out. I lived with chronic neck and back pain for, gosh, at least the last 6 years. When I wouldn’t answer texts, people deemed me flaky and unreliable, but really, it was just that I couldn’t deal most days. I had terrible insomnia and had the toughest time waking up in the mornings. I was also an avoider, so there were tons of important responsibilities I didn’t do, which created a lot of guilt and shame. Again, I can’t believe I lived like that for my entire adult life. It didn’t need to be so tough.
There are so many different kinds of anxiety, so what anguishes me, might not be something that resonates with you. For example, I don’t really have anxiety attacks. I have had a few on airplanes before, but that was many years ago. My anxiety also didn’t really turn into any kind of social anxiety until the last 3 or 4 years ago. Mine thrives when coupled with a bout of depression, which has happened a few times in my life. Mental health, I tell ya!
I just left my doctor’s office inquiring about unrelated fatigue (no, I’m not pregnant, please don’t suggest that like everyone else lol) and she had me go through a quiz about anxiety and depression. My anxiety results were unbelievable, she said that it was totally in check! Her words were “You don’t have anxiety” which isn’t true, but it proves that I haven’t felt anxious at all lately, and that is CRAZY progress. She also validated everything I’ve done for my mental and physical health, saying that she’d have recommended exactly what I’ve been doing, even down to the vitamins I’ve been taking. And so, I feel like I can publish this post with the confidence that these things have ABSOLUTELY helped me and I hope that some of my fellow anxiety warriors can benefit from adding some of these things to your life (only if you don’t already do them, of course).
Here are some of the basic things I’ve done to help cope with anxiety:
Therapy
I wrote a post about my first sessions, and I’ve now been doing talk therapy consistently since January. Counselling is an investment in myself and has helped me in every aspect of my life. Just having a neutral party as built-in emotional support has done incredible things for my journey toward a healthier mind. It helped ease my anxiety almost instantaneously, and she has given me lots of exercises and tools to help cope outside of our sessions. If you’re considering therapy, just flipping go! Do it!
Yoga
The beauty of a practice like yoga is that it encompasses everything that I’ve been focusing on to live wholeheartedly. It encourages compassion towards yourself and others, gratitude, staying grounded and focused, mind/body awareness, and strength in general. I honestly haven’t felt this good in my skin since I was a kid. Being open to change and discomfort on the mat can only lead you to greatness and strength that you didn’t know you had!
