Need Tips to Manage Anxiety

I found that biofeedback and massages helped me to lessen my anxiety over time. Also, at bedtime listening to soft spa music for sleep.

Hi everyone, there is also a hypnosis app..with glen Harold. On play store. It works with our own brain waves. Hope it helps. It helps me sleep when I struggle at times. New to group. If anyone would like to friend me. Go ahead. 🌺🌞🙌

I'm no expert. Let me get that outta the way. However, I do deal with my own anxiety issues and I found a few things that at least help me.

Routine: For me, getting into a regular routine helps me feel more in control, which in turn helps me feel less over-whelmed and "left adrift". That DOES NOT mean become obsessive about every nuance of your day or your anxiety will get worse, not better. What I mean is that I set up "touch stones" during the day. I set up 30min each morning just for me. I drink some water, play a little game on my phone, read, watch the sunrise, whatever I'm feeling like that day. Those are my 30min to relax. I do another 30min right after work and another 30min before bed. It probably took me over a month before I really got into this routine. I had a lot of intrusive thoughts about what I COULD be doing and I had to keep reminding myself "this is me time, i can deal with everything else after" but eventually those thoughts stopped as I got into the routine and realized the world wasn't falling apart around me for those 30min.

I recommend applying routine to your bed times too. After my last 30min of the day, I go to bed. I put on a sleepmask with headphones built in, (got them off of amazon) and I put on sleep sounds from an app on my phone. I prefer the sound of rain/thunder, but find whatever works for you. Getting a full night's sleep is such a big deal, don't deny yourself that.

Meditation: Yes, you've heard it, you've tried it but I have too. I tried sooo many different methods and nothing seemed to work and it just frustrated me further. Until I decided to make up my own. My problem was I couldn't focus enough on breathing or whatever to silence the thoughts in my head. The one I found recently was to picture a large blank canvas and in my mind I paint it with large broad strokes moving back and forth, and the color slowly changing from one to another with each pass. IDK why, but forcing my mind to slowly go from one color to the next and the back and forth imagry just seems to help drown out everything else. I'm usually 2 or 3 colors in before I start feeling it.

Focus: Ok, so, this sounds silly, I know, and it took me forever to figure out - but maybe it can help you or someone else. So, I used to think about everything that needed to be done, or everything that was going wrong, etc...all at once all the time then I'd get anxious about this never ending pile of chaos building. Gah!

So, whenever there is something making me anxious, I assign it to one of 3 lists in my head "Not Mine" or "Today Me" or "Tomorrow Me".

"Not Mine" - If the problem wasn't mine to deal with, then who's is it? Get that person(s) involved. Usually, if you address the situation and 'release ownership' of it to someone else, that will help you feel like you did what you could and it's no longer yours to deal with.

"Today Me" - These are things I can control or work on today. Don't put off small things, like dishes or laundry or whatever. I find my anxiety will just steamroll all that into everything else in the back of my head if I don't take care of the little stuff. It also applies to work projects or a broken car or whatever. What can today me do? Can I make the appointment to have the car worked on? Can I talk to my co-worker about their email that caused me anxiety, did I even read it right? Can I set up a team meeting at work to talk about a problem that came up? Etc...

"Future Me" - If it's not something you can deal with today, then it's future you's problem. If you have to, set a reminder on your calendar for next Thursday to deal with XYZ, that's ok. I usually find that most of these are follow-ups on the "Today Me" items. Like a laundry list of things for an upcoming vacation, "Today Me" set some money aside for a hotel and looked into ideas for activities and did a little savings plan to prepare for the trip, but put booking the hotel and buying tickets to different activities on the "Future Me" list because that didn't need to be done until closer to vacation time. What if one of those activities aren't available in 3 months when we go to take the vacation? Doesn't matter - that's "Future Me"'s problem to find a replacement activity.

Like I said, focus sounds silly and obvious, but it was all in how I mentally took "ownership" over what was going on and made breathing room for myself.

Honestly, there is no quick fix to anxiety and a billion things that can cause it. Diet, exercise, meditation, sunshine, faith, etc, it all has a contributing factor. Each person has a combination of things that will or won't work for them. Maybe one of these things that worked for me can help you, or maybe even help you see a different point of view on things you've been trying.

You're not alone, and I wish you nothing but the best. - Sorry for the long post.

I find journaling very helpful. If your anxiety includes worry/overthinking, it is very difficult to STOP thinking about something. As soon as you tell yourself to stop thinking about something, it just makes you think about it more, and then you get mad at yourself for thinking about it, and that makes you worry about it more.... ... ... Sometimes it is easier to DELAY thinking about it. Just earmark that thought: "That's important. I want to journal about that this evening. Now time to refocus on what I am doing now. I also think there is something about writing out thet thoughts that helps slow them down and keep them in a linear order where I can be productive about thinking and problems solving rather than the thoughts just whirling around in my head.

Another thing I really like is prayer. (please hear me out on this, even if you are not religious). I don't particularly believe in, or pray to a specific God. But I think that over the years, religions have found some practices that really work for people and that is why they stick around. Prayer is one of those. Start and end each day by thinking about something you are grateful for. Then think about the others in your life before yourself. Is there anyone in your life that you want to pray for (i.e. hope in a meaningful way). Then think about yourself - pray for one thing for yourself. This helps you to prioritize what is *really* important for yourself. The act of deciding and putting it into words helps your dedication to making it happen. Create a calm and meaningful setting for the prayer - it could be kneeling, or lotus position, or facing the sun, for in the dark, or whatever is meaningful and centering for you. Take the time to actually say it out loud. I find this practice very calming and settling.

Can you get your mind off what's running like a broken record in your thoughts? That, for me at least, is where anxiety seems to rest. ...

There has been an explosion of powerful studies over the last three years with therapist-led psychoactive drugs therapies. The U.S. National Institute of Health published this last years: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9214830/

Veterans and first responders had very successful treatments that easily outpaced the other available modalities. Ask your doctor.