Feeling Anxious About Losing Loved Ones

Hi Lovey! I feel this in my soul. Last night my anxiety got the best of me, too. I was crying my eyes out and couldn’t begin to say why. Know that you aren’t alone and it’s ok to feel your feels and sometimes our anxiety rears it’s head. We can be here for each other. I like to say that I’m happy to sit in the ick with you!

Hi friend. I, too, have experienced this unfortunate, spiraling thought process. So, if it’s alright, I’d like to offer some tips that have helped me get through. First, acknowledge your feelings and validate them. I know it may seem that you are doing that already, but that’s the GAD tricking you. Acknowledge that you love and care for those loved ones and you want to ensure their safety and well-being. Then, validate that. “I’m a caring person who values others’ lives, and my concern for them is important and it matters” is a good mantra I’ve used. I might then help myself understand that those thoughts are simply that: thoughts. Thinking those thoughts don’t make them true, but they also don’t have some amazing underlying meaning either. They’re typically just bits of info our brains have put together for no apparent reason (other than GAD), and we have to understand that they are meaningless. Next, I try my hardest to ground myself and be in the present, not in the thoughts of the future. Lastly, I give myself some grace. I care, and that is a strength, but it doesn’t have to be the element of my personality that controls me; I control it. Hope this helps💙