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Topic: anxiety reducers?
| Author | Message |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 8/28/2007 10:06:59 AM | show profile I swear, I am having one of those weeks where I feel filled to the brim with anxiety. Work, personal and financial stuff, freelance and volunteer crap - I am overwhelmed. I have that I-am-going-to-explode feeling. And my mind will not stop racing enough to concentrate, either, which isn't making anything better! Give your best non-medication anxiety reducers here, s'il vous plait. Ones that you can do at work will get special consideration. :) Thanks! |
| Janetblueyes | Posted – 8/28/2007 10:51:03 AM | show profile Breathe, breathe and breathe some more! Four seconds inhaling through the nose, four seconds exhaling through the mouth. Try to breathe from the lower abdomen, not from the chest. I find it calming to massage the area where my thumb and palm meet. Log onto a funny website for a few minutes or play a game of online solitaire to quiet your mind. Remember that this too shall pass! Hang in there. I know what you are feeling. |
| mad fingers | Posted – 8/28/2007 11:12:21 AM | show profile I was having that week last week. If it's not too hot where you are, take a walk, preferably where there's some nature, or go to the gym and release some endorphins. |
| HisGirlFriday | Posted – 8/28/2007 11:24:16 AM | show profile Wow - I know where you're coming from - my entire month of July was like that. This is what I do when I'm totally overwhelmed. Say I'm doing some freelance work but my mind is racing with all the other stuff I have to do. I take a few minutes, relax, deep breathes, etc. and then I imagine putting all the other stuff in a file cabinet. Ok, as I'm writing this it sounds a little hokey/new-agey but I imagine "Ok, here is a file folder with my volunteer project. I'mputting it in the drawer. Here is the folder with all the stuff I have to do for The Kid's birthday party. I'm putting it in this drawer. Etc, etc, I do that with all the "folders"of crap I'm dealing with at the moment. Then I imagine and visualize shutting all the drawers. I tell myself that I can deal with all these issues later, but now they're locked away and I can only address one of them at a time. Oh. And somtimes I drink a lot. :) |
| Cyrus | Posted – 8/28/2007 11:31:21 AM | show profile Many people find exercise helpful, assuming you can make the time to do it. I make it a practice to include exercise in my workday routine as least twice a week, but it's easier for me than maybe others, since I make it a point to designate some days as meeting/client days and other days as office days. I don't have any experience with it, but a lot of people swear by meditation. There are obviously tons of books on it, and I think the NY Open Center in SoHo also offers some classes. ------ Cyrus Afzali Astoria Communications www.astoriacomm.com |
| jjones | Posted – 8/28/2007 12:09:20 PM | show profile yoga and meditation Take a yoga class. If it's really, really bad, I'd say go for a run (or do other aerobic activity). You want to get to the point that you are so physically taxed that your mind can't hold onto all the noise it is holding onto now, even if it only lets go for a minute or two. I find yoga helpful, though I may not be able to let go of obsessing until the very end of class. |
| caitlinkelly | Posted – 8/28/2007 1:42:40 PM | show profile The idea of compartmentalizing is a good one. One friend advised me to set aside 5 or 10 minutes a day exclusively to worry...then go do something else. To avoid the exploding head thing, (and you can do this at work, on paper), I recently made a list of all the things causing me anxiety and then prioritized them; number 3 immediately fell to number 12 (of 12, which seemed plenty for one person.) Even looking at all your anxieties, quite literally, in the face, can help you decide which of them is really really essential to fixrightnow and which might be less so. Exercise, or a long walk, especially somewhere beautiful and green with some solitude (others' demands for gym or class space, for example, might fry you at this point), will help a lot. |
| TVchick | Posted – 8/28/2007 1:59:45 PM | show profile I am having one of those weeks too and it's really interfering with my sleep. Here's what helps me: Make a list of everything you have to do. Everything. When you see it on paper, it won't look as bad. It will look doable. Then walk away from it for a while: Go for a run/walk in the park nearby. Turn off the TV period. Read fiction. Not news, magazines, or anything, but fiction. I find that if I read something that isn't related to anything that's going on, even something mildly fantastical (really enjoying One Hundred Years of Solitude now), I find that calms my mind a lot. If you want, go window shopping. With nothing in particular in mind, go try on clothes, get makeup done, that kind of thing. Anything to 'change the channel" so to speak. Pick up a celebrity magazine. Just do something that will yank your mind out of the racing thoughts and into different thoughts, however shallow they may be. After all this, come back to your list and see how much more doable it appears to be. I hope this helps. |
| TVchick | Posted – 8/28/2007 1:59:49 PM | show profile I am having one of those weeks too and it's really interfering with my sleep. Here's what helps me: Make a list of everything you have to do. Everything. When you see it on paper, it won't look as bad. It will look doable. Then walk away from it for a while: Go for a run/walk in the park nearby. Turn off the TV period. Read fiction. Not news, magazines, or anything, but fiction. I find that if I read something that isn't related to anything that's going on, even something mildly fantastical (really enjoying One Hundred Years of Solitude now), I find that calms my mind a lot. If you want, go window shopping. With nothing in particular in mind, go try on clothes, get makeup done, that kind of thing. Anything to 'change the channel" so to speak. Pick up a celebrity magazine. Just do something that will yank your mind out of the racing thoughts and into different thoughts, however shallow they may be. After all this, come back to your list and see how much more doable it appears to be. I hope this helps. |
| SpinDr810 | Posted – 8/28/2007 2:02:51 PM | show profile I know you said non-medication, but GIRL, you need some Xanex! lol I have also dowloaded 1 hour of rain ambient music on my ipod and I take 10-15 minutes to just relax and listen to it. |
| jjones | Posted – 8/28/2007 3:55:32 PM | show profile yeah, music my husband recently read somewhere that people who listen to relaxing music for 45 minutes before bed sleep better, so I've been turning on the classical radio as we get ready for bed. it's nice. i can't say whether it helps or not because i'm already on antidepressants that knock me out. that said, i know you don't want meds. I was anti-med for a long time. I think I still might be. But nothing has made a bigger difference in my life than seeing what life is like on medication. what a difference. i'm on an antidepressant/anti-anxiety med. I never realized how much anxiety I usually feel. Life without that anxiety is pretty amazing. |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 8/28/2007 5:10:47 PM | show profile Thanks! Some good suggestions. And def. no meds for me- I took an antidepressant/anti-anxiety med a few years ago, and after a few different tries on diff. meds, I found they made me feel really jittery- as if I was caffeinated - and if my dose was taken even slightly off schedule, I'd have severe withdrawal symptoms. Never again! :) |
| writesonwater | Posted – 8/28/2007 5:22:28 PM | show profile | email poster Non-caffeine tea after a brisk walk. Also, lately when worries assail me late, I clean the bathrooms. I tell myself, if I have to be up, I'm going to be productive. The compartmentalizing thing is a good idea too. All these ideas are good ones. But definitely get endorphins going. Sympathy and best wishes, Writesonwater. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 8/28/2007 5:26:00 PM | show profile | email poster Also, letting go of non-essential stuff is sometimes ... essential. Look at the list of worrisome material and shrug some of it off -- volunteer work someone else can do for a while, a family member you're not really responsible for but worry about anyway, something you can do nothing about. A glass of wine is okay. Might weed out the caffeine in all forms. Not good for anxious people, I think. And make sure you get enough sleep. There are non-habitforming sleep aids -- my doctor gave me samples of Rozerem I think it'scalled? The one with Abe Lincoln and the Beaver in the commercials about your dreams missing you? but I haven't tried them yet because I'm concerned about being drowsy the next day ... |
| wineaux | Posted – 8/28/2007 8:23:03 PM | show profile yoga has helped me. Aromatherapy too. In particular, lavender. When I can afford it, a massage really helps. I really need to start exercising more regularly. when I run every other day, even if for just twenty minutes, I feel like a different person. You know what's a kick in the pants? I just went on vacation for two weeks, and my first day back at home was the most relaxing day I'd had in months. It was so good to be in my own home, the hell away from people. I spent a full 24 hours hybernating in my house and I felt like that was the vacation I needed. I need to reevaluate what I should do when I vacation, because that trip did NOT relieve stress. It turned me into a pissed off, bitter harpy. |
| Bleak Spouse | Posted – 8/28/2007 8:25:59 PM | show profile Stay away from coffee. I had too much caffeine today and now I feel like I'm gonna die, which is bad. |
| Bleak Spouse | Posted – 8/28/2007 8:29:29 PM | show profile wine: that's interesting what you say about vacation...I know what you mean. Sometimes there's nothing better than being able to get away from everything, and often when you take a vacation you constantly have to deal with people on flights, hotels, cafes, so on. When all you really have to do is shut the door to your home or apartment and unwind. |
| Iron Eagle | Posted – 8/28/2007 8:41:41 PM | show profile We have two gorgeous young dogs. |
| wineaux | Posted – 8/28/2007 9:04:48 PM | show profile The happiest I felt on that trip was heading out the door of JFK and the car service guy handing me a bottle of water, sinking into the back seat and having the door shut to total silence. I felt relief wash all over me. Silence! It's good to be home! |
