Deadlines Make My Anxiety Much Worse

I regularly record my anxiety symptoms, as it helps me determine exactly what is triggering their onset. In doing this, I have noticed a strong correlation between deadlines (I work as a freelance writer) and anxiety. This is not "normal" anxiety. I am not particularly nervous about my latest project, in fact I am quite confident yet the anxiety is palpable. This has become a major obstacle for me.

Does this happen to anyone else? Any tips? Thank You.

Hi,

You say you record your symptoms to find out triggers, are you able to self-talk at all while anxious. Say things either in the mind or out loud to make you feel better?

The only way I"ve been able to over-come feeling anxious or panicky is to do self talk.

Reminding myself that I'm OK, that it will pass. It's OK that I feel this way right now etc.
I find acknowledging it does wonders.

Also I found this article that looks to be helpful, perhaps some of these may benefit you?
http://www.hopeway.org/lifehelps/antidotes.asp

Also take a look at the coping methods/techniques section, I'm not done adding to it yet, but may something there will help as well.

Just so you know, what you feel is not abnormal at all, you suffer with anxiety, so it's quite normal for you to feel that spike of anxiousness before a deadline, knowing it needs to get done, even if you know it'll get finished, anxiety can be triggered by literally anything & everything that you won't think will actually trigger it.

Thanks for replying. I have also found self-talk to be helpful. I used to castastrophize everyhting an obsess on my anxious feelings. Self-talk is a good way to put things into perspective.

I find self talk very difficult. I am usually set in my ways and then the spiral affect occurs, making it near impossible to get my mind out of its bad habits. So, I wish I could talk myself out of it.

- 'just putting in my 2 cents'

-Genevieve