Dealing with Anxiety: How to Cope with Overwhelming Feelings

I relate to you. I have had some super high anxiety experiences lying there thinking I gotta be inpatient or should just give up. In the moment, I’ve learned I just have to force myself to work on something…a project, cleaning up the house, playing an engaging game, talking to someone about a distracting topic, etc, or sleeping if it’s close enough to bed time. Long term, finding a therapist to talk to helps a lot, and find a psychiatrist (there’s several online services now) and work on anxiety meds. It takes a long time to dial in the right meds, but you should get at least some relief pretty quickly and more improvement over time. If you can’t find someone specialized any medical doctor can at least get you started on some meds. I’d ask for an SSRI like Prozac or Zoloft, and a instant-acting anti anxiety rx like hydroxyzine HCL or propranolol. They should give you those without needing a thorough exam because they’re safe and have very low abuse potential.