Coping Strategies

Control your worry. Pick a place and time to do your worrying. Make it the same time in the same place every day. Spend 30 minutes thinking about your concerns and what you can do about them. Try not to dwell on what "might" happen. Focus more on what’s really happening, instead of what might happen.
Relax. You may learn techniques to help you relax. These may include muscle relaxation, yoga, biofeedback and deep breathing. Muscle relaxation is simple. Start by choosing a muscle and holding tight for a few seconds. Relax the muscle after a few seconds. Do this with all of your muscles. Try starting with your feet and working up your body. One relaxation technique is deep breathing.

Steps to deep breathing:

1. Lie down on a comfortable (flat) surface.
2. Place one hand on your stomach, just above your navel. Place the other hand on your chest.
3. Breathe in slowly and try to make your stomach rise a little.
4. Hold your breath for a second.
5. Breathe out slowly and let your stomach go back down.
6. Repeat.

Confront the things that have made you anxious in the past. Begin by just picturing yourself confronting these things. By doing this, you can begin to get used to the idea of confronting the things that make you anxious before you actually do it. After you begin to feel more comfortable picturing yourself confronting these things, you can begin to actually face them.
Focus on a simple task
Identify your anxiety and label your feelings as they happen. Recognize that your fear will come and then go away, in this way you can begin to recognize that the anxiety is not life threatening.
Exercise regularly.
Get plenty of sleep.
Avoid alcohol or substance abuse.
Avoid caffeine.
Use medicine if it helps.
Talk about your anxiety with someone.

General tips for dealing with stress and anxiety conditions

Often stress contributes to anxiety conditions. There are many ways to be proactive in dealing with stress and anxiety; here are some suggestions from the Canadian Mental Health Association.

1. Build confidence- Identify your abilities and weaknesses together, accept them build on them and do the best with what you have
2. Eat right, keep fit- A balanced diet, exercise and rest can help you to reduce stress and enjoy life.
3. Make time for family and friends- These relationships need to be nurtured; if taken for granted they will not be there to share life's joys and sorrows.
4. Give and accept support- Friends and family relationships thrive when they are "put to the test"
5. Create a meaningful budget Financial -problems cause stress. Over-spending on our "wants" instead of our "needs" is often the culprit.
6. Volunteer Being -involved in community gives a sense of purpose and satisfaction that paid work cannot.
7. Manage stress- We all have stressors in our lives but learning how to deal with them when they threaten to overwhelm us will maintain our mental health.
8. Find strength in numbers- Sharing a problem with others have had similar experiences may help you find a solution and will make you feel less isolated.
9. Identify and deal with moods- We all need to find safe and constructive ways to express our feelings of anger, sadness, joy and fear.
10. Learn to be at peace with yourself -Get to know whom you are, what make you really happy, and learn to balance what you can and cannot change about yourself.

Anxiety Ontario

im not sure how i can send a message to you im new here, if you can read this i need help understanding my condition. You seem to know everything there is about Anxiety. i have had a major anxiety attack a year ago i have never been the same, it feels like im going crazy. i keep fearing that im going to end up in a mental institute and i don't want my fear to turn into reality. im always thinking, thinking and thinking and its driving me crazy. my neck is always tense, my vision seems off, my head feels strange, my mind just feels wierd. i keep trying to think of happy things and when i do its like my fear will block out my happy thoughts, its taking over my life. i hope i am not schizo because i see little dots at the corner of my eye and it scares me. im not delusional, i don't see major things, i don't hear things, i act completely normal, i just fear that one day i will start hearing, seeing and have delusions. i just keep thinking of why this is happening to me, its not fair. anyways if you got this i hope you can give me a truthful response. oh yah and i will not go on meds, the fact is meds are not ment to be in our bodies. tomorrow i am going to get my blood tested to see if i have low blood sugar, if my blood is fine i really don't know what to do. i have tried cleansing, energy healing, herbs, vitamins, eating healthy, remedies and i think they have kept me off the edge but they have not cured me, the only other thing i can think of is my unconcius mind, maybe it is the problem.

Hi hun... if you want to message me one on one all you have to do is click on my PM button .

Do you know a year ago what caused the panic attack, where were you, what were you doing, thinking?

Everyone gets anxious, whether it's for a job interview, buying a new house etc... that's not uncommon. When it starts to take over your life and everyday you think oh god now I'm going to be anxious if I do this and that, I don't want to feel this way is a problem.

You are not going Schizo, so many anxiety suffers feel they are going insane because the symptoms of anxiety are horrible.

You aren't. There are techniques you can do to help you with the anxiety, there is a certain type of breathing that can help you it's called Abdominal Breathing, I may have it somewhere in this forum or the panic disorder forum under Information Thread. I used to have more but we had problems with the site awhile back and alot of my posts were deleted.

Also Positive Affirmations do wonders as well as positive self-talk. I live by positive self talk, it's the only way I can cope with stressful situations or situations of anxiety.

Reminding yourself either out loud or in your head. That i'm ok, it's just anxiety it will pass, it always does...

I'm ok I can do this, breathe, relax.

Things like that.. but it's key to do it EVERY single time you feel anxiety ridden, I can take out my notes from therapy and share mine if you'd like.

Also if you feel that it is over-whelming go talk to your doctor and see if you can talk to someone to help you deal with it, meds help with anxiety symptoms but doesn't rid you of anxiety, only you can do that. However if you can do it with out anxiety the better.

Also always face the situations that make you anxious. Anxiety makes you anticipate the worse possible scenerio, if I go here i'm get sick, if I do this I may faint. That wont happen, chances are everything up to what you have to do will be the worse, once you remind yourself that you will be ok your brain will start to recognize this and it'll become eaiser. Chances are once you are there for example you'll wonder why was I ever worked?

I hope this is making sense to you.

Also self-help books did wonders for me 2 in particular, the first one I highly reccomend it literally changed my way of thinking in terms of anxiety, great book it's called. Don't Panic overcoming panic attacks by R. Reid Wilson PH.D

The other is The anxiety & phobia workbook by Edmund J Bourne PH.D

Feel free to pm me anything, or post in the forums... i'll check out your posts.

Take care, and don't worry anxiety sucks BIG TIME but nothing horrible will happen to you except for discomfort... Hang in there.

I would really appreciate it if anyone would please follow my blog. I recently came to terms with the fact that I am in fact a pathological lier and am on a journey to recovery. I would really appreciate it if you would all join me on this journey, writing this blog is my way of coping with my suffering and hopefully i can help others cope as well.
http://littlemissdeceit.blogspot.com/

It’s helpful to calm your physiology so you reverse your stress response. One helpful stress relief strategies for some quick coping strategies is to take a walk. Taking a walk when stressed provides the bonus of getting you out of the stressful situation and providing some perspective so you can return in a new frame of mind.

Coping isn't just for anxiety - coping works well for bipolar disorder too. The strategies mentioned above are very solid ways of coping in a positive and constructive way - very good post. I would add that "humor" is possibly the best form of coping out there. One great quote is "Always laugh when you can. It's cheap medicine." - Lord Byron

I know of a great strategy to live beyond coping, which involves aligning self-identity, life-challenges, and life's work or purpose. For anyone interested, please PM me.

- Ian

What happens when someone cannot do these coping strategies? My problems in this area has caused some bitter fights with therapists and psychologists as they scream at me how i'm lying and how worthless I am, etc.

Once i'm in anxiety attack or worse, panic attack... breathing control causes me suffocation panic, and all other means cause me to feel retarded, worthless, and very quickly degenerate to thoughts of suicide as i'm so retarded I don't deserve to live. Professionals scream at me about this. Telling me to shutup they have the PHD listen to them, screaming and screaming, so much humiliation.

I've been dealing with depression, both forms of anxiety, PTSD, aspergers, and other unnamed things (some of my reactions are illogical, but the professionals won't name what that means) for over twenty-three years now. I filed for disability just three years ago and got it in one try, which surprised the hell out of me after the stories I had heard. But since then... pills don't help and add all sorts of new problems (like this wonderful paranoia i'm about to die violently. That one is FUN), and well therapy has just striped me slowly of the ability to go outside my house as they have humliated me again and again and... *sighs* anyways.

Butterfly Fairie, or anyone else here for that matter, I choose to not PM first, because I know how severe my resistance is to advice and how frustrating I can be because of my problems. I've gotten to where I send a rather LONG email to perspective therapists now just so they have an idea what they are in for before we start, because I have come to accept I am one huge problem to deal with in therapy because of my history with abuse, trauma, and learning disorder.

I will also warn... my triggers are many and scattered all about my mind. IF y'all see me talking of dying, killing myself, etc. Do NOT freak out. I have severe despair bouts, but in twenty-six years of dealing with all this have not attempted suicide. And I have ample means. Doctors LOVE to hand out pills that are lethal if you know how to mix and match with the wrong OTHER things. Weapons, places to use them, etc. I have it all and have had it for YEARS. So... the warning is this, i freak out and start talking despair, suicide, wanting to die... pretend I didn't say A THING. Okay? I become fixated at these times (got to love autism at times like that) and i know NOTHING that breaks me out that involves talking ABOUT how i feel. The more i talk about it, the worse I get until i shutdown. So trying to discuss it with me does not help. Get me back on the topic of HELPING somewhere else, that is my secret way out of these things. Doesn't always work, but it sometimes does.

Doctors and professionals start screaming and freaking out at these times, so... I mean i've been thrown out of offices and refused future appointments over this stuff IRL, thus why i'm here.

@remusmdh - sorry to hear you're feeling this way. Everyone is wired in different way - so talking something out might help for someone, but it might not work for others. It seems you cope better when you have other things keeping you busy.

Do you have any other coping mechanisms?