What does anxiety do to you? How to cope with anxiety?

In this post, I describe my recent experience with some very intense anxiety, what it did to me and how I dealt with it.

I'm feeling much better now and thought I'd share this online just in case anyone else is having lots of anxiety and wanted to find out how anxiety has affected someone else.

What anxiety did to me

When I started to feel anxious, I'd worry about more things, which would make me feel more anxious and worry more, a negative downward spiral...

Looking back, I was certainly worrying about things I shouldn't have, but at the time it was very hard not to worry about them!

Anxiety overwhelmingly takes over the brain and affects the behaviour of many different parts of it:

Interpretation

Anxiety changes how you interpret things and twists the interpretation to what you're anxious about rather than what actually happened.

Thinking

Anxiety makes it hard to think of things other than what you're anxious about.

Memory

Anxiety makes it hard to remember things other than things related to what you're anxious about.

Ideas

Anxiety influences the ideas that randomly pop into your brain when you're doing things towards what you're anxious about.

Dealing with short-term intense anxiety

• Breathing, deep breaths in (through nose if you can) and out.
• 5-4-3-2-1 technique, 5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, 1 things you can taste.
• Stretching, hold the stretch, mind body connection, feel the stretch
• Body scan, start at the top of your head, scan down to the tips of your toes

Dealing with long-term anxiety

• Yoga - mind body connection
• Do something physical e.g. with your hands
• Reading
• Writing (but not about the anxiety or what caused it)
• Walking/Running/Exercise
• Hot drink (not too much caffeine) e.g. hot chocolate or camomile tea
• Routine e.g. 3 meals a day, bath before bed
• Music
• Talk to friends/family/those that you love

Getting better

For me, getting better involved going to the doctor and being prescribed medication to help reduce my anxiety.  This is not an overnight fix.  The anxiety still came in waves but the waves gradually reduced day by day, small steps.