How to cope with my anxiety?

[Sezza94]

I'm new to this forum type thing but thought I'd give it a try. I suffer from severe anxiety which causes me to be depressed. I have anxiety attacks all the time which causes me to miss work and other commitments. I find it hard to breathe, get really hot and most of the time throw up as a result. I see a psychologist and am on medication but I'm just having trouble finding suitable coping strategies for when I have an attack. I was hoping someone might be able to make some suggestions. Thank you.

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi Sezza94,

Thanks for reaching out to BB! I'm not sure that I can add a lot more to all the fab suggestions already but I do think that it's worth talking about your psychologist a bit more about your anxiety attacks; lots of therapists have so many tried and tested ideas including breathing, mindfulness etc.  Also tell him/her what sorts of things have worked for you or what sorts of things you are looking for.  There's so much stuff online and you're definately not alone 🙂

Here are a few ideas that helped me: 

- Breathing and mindfulness; try and be more aware of your breathing especially if you feel like an anxiety attack might be coming on.  Breathe in for 4 and out for 4 or hold.  There's an app called eCBT Calm which can help guide you through breathing as well as muscle tensing and relaxation.

- Working out what sorts of things trigger your anxiety and self-talk.  I know having an anxiety attack can feel sometimes incredibly frightening and it is unpleasant, but it's important to remember and remind yourself that "it's okay" and "your okay" and "you can get through this".  I often repeat these things to myself in my head so that I know that I'm okay and it will be over soon.

Keep fighting. It will get easier. 🙂

[shad0wings]

Hi Sezza!

welcome to the beyondblue forums! 😄

Sorry to hear you're having such a difficult time. Anxiety is an illness that is extremely hard to control (as you know from first-hand experience). However you are doing all the right things! Sadly, anxiety and depression do come hand-in-hand and you are most likely experiencing symptoms of depression. But trust me you will get through it! 

I recently found an app made by 'ReachOut' called "Breathe". As far as I know it's available to both IOS and Android. It's really simple - basically it instructs you in taking deep breaths and can even measure your heart rate. If you don't have a phone, etc, just ask your psychologist to print you out some breathing techniques, or even search the internet. I find that breathing techniques are the most effective way in dealing with anxiety attacks...

Best of luck!!

~Taylor

[Tizlak]

Hi Sezza94,

Im sorry to hear you have such severe anxiety attacks, I agree with some of the other posts that say your psychologist will be able to give you some good advice and also a bit of research into experiences from people with similar symptoms might also be very helpful for you to find some techniques that work for you.

I sometimes have small anxiety attacks where i would seize up and become easily frightened, my heart would start racing and i would get really sweaty and find it hard to breath.For me the most effective way was to step away from what i was doing and take a few breaths to recover. Even when I worked in fast food and it got really busy I would ask to leave for a minute or two regain myself and come back, most of the staff members did not mind as they knew it was more productive to have me working in a good mindset than trying to work through a mild anxiety attack.

For me my anxiety attacks began to slowly lessen and lessen until now where they are almost non existent after I started a regular exercise regime and made sure that my sleeping patterns were regular and i was recieving adequate hours of rest. Also removing triggers is another good thing, one that i made sure to remove was this terrible coach for soccer, used to always have anxiety attacks while playing soccer under him. Once i moved clubs never ever been anxious while playing.

Hope that some of this was helpful to you, Keep fighting and i'm sure you will conquer your anxiety! I think it's very important that you find your own triggers and make sure to cut or reduce exposure to them, and also to find what helps you reduce your anxiety attacks and work on that.

One other thing to note is anxiety attacks happen to everyone once in a while so don't be ashamed or embarrassed when they do happen and dont be afraid to talk to anoyone about because people are there to help you 🙂

Best of luck with coping with your anxiety!!!
-Tizlak

[Dory23]

Hello,

I've just joined this online forum and have been experiencing anxiety in random, but severe attacks for the past 8 months. 

I've found that nothing helps to get rid of them, but writing down in point form what I feel is happening to me as I'm getting one, trying to describe it and time frame it. It has helped me understand and come to terms with having anxiety a bit more. For example "I get really hot and feel sick"; "feeling a lot of pressure on my head, like a clamp"; "starting to worry about things 'eg. what you worry about'"; "feeling like all i want to do is go for a run"; "now feeling exhausted and tired". There are so many more but you get the picture. I ended up with about 13 dot points over the space of 2 and a half hours.

I feel like this helps because you're basically categorising what your anxiety does to you and when and how, and you sort of trick yourself into knowing or predicting what happens and you expect it for future attacks but for some reason they have been getting easier and easier. I guess it helps you identify personally with your anxiety, because everyones experience is different. This might not be for everyone but hope it helps!