Anxiety Managment Your Tips

[Stanlee14]

Hello everyone!

I wanted to create this thread to talk about tips and tricks to manage your anxiety. Recently I’ve been suffering from quite bad health anxiety. Just another chapter in my own mental health story, a plot twist I didn’t see coming.

Puns aside, I wanted some coping tips from others. For me personally I find keeping myself busy with things and hobbies to do very useful for combating negative feelings. This is a bit difficult for me at the moment as I’m out of work. Another thing I do to combat negative thinkingis to have a set of positive phrases which I repeat to myself through out the day, like you are safe, you are loved, you can do this ect.

Another strange one that I’m sure many with health anxiety can relate to is the nagging urge to google symptoms and illnesses every 5 mins. Every time I get this urge now, instead of googling I get on forum and spend that time reading and contributing to posts on here. A strange one but I feel it’s more positive than than the latter and felt I should share it. But I want to hear some other coping strategies that others use.

Cheers in advance, Stan.

[Here_I_am]

Hi Stan,

So a big strategy for me is health. I like to stay healthy in body and in mind, and I do this by ensuring I do at least two or three things for each every day.

I am vegan, and I take great solace with every meal that what I am eating is doing me good and is affecting me in a healthy and positive way. I also exercise every day - either Karate, weightlifting, cycling or a hit of tennis. These are non-negotiables, and when things ramp up for me in regard to my anxiety, I add an activity and bump it up to three or four a day.

For the mind, I like mindfulness and tai chi. I have also started yoga recently, and find this requires quite a mindful presence to do well. Holding a pose - even a simple one - takes concentration and discipline. I am also a musician so playing a guitar or piano is a great mental activity.

The reason I do these things for body and mind is because they require a presence, intentionality, and focus. It's very difficult to feel anxious whilst I am doing these activities.

When my anxiety peaks, it is usually during a time when I'm not doing one or more of these activities.