Making anxiety more bearable?

Are you wondering how to deal with anxiety? There are over 3 million cases of anxiety each year in the US alone and that excludes the rest of the world. And when I googled how many people in the world were diagnosed with anxiety what came up was 284 million people in 2017. That’s a lot of people, and some people aren’t diagnosed.

One main thing to managing your anxiety is to learn how to cope with it. Anxiety comes goes, and sometimes it over spends its stay. Through out the years, I’ve learned to cope with my anxiety and you’ll be happy to know some things you already do help cope with anxiety.

Coping means to help deal with something. You just have to find something or someone to distract you until the feeling goes away. This can vary from simply listening to music, taking a walk, surfing the web or watching t.v; writing in a journal, taking some time for yourself/practicing self care, keeping your hands busy with clay, fidget toys (which you can get from Amazon) running your fingers under cold water, holding ice and other things like deep breathing and counting to ten.

These techniques help for only a short period of time and are supposed to help until the feeling goes away and then you use it next time. Sometimes coping skills don’t help as much as they should, and what if you don’t have access to running water, fidget toys, or your journal? Deep breathing is a skill you can use with literally nothing at all. You breathe in slowly, hold your breath for any amount of seconds you’d like, and then breathe our slowly. You can do this for however long you like, it’s supposed to calm you down and make your body relax. I’ve practiced deep breathing on the train, in the bus, at school, on my way to work, and in lots of other places.

Another skill that comes in handy is counting to ten. This is a similar to deep breathing but involves counting. You breathe in and out and start counting. You continue this until you count to ten or any number you like and it’s also supposed to calm you down. These also help if you suffer from panic and anxiety attacks. And you can do these things without buying any items or bringing anything with you.

Another thing that helps is paying attention to your body. Do you find yourself shaking, fidgeting with your hands, or pacing? These are signs that your anxious, not feeling well, thinking about something, or bothered. If you can you can try to use coping skills during these times before it gets worse. You can also try talking to a friend, family member, therapist, or anyone that you feel will help. When my partner finds me shaking she usually asks what’s going on because she knows me and starts to show concern. You can also let others know your warning signs so they can try to distract you when these things happen.

Another thing to remember is

1. Take it easy on yourself. Being your worst critic is hard, show yourself some love.

2. Remind yourself that you have a condition/illness that’s making you this way

3. Reach out, I wish I reached out to people when I discovered I was suffering with my mental health. Your never alone. You can talk to your therapist, a friend, a health provider, family if you have, a teacher, call a hotline etc.

Stay safe, and stay strong loves 🖤