Tips for the anxiety
Guest
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 18
Tips for the anxiety
Can anyone share their tips on how to get over this crazy anxiety?
I have a Fitbit and my HR is not crazy fast. High 70s and 80s, but my anxiety is through the roof. So much, that I can't even close my eyes to try and meditate it away
I have a Fitbit and my HR is not crazy fast. High 70s and 80s, but my anxiety is through the roof. So much, that I can't even close my eyes to try and meditate it away
Member
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 1,095
My anxiety has been brutal for the last year. I was always able to drink the anxiety away but that wasn't even working anymore - that is why I quit drinking 38 days ago.
I started taking Celexa 5 weeks ago for anxiety and depression, I see a talk therapist, I meditate and I am doing Dialectical Behavior Therapy as well.
It is helping but it takes time. Good Luck.
I started taking Celexa 5 weeks ago for anxiety and depression, I see a talk therapist, I meditate and I am doing Dialectical Behavior Therapy as well.
It is helping but it takes time. Good Luck.
Member
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: US
Posts: 5,095
I have two types (well 3 really if you count PTSD) of anxiety. The kind I get in early abstinence due to the cessation of alcohol and GAD, the kind I've had all my life.
The alcohol induced anxiety does go away, at least for me, after a few weeks of not drinking. I alleviate it short term with exercise, staying busy, eating right, staying hydrated, good vitamins (talk with the dr.) and deep breathing. Sleep, if possible.
The GAD is trickier but I've been dealing with it for as long as I can remember. Medications don't work for me so its all lifestyle. I try to keep a predictable schedule..limit surprises and anything spontaneous. Exercise is key, daily. Eating a healthy diet. Lots of sleep. Anything to support my CNS and keep it 'calm'. I stay busy. 12 step works well for me because it teaches me ways of letting go. Ways of staying out of the results and the future. Ways of accepting that I control very little in life, but that my HP has control and to have faith in that. Basically 12 step helps with all the fear that drives anxiety. Unfortunately for me there is not magic pill.
The alcohol induced anxiety does go away, at least for me, after a few weeks of not drinking. I alleviate it short term with exercise, staying busy, eating right, staying hydrated, good vitamins (talk with the dr.) and deep breathing. Sleep, if possible.
The GAD is trickier but I've been dealing with it for as long as I can remember. Medications don't work for me so its all lifestyle. I try to keep a predictable schedule..limit surprises and anything spontaneous. Exercise is key, daily. Eating a healthy diet. Lots of sleep. Anything to support my CNS and keep it 'calm'. I stay busy. 12 step works well for me because it teaches me ways of letting go. Ways of staying out of the results and the future. Ways of accepting that I control very little in life, but that my HP has control and to have faith in that. Basically 12 step helps with all the fear that drives anxiety. Unfortunately for me there is not magic pill.
Guest
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Northwest
Posts: 4,215
Some things that have helped me...
1) Cut out coffee...it messes with your heart rate and your blood sugar.
2) If it's okay with your doctor, a calcium citrate supplement with zinc and vitamin D is a big help.
3) Warm milk is very soothing.
4) Take a long meandering walk where you go toward whatever catches your eye. Leave the phone off or better, at home. Smile at people. Look at the sky.
5) Turn off the television. Everything on it is designed to increase your anxiety so you'll buy more, eat more, drink more, especially this time of year. I got rid of mine entirely a few months ago and it really helps.
6) Avoid news sites online, same reasons.
7) Skip Facebook. It's full of people creating drama and making their imperfect lives seem perfect. Comparisons are inevitable...and destructive.
The longer you are sober the more your biochemistry re-learns how to calm itself. Give yourself a mental hug.
And take another hug from me...
1) Cut out coffee...it messes with your heart rate and your blood sugar.
2) If it's okay with your doctor, a calcium citrate supplement with zinc and vitamin D is a big help.
3) Warm milk is very soothing.
4) Take a long meandering walk where you go toward whatever catches your eye. Leave the phone off or better, at home. Smile at people. Look at the sky.
5) Turn off the television. Everything on it is designed to increase your anxiety so you'll buy more, eat more, drink more, especially this time of year. I got rid of mine entirely a few months ago and it really helps.
6) Avoid news sites online, same reasons.
7) Skip Facebook. It's full of people creating drama and making their imperfect lives seem perfect. Comparisons are inevitable...and destructive.
The longer you are sober the more your biochemistry re-learns how to calm itself. Give yourself a mental hug.
And take another hug from me...
Member
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 1,095
Originally Posted by Ariesagain 
5) Turn off the television. Everything on it is designed to increase your anxiety so you'll buy more, eat more, drink more, especially this time of year. I got rid of mine entirely a few months ago and it really helps.
6) Avoid news sites online, same reasons.
7) Skip Facebook. It's full of people creating drama and making their imperfect lives seem perfect. Comparisons are inevitable...and destructive.
...
Forum Leader
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 16,945
Anxiety sufferer here too. Health anxiety was one of the main areas as well. I use mindfulness and meditation as one of my tools, I also have greatly reduced my caffeine and sugar intake. Trying to get exercise helps as well. I also see a counselor from time to time and that helps keep me focused on my tools as well as helping me find new ones.
Specific to the health anxiety thing, i'd say get rid of the fit-bit or at least turn off the real-time heart rate monitoring. That in itself can create anxiety.
Specific to the health anxiety thing, i'd say get rid of the fit-bit or at least turn off the real-time heart rate monitoring. That in itself can create anxiety.
Member
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 2,950
What kinds of things are you anxious about? Is it a generalized anxiety that doesn't seem to be connected to an actual event in the present or a potential event in the future? Could it be linked to past conditioning? I've learned that I can condition myself to focus less on what might go wrong, and focus more - no, solely on what can go right.
Oooh! I know. Stop what you're doing right now and go on youtube and find a 'guided meditation for anxiety'. They can be five or ten minutes or longer, try a five minute one. Just try it and see.
It can be really helpful to note that we're capable of relieving our anxiety even for just a few minutes, then we discover that we can do it more often and for longer periods.
Oooh! I know. Stop what you're doing right now and go on youtube and find a 'guided meditation for anxiety'. They can be five or ten minutes or longer, try a five minute one. Just try it and see.
It can be really helpful to note that we're capable of relieving our anxiety even for just a few minutes, then we discover that we can do it more often and for longer periods.
Member
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 2,950
Originally Posted by Dreamz469
Just some good ole fashion GAD. Not thinking of anything. Just watching movies, trying to pass the time. I do the deep breathing but it doesn't seem to help.
I just sent my sister this little thing I found at a book store called Wreck This Journal. On each page it has a different little thing to do.. write, doodle, mess up, destroy, color, etc etc.. open to a random page and do what it tells you. This creative activity can be done in moments when she would normally light a cigarette or start to spiral in to anxiety.
My forever favorite moment in my early recovery? Having a stressful day and wanting nothing more than to run to Michael's for craft supplies, in the very way I used to want to run to the liquor store!
I used to watch movies and tv shows I'd already seen when I wanted to numb the anxiety, but I don't think that's the optimal form of medicine.. I think creating or exploring something new is best because it sends us FORWARD, it channels our energy in to something. Exercise is good too, because anxiety truly is pent up emotional energy that manifests as physical energy - you gotta burn that off in constructive ways, even if it is dancing by yourself or scrubbing your kitchen floor!
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Thailand
Posts: 6,594
What I used to get was this sense of impending doom that would really scare me, every few days in early sobriety. Would that be what you call anxiety? I thoguht the roof was going to fall in on me.
With the help of a good sponsor, I learned this state was self inflicted, though I was completlely unaware of it. I couldn't see how I got in this state, couldn't think may way out of it.
The long and the short of it was I still had an alcoholic mind and was till operating in alcoholic mode. So I would have a seeming period of good days, still sober, meeting, talk to sponsor etc. I thought I was doing all the right things, then, out of nowhere, it all seemed to be going wrong.
You see, I had not yet had the personality change that comes from working the steps. Though sober there was still something wrong with my reaction to life. I was reacting normally for me, and this was the result.
Each time it happened my sponsor and I would go over the previous few days. He had a great memory thank goodness. We were able to identify small relatively insignificant events where I had acted with selfish motives, old alcoholic instinct driven thinking, which had placed me in a position where I could be hurt. A single event wasn't the problem, it was an accumulation of events and the resulting niggles that combined, losing their original identity and brought on the sense of impending doom, the big black cloud.
When I took my fourth step I was able to see how I was my own worst enemy. There were a number of things about the way I thought and reacted to life that always lead me eventually to drink.It brought great insight.
With the help of a good sponsor, I learned this state was self inflicted, though I was completlely unaware of it. I couldn't see how I got in this state, couldn't think may way out of it.
The long and the short of it was I still had an alcoholic mind and was till operating in alcoholic mode. So I would have a seeming period of good days, still sober, meeting, talk to sponsor etc. I thought I was doing all the right things, then, out of nowhere, it all seemed to be going wrong.
You see, I had not yet had the personality change that comes from working the steps. Though sober there was still something wrong with my reaction to life. I was reacting normally for me, and this was the result.
Each time it happened my sponsor and I would go over the previous few days. He had a great memory thank goodness. We were able to identify small relatively insignificant events where I had acted with selfish motives, old alcoholic instinct driven thinking, which had placed me in a position where I could be hurt. A single event wasn't the problem, it was an accumulation of events and the resulting niggles that combined, losing their original identity and brought on the sense of impending doom, the big black cloud.
When I took my fourth step I was able to see how I was my own worst enemy. There were a number of things about the way I thought and reacted to life that always lead me eventually to drink.It brought great insight.
Member
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 2,950
I heard "that impending doom feeling" all along growing up, from my mother, the psych nurse, to my brother, the one with the most behavioral and mental problems of the four of us. I would get it, too, I just never spoke about it.
But I had it from the age of 9 or so on, after a scenario on my mom's soap opera had one of the characters buried alive in a coffin intentionally. I was terrified it would happen to me. At 9 years old. I only recently stopped feeling gripping fear at the prospect that I would one day die.
It's no wonder we became drinkers, is it?
But I had it from the age of 9 or so on, after a scenario on my mom's soap opera had one of the characters buried alive in a coffin intentionally. I was terrified it would happen to me. At 9 years old. I only recently stopped feeling gripping fear at the prospect that I would one day die.
It's no wonder we became drinkers, is it?
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
