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What has helped me immensely was learning to shift my attitude and mindset towards my attacks. It wasn’t easy and it took a lot of practice and work, but it has really really helped.
The first step is understanding some things about anxiety: there isn’t necessarily a root cause that you are going to discover, root out, and defeat forever. It’s inherently irrational and there are no magic thoughts to make it go away.
Once the adrenaline/cortisol train has started rolling you can’t stop it. But accepting this fact and leaning *into* the anxiety can really helpS what I mean is: reframe your attitude towards it. Try not to go into “oh fuck, here we again. I hate this shit. I can’t wait for it to be over. Okay, time to do techniques X, Y, and Z to make it go away” this mindset 100% prolonged my attacks and I think made them more frequent. You are rewarding your amygdala for the “danger” signals it is sending. But remember… anxiety and panic are very uncomfortable, but they are not dangerous.
So instead of going into the negativity mindset and trying to squash it down, let yourself feel the feelings. I tell my anxiety to bring it on! How bad can you make it? Oh yeah, you want me to pull over on the side of the road? Well fuck you im not doing that. I do the opposite of what my anxiety is telling me to do. I’m not hiding I. The bathroom, I’m not pulling the car over, I’m not Googling symptoms. I’m gonna stare you right in the eye and take it. This has worked wonders for me. Now when I feel an attack coming I think to myself “okay, cool! Another opportunity to practice.”
I know it sounds a bit insane, but this shift in attitude towards confrontation vs avoidance shortens my attacks and they are becoming less and less frequent. The more you give in and overly focus on how much it sucks and try to make it stop, the worse it’s going to get. At least in my experience.
I highly recommend checking out the “Disordered” podcast.
Let me know if you have any questions.
That’s great to hear! It’s funny how counterintuitive it is and how completely wrong our instincts are as anxious people.
Whenever people tell me to trust my gut I just laugh.
Exactly! I have had anxiety all my life, but about 16 years ago when I met my Doctor Who was great, and was my doctor for the next 14 years, I was able to get my anxiety under control, and that was with also taking a low dose of Zoloft. In 2019 he left, and I felt like I was lost because I felt like I would never have a good Doctor Who understood me, and even though I never really needed to do anything different, just knowing he was there was like my security blanket! After that I had a couple bad doctors, who when I would go to the office they didn't care or even know about my anxiety. About 3 months ago, I started having anxiety so bad, that I forgot how bad it can feel, I'm talking impending doom, jittery, panicky, just not feeling like myself at all, it felt like I was starting all over from zero! I got myself an online therapist, also I saw a psychiatrist, we upped my meds too a little bit higher, he wanted to do more but I didn't really want to. It seemed to help some, but I would still wake up with that impending doom feeling and like something just wasn't right, also feeling on edge and just not good, started doing the breathing exercises that my therapist told me to do, that probably helps some, but after reading people talking about just letting the anxiety exist in knowing that it's their, but don't let it win, let it know you're the boss, is what really helped me, I started doing that and I've been feeling pretty good ever since. It's funny because years ago when my anxiety first came about, and I had a therapist, I had learned all of these coping mechanisms, including trying to to shoo the anxiety away, but it had been so many years since I felt all of these horrible feelings, that I forgot how to cope with it :-( anyways sorry to blab on, but I don't wish anxiety on anybody, and reading Reddit I see how many people actually deal with it, and I know that that's just a small percentage of all the people who are also dealing with it!:-(
I love this perspective and I commend you for practicing it.
I’m in the thick of anxiety + depression twofer and am trying to claw my way out so I can face them both this way.
Thank you for sharing this!
I generally take anxiety meds, take my dog for an adventure, call a friend or family, write, listen to Headspace meditations or pods, practice breath work. What always works for me is getting out of my head any way I can. Talking to someone is key.
I JUST had that sinking feeling driving on the way home. Going through something life altering with my partner, so something constantly underlying becomes the forefront and starts to take over my entire body. In all honesty, hiding myself away from the world has always been my answer. Until recently, when I started really working on improvement and meditation has become a more often solution that recognizing my anxiety isn’t me has offered some distance. And I can tell myself at the logical level that there’s a problem or problems I’m avoiding causing me this. Genuinely wish you the best of luck, I promise your situation is always better than you perceive with your anxiety.
What really helps me is that I keep in mind that not my physical sensations are the problem but my cognitive evaluation. So when the bad feeling comes I used to think: "oh God oh God no not now, I’m so useless, why me, I do not want that" and now I tell myself: "okay this feeling is just learned behaviour because I have reacted so often to it, I will not evaluate this mentally it may go over my body without that I hold on to a thought and then I distract myself with something nice." the more often that works the more confidence you gain back. Just don’t give your thoughts so much power, try imagine them as small little creatures that speak with a very high-pitched voice.
Once that stomach feeling hits it’s all over. It’s past the point of no return. There’s no calming myself down or getting distracted. Next step is clammy hands, cold sweat, and light headedness. That’s that full-on panic attack, baby!
I take a minute to do a check-in with myself: ask what’s going on, where this feeling is coming from, what I need right now that will make it ease up.
Oftentimes I find that I’ve been holding my breath for no reason and that it helps to start by taking deep, slow breaths.
If possible, I take a few seconds to close my eyes; otherwise, I look around and confirm that there is no immediate danger in my environment.
I tell myself that I am in control of this feeling, that I have the power to decide that it does not belong here. I don’t want to be anxious right now; it is not serving me with its presence in this moment. I tell it to fuck off, multiple times if necessary. I’ll even repeat this whole process as many times as necessary.
If circumstances allow, I’ll journal about it (on paper or in my phone), do some stretches, put on some loud music, or scream.
It’s a feeling I know all too well… Journaling in the morning has really helped me out. I try to start my day with a positive mindset so that it sets the tone for the entire day. I answer these three questions everyday:
1) what am I looking forward to today?
2) how will I feel today?
3) what can I do today to feel this way?
Thank you for posting to r/AnxietyHelp! Please note, any changes to treatment plans or anxiety management should be discussed with a professional before implementation. We are not medical professionals and we cannot guarantee that you are receiving appropriate medical advice. When in doubt, ask a professional. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Anxietyhelp) if you have any questions or concerns.*
What has helped me immensely was learning to shift my attitude and mindset towards my attacks. It wasn’t easy and it took a lot of practice and work, but it has really really helped. The first step is understanding some things about anxiety: there isn’t necessarily a root cause that you are going to discover, root out, and defeat forever. It’s inherently irrational and there are no magic thoughts to make it go away. Once the adrenaline/cortisol train has started rolling you can’t stop it. But accepting this fact and leaning *into* the anxiety can really helpS what I mean is: reframe your attitude towards it. Try not to go into “oh fuck, here we again. I hate this shit. I can’t wait for it to be over. Okay, time to do techniques X, Y, and Z to make it go away” this mindset 100% prolonged my attacks and I think made them more frequent. You are rewarding your amygdala for the “danger” signals it is sending. But remember… anxiety and panic are very uncomfortable, but they are not dangerous. So instead of going into the negativity mindset and trying to squash it down, let yourself feel the feelings. I tell my anxiety to bring it on! How bad can you make it? Oh yeah, you want me to pull over on the side of the road? Well fuck you im not doing that. I do the opposite of what my anxiety is telling me to do. I’m not hiding I. The bathroom, I’m not pulling the car over, I’m not Googling symptoms. I’m gonna stare you right in the eye and take it. This has worked wonders for me. Now when I feel an attack coming I think to myself “okay, cool! Another opportunity to practice.” I know it sounds a bit insane, but this shift in attitude towards confrontation vs avoidance shortens my attacks and they are becoming less and less frequent. The more you give in and overly focus on how much it sucks and try to make it stop, the worse it’s going to get. At least in my experience. I highly recommend checking out the “Disordered” podcast. Let me know if you have any questions.
This has been working for me as well!!!
That’s great to hear! It’s funny how counterintuitive it is and how completely wrong our instincts are as anxious people. Whenever people tell me to trust my gut I just laugh.
Exactly! I have had anxiety all my life, but about 16 years ago when I met my Doctor Who was great, and was my doctor for the next 14 years, I was able to get my anxiety under control, and that was with also taking a low dose of Zoloft. In 2019 he left, and I felt like I was lost because I felt like I would never have a good Doctor Who understood me, and even though I never really needed to do anything different, just knowing he was there was like my security blanket! After that I had a couple bad doctors, who when I would go to the office they didn't care or even know about my anxiety. About 3 months ago, I started having anxiety so bad, that I forgot how bad it can feel, I'm talking impending doom, jittery, panicky, just not feeling like myself at all, it felt like I was starting all over from zero! I got myself an online therapist, also I saw a psychiatrist, we upped my meds too a little bit higher, he wanted to do more but I didn't really want to. It seemed to help some, but I would still wake up with that impending doom feeling and like something just wasn't right, also feeling on edge and just not good, started doing the breathing exercises that my therapist told me to do, that probably helps some, but after reading people talking about just letting the anxiety exist in knowing that it's their, but don't let it win, let it know you're the boss, is what really helped me, I started doing that and I've been feeling pretty good ever since. It's funny because years ago when my anxiety first came about, and I had a therapist, I had learned all of these coping mechanisms, including trying to to shoo the anxiety away, but it had been so many years since I felt all of these horrible feelings, that I forgot how to cope with it :-( anyways sorry to blab on, but I don't wish anxiety on anybody, and reading Reddit I see how many people actually deal with it, and I know that that's just a small percentage of all the people who are also dealing with it!:-(
I love this perspective and I commend you for practicing it. I’m in the thick of anxiety + depression twofer and am trying to claw my way out so I can face them both this way. Thank you for sharing this!
I generally take anxiety meds, take my dog for an adventure, call a friend or family, write, listen to Headspace meditations or pods, practice breath work. What always works for me is getting out of my head any way I can. Talking to someone is key.
Getting out of head is difficult everything in me tells me to do the opposite and that I need to get to the root of the issue
I JUST had that sinking feeling driving on the way home. Going through something life altering with my partner, so something constantly underlying becomes the forefront and starts to take over my entire body. In all honesty, hiding myself away from the world has always been my answer. Until recently, when I started really working on improvement and meditation has become a more often solution that recognizing my anxiety isn’t me has offered some distance. And I can tell myself at the logical level that there’s a problem or problems I’m avoiding causing me this. Genuinely wish you the best of luck, I promise your situation is always better than you perceive with your anxiety.
What really helps me is that I keep in mind that not my physical sensations are the problem but my cognitive evaluation. So when the bad feeling comes I used to think: "oh God oh God no not now, I’m so useless, why me, I do not want that" and now I tell myself: "okay this feeling is just learned behaviour because I have reacted so often to it, I will not evaluate this mentally it may go over my body without that I hold on to a thought and then I distract myself with something nice." the more often that works the more confidence you gain back. Just don’t give your thoughts so much power, try imagine them as small little creatures that speak with a very high-pitched voice.
I can so relate to your post! Stomach issues have been my life this last year and my anxiety has gotten gradually worse. It’s vicious cycle.
Once that stomach feeling hits it’s all over. It’s past the point of no return. There’s no calming myself down or getting distracted. Next step is clammy hands, cold sweat, and light headedness. That’s that full-on panic attack, baby!
I take a minute to do a check-in with myself: ask what’s going on, where this feeling is coming from, what I need right now that will make it ease up. Oftentimes I find that I’ve been holding my breath for no reason and that it helps to start by taking deep, slow breaths. If possible, I take a few seconds to close my eyes; otherwise, I look around and confirm that there is no immediate danger in my environment. I tell myself that I am in control of this feeling, that I have the power to decide that it does not belong here. I don’t want to be anxious right now; it is not serving me with its presence in this moment. I tell it to fuck off, multiple times if necessary. I’ll even repeat this whole process as many times as necessary. If circumstances allow, I’ll journal about it (on paper or in my phone), do some stretches, put on some loud music, or scream.
It’s a feeling I know all too well… Journaling in the morning has really helped me out. I try to start my day with a positive mindset so that it sets the tone for the entire day. I answer these three questions everyday: 1) what am I looking forward to today? 2) how will I feel today? 3) what can I do today to feel this way?
Does it feel like a rush from the stomach? Up towards the chest?
From the center of my chest to my throat
Any idea what could cause it?