5 Things you can do now to deal with Anxiety

It’s crucial to recognize that what works for someone else’s anxiety may not work for yours. I have been producing anxiety blog posts here for years now and I can attest to the fact that everyone has unique triggers and a unique situation. The purpose of today’s post is to give some general advice on things you can do right now to help with anxiety. Generally, these should work for everyone.

Keep a journal of your moods so you can recognize patterns. You can also write about your thoughts to figure out what’s really bothering you. I do this, I suffer from invasive thoughts. There are days when I am back in 1987 and reliving horrible things I may have said or done.

Exercise three to five times a week for 30 minutes to help relieve your anxiety. This is just overall good for you, the buildup of positive outcomes from consistent exercise is unbelievable.

Avoid drinking too much caffeine such as soft drinks or coffee, which is known to exacerbate anxiety. I drink coffee everyday so this is hypocritical to a degree. I’ve cut down, and so should you.

Limit alcohol, which can increase anxiety and panic attacks. Booze can really affect you emotionally and chemically. Go ahead and have a cocktail from time to time but getting loaded regularly is a really bad sign.

Count to 10 slowly. Repeat and count to 20 if necessary. Slow controlled breathing can be an instant anxiety reliever, try it.

Honorable mention here is sleep. Your body heals itself when it is at rest and that includes your mental and spiritual self as well. These are basic advices I understand. Sometimes it’s important to get back to basics and refresh on those before we get into the more complex issues of medications, therapy, family.

Even if one of them work for you then it’s a resounding success. One day at a time, you are doing awesome!

Thank you so much for coming by and supporting my blog I really appreciate it. Want to see another post like this one? Click here.  

5 Things you can do now to deal with Anxiety

It’s crucial to recognize that what works for someone else’s anxiety may not work for yours. I have been producing anxiety blog posts here for years now and I can attest to the fact that everyone has unique triggers and a unique situation. The purpose of today’s post is to give some general advice on things you can do right now to help with anxiety. Generally, these should work for everyone.

Keep a journal of your moods so you can recognize patterns. You can also write about your thoughts to figure out what’s really bothering you. I do this, I suffer from invasive thoughts. There are days when I am back in 1987 and reliving horrible things I may have said or done.

Exercise three to five times a week for 30 minutes to help relieve your anxiety. This is just overall good for you, the buildup of positive outcomes from consistent exercise is unbelievable.

Avoid drinking too much caffeine such as soft drinks or coffee, which is known to exacerbate anxiety. I drink coffee everyday so this is hypocritical to a degree. I’ve cut down, and so should you.

Limit alcohol, which can increase anxiety and panic attacks. Booze can really affect you emotionally and chemically. Go ahead and have a cocktail from time to time but getting loaded regularly is a really bad sign.

Count to 10 slowly. Repeat and count to 20 if necessary. Slow controlled breathing can be an instant anxiety reliever, try it.

Honorable mention here is sleep. Your body heals itself when it is at rest and that includes your mental and spiritual self as well. These are basic advices I understand. Sometimes it’s important to get back to basics and refresh on those before we get into the more complex issues of medications, therapy, family.

Even if one of them work for you then it’s a resounding success. One day at a time, you are doing awesome!

Thank you so much for coming by and supporting my blog I really appreciate it. Want to see another post like this one? Click here.  

5 Things you can do now to deal with Anxiety

It’s crucial to recognize that what works for someone else’s anxiety may not work for yours. I have been producing anxiety blog posts here for years now and I can attest to the fact that everyone has unique triggers and a unique situation. The purpose of today’s post is to give some general advice on things you can do right now to help with anxiety. Generally, these should work for everyone.

Keep a journal of your moods so you can recognize patterns. You can also write about your thoughts to figure out what’s really bothering you. I do this, I suffer from invasive thoughts. There are days when I am back in 1987 and reliving horrible things I may have said or done.

Exercise three to five times a week for 30 minutes to help relieve your anxiety. This is just overall good for you, the buildup of positive outcomes from consistent exercise is unbelievable.

Avoid drinking too much caffeine such as soft drinks or coffee, which is known to exacerbate anxiety. I drink coffee everyday so this is hypocritical to a degree. I’ve cut down, and so should you.

Limit alcohol, which can increase anxiety and panic attacks. Booze can really affect you emotionally and chemically. Go ahead and have a cocktail from time to time but getting loaded regularly is a really bad sign.

Count to 10 slowly. Repeat and count to 20 if necessary. Slow controlled breathing can be an instant anxiety reliever, try it.

Honorable mention here is sleep. Your body heals itself when it is at rest and that includes your mental and spiritual self as well. These are basic advices I understand. Sometimes it’s important to get back to basics and refresh on those before we get into the more complex issues of medications, therapy, family.

Even if one of them work for you then it’s a resounding success. One day at a time, you are doing awesome!

Thank you so much for coming by and supporting my blog I really appreciate it. Want to see another post like this one? Click here.  

stressed-out-woman

Anxiety is contagious

It is, sadly. I know for me anyway when I am around someone with anxiety it infects me and I begin to fall down the rabbit hole. I’m sure it is for you as well and the smaller the world gets the more opportunities we have to be consumed by it. In my travels around the web I found a decent article here regarding the issue “is anxiety contagious”

From the article: “We’ve all experienced what it’s like to be in a tense meeting or around highly anxious people. We often absorb that angst and come away with higher levels of stress. Younger children are especially vulnerable to picking up anxiety signals from their parents because their coping skills aren’t well-developed. Children rely on parents to protect them and keep them calm, to prevent them from feeling that their world is unsafe and unpredictable.”

Am I contagious?
Am I contagious?

I liked the format of this article a lot, it was more of a question answer and the article was generous on how it allowed elaboration. The article took a good look at the spectrum of individuals who may be impacted by contagious anxiety. The parts about children were particularly compelling to me. I imagine all across the world right now with Covid running rampant that kids are impacted dramatically. Normal is out the window, sports, activities, family outings everything has been thrown askew.

Kids have far less experience to pull from to help them cope but always seem to be the most resistant. The article does a good job of talking us through how we deliver anxiety to others. I know in my case I have worked diligently to not allow my personal anxiety to infect those around me. I have had mixed results to be honest, there are times when I simply can’t help it and it comes out in the form of worry, sarcasm and yes anger.

I think it’s important to be in the phase of our illness to have the ability to understand when we are in those moments. Even if we never improve our mental states, awareness is critical to not only coping with our own mental health journey but to not becoming a spreader either. The latter being extremely important as we wrap up 2020. The children in our lives are all struggling through this new reality, If we can check ourselves just once as we feel anxiety creep into our lives it may help alieve their internal stresses as well.

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The Veterans Post traumatic Growth Act

So, if you can step back from the gripping 24/7 coverage of impeachment you can from time to time find some positive news coming out of Washington. There has been a new bill introduced that will increase mental health options for Veterans dealing with PTSD. This bill will over time increase resources into mental health treatments for veterans which inevitably will have a trickle-down effect into the general population.

An article covering the new bill is here

From the article: “Despite increased funding at the Department of Veterans Affairs over the past few years, veteran suicide continues to tragically take the lives of the men and women who served our country in uniform at an alarming rate,” said McSally. “Every veteran is impacted differently, so it’s important that all veterans have access to care that helps them, rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach. Our bill would allow veterans utilizing the Department of Veterans Affairs to access novel and non-traditional treatments that could make a difference in their life.”

This is troubling. Suicide is the ultimate end game for anxiety and depression and its very sad that many of our service members end up at that end. The end game SHOULD be are more options and more resources to help ALL people with mental health issues. This bill is a step toward that end. I mean what else is a government mandate other than to protect and serve its people?

The likelihood of this passing is high, as most of the congress is pro troops (not necessarily pro military) the residual effect of this will be outsourcing of the new resources to qualified professionals likely through nonprofits. Again, this isn’t a catch all be all solution but more resources, more awareness is a positive outcome.

In the end serving our veterans should be a priority. These men and women put their lives on the line when called to ensure our freedom. They deserve the best care we can afford, and this hopefully is a step in the direction of less military and more money toward disease and the human condition.