Managing Anxiety Attacks: Tips and Tricks

Wash your hands with cold water! I promise it would help a lot! Works every time for me 💕

Hi

When I can sense a panic attack coming on I focus directly on something. Maybe I’ll just start at 1 and count upwards or say the alphabet. Sometimes I look around the room and name the colors I see in my head. Sometimes I pay attention to what I feel, my back against the chair, or my feet on the carpeted floor. The socks on my feet or my hair on my shoulders. Anything to keep me in the present. Sitting on the floor helps me as well

^^yes!!! refusing to isolate is an incredible help. talk to someone you really trust. it’s such a relief.

Also, I try to talk to people about how I’m feeling, refusing to isolate myself. That helps me the most.

I try meditation wherever I’m at and convincing myself that whatever I’m worrying about isn’t that bad/won’t happen, and work to avoid it as calmly as I can.

There are a lot “techniques” I’ve used in the 10+ years that I’ve struggled with anxiety. The first is to try to cry. I watch a movie that I know will make me cry (like Lion King for instance) and oftentimes the crying somehow releases the anxiety. The next one sounds out there, but thinking about sex can help. I feel like the brain can’t think about sex at the same time as anything else. Might not be long term, but it’s a good temporary distraction. I used to have frequent anxiety-triggered IBS and used this technique for that. High CBD low THC tincture helps a lot too. If you have the brand ‘Wyld’ in dispensaries near you, they have high CBD strawberry gummies. I take like half of one when I feel anxiety coming on. I’ve heard CBG helps too, but I don’t have much experience with it. Dehydration can be a huge catalyst for anxiety as well so I try to drink plenty of water. In my party years I often got anxiety attacks the day after drinking. In terms of long term prevention, I’ve heard vitamin B deficiency can increase the chance of anxiety. Since I’m a vegetarian I typically don’t get enough vitamin B. Short term, I’ll drink a powerade because it has electrolytes and vitamin B. Long term, I take vitamin B supplements. Magnesium also helps keep me calm, so that’s in my regular supplement/vitamin rotation in addition to probiotics to keep the “second brain” (digestive system) healthy. There’s a good amount of magnesium in dark chocolate if you don’t have access to supplements and it gives you a little endorphin boost too. This is no secret, but lavender is a calming scent that I like to put on my sleeping mask. If you have a friend or partner that you’re close with, physical touch can help. A big hug or a nice spoon/cuddle gives me calming relief. Similarly, I’ve noticed over the years I have certain friends or family members that I feel a great sense of peace in their presence. I try to spend time with these folks as much as possible. Daily yoga also decreases my stress and keeps the anxiety/depression caused by stress at bay. There’s a YouTube channel I love, Yoga with Adriene that has very specific videos (for instance, “Yoga for Anxiety”). Therapy, especially if I’m having a “flare up” has helped me in the past as well. One to three sessions can be enough of a tune up. Like others have said, gardening brightens my day. Even just standing there looking at the plants or pulling a couple weeds is peaceful. I hope you find one or some of these suggestions helpful. Thank you for coming to my hokey pokey hippie ted talk. :)

This might sound bad to say but I’ve been lucky enough to be able to sense the attacks before they go too intense for me, and from there I force myself to do breathing exercises. While I breathe I’ll hum “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” in my head and breathe in, hold, then release to each word. Hope this helps to prevent them from getting bad

Taking a daily anxiety med really helped. Playing with my dog, painting, reading, and lots of walking and yoga. Doing things you love!

I can’t completely prevent my anxiety attacks, but working on myself with my therapist plus taking ssri really lowered the frequency of the attacks

Pet my cats/dog and talk to them. Read, watch something on youtube or netflix or something that is comforting.