Anxiety...how do you fight it?

I've been dealing with depression and horrible (social) anxiety for as long as I can remember and stupidly, I have yet to seek professional help because my anxiety affects even that. Every single time I go to see my doc about something else, I think "This is it, this time you're gonna bring it up and get help" but then I get all sweaty and nervous and I can feel myself slipping on that 'other people'-mask that I always wear when I'm feeling anxious around people I don't know well.

So I've had to learn to deal with it myself and I'm getting quite alright at it. I agree with those who said the best thing that helps is learning to recognize the signs. Learn to read yourself and then handle the situation accordingly. Do you need a quiet moment? Remove yourself from everyone and everything who may interfere with that. Do you need distraction? Have an activity at hand that will do that for you. What helps me the most is to talk myself down inside my head. It's like there are two sides of me and one of them knows exactly what's going on, that this is chemical and unrelated, so I let that side take over and talk me through it.

Also, I sat down and picked something that's really, really important to me personally. It can be anything, a person, a pet, a hobby, whatever, the only one to make the choice is you. And then I got a small reminder of that thing - again, can be anything but preferably something small - and I always have that with me and look at it when I need the reminder. It's almost like having your best friend with you at all times to talk to you.