Have you experienced anxiety? What has helped you to deal with it?

Well, once when I was on an airplane, there was major turbulance. The pilot had told us that we were passing through a hurricane. It was torchure. And did I mention, I was by myslef?

The only way I delt with my anxiety was deep breathing. And of course talking to the really hot guy next to me. I normally calm myself by reading as well.

Sometimes I do take medication for anxiety when it’s in my head, when the sound of my own wheels drive is driving me crazy, to paraphrase an old Jackson Browne song, but my anxiety is generally very physically based so a lot of times I can deal with it by taking a nice brisk walk and walking it off or doing something physical like yard work. But, I don’t have panic attacks any more, thank god.

General anxiety and panic (huge “I’m going to pass out or die” panic). I’ve kicked it, but it took a few things…

1. I needed some Prozac to help.
2. Breathing and relaxation exercises.

While I consider it a thing in my past, I’m aware that it’s always there below the surface. Meditation has done wonders for me recently, and I feel stronger than ever. Along with the other advantages I get from meditating, I feel like I am strengthening my ability to stay afloat during even the most stressful of experiences.

Sorry, I forgot this…

@stardust: “When the physical symptoms of a panic attack take over, how do you deal with it?”

I was hyperventilating. I needed to control my breathing to calm everything down. I would find that I needed to isolate myself (even if in a public restroom). Then I would exhale completely. I mean, push every last bit of air out of those lungs. Then I would breathe in through my nose very slowly. It wouldn’t be a chest breath – it would be from the stomach. I would watch to make sure my stomach expanded. Then I would hold my breath. I would hold it until I felt I couldn’t hold it any more, then I would slowly exhale through pursed lips until there wasn’t a single square centimeter of breath left in my lungs. After a few of these complete breaths, I would usually start to feel some relief. Often, it was enough to convince myself that I could pull out of it, and I would start to breathe normally and calmly.

Yes I have, at times, experienced crippling anxiety

Practising progressive muscle relaxation techniques is very effective in controlling anxiety and it works because it is impossible to be both anxious and at the same time to have your body’s muscles very relaxed.

Have you experienced anxiety? Yes, more than once. Music helped a lot, and so did writing. Crying did not help, so I did my best not to cry.
When the physical symptoms of a panic attack take over, how do you deal with it?
Deep breaths. Close your eyes, and try not to think about anything in particular. Clear your mind and keep taking deep breaths. If you can, go somewhere where you can be alone.

I have generalized anxiety disorder and take medication daily for it, but it’s not always effective. There are times when my mind just reaches out on its own and finds something to latch onto in order to spin out of control.

I’ve learned through lots of experience to recognize the symptoms early enough that I can normally assuage it. I use breathing exercises and meditation when I can. One simple breathing exercise is to hold one nostril closed while breathing in through through the other one. When the lungs are full, breathe out through the mouth slowly exhaling as much air and more as possible. This relaxes the diaphragm and helps reduce the stress.

I agree with @MilkyWay . Writing is my life saver.

Watching a good movie always squashes any anxiety for me.

Drugs. Klonazepam, in specific. But I didn’t like feeling dull and sleepy. I’d rather feel the anxiety. Fortunately my anxiety was related to another mental illness and it went away when that illness was treated.

Like others, I wrote. And wrote. And write. Anyone who has been here for more than a week will probably have figured that out. Answering questions helps me think things in my life through and I tend to get more comfortable with my choices and worry less about things that I’m making up in my head.

Also, mindfulness work helped. It lets me not be attached so much to the ideas that things are wrong. When I let them go, I feel them, but I don’t stay attached to them.

Also, I give up. There’s a lot I couldn’t fight and I discovered that when I gave up, the things I was fighting were suddenly less powerful. It was as if I had been feeding them. And of course I had.

My problem isn’t really anxiety, it’s depression. But I’ve read lots of self help books, and they all say much the same thing. You control your own thoughts, so when you start to feel out of control, just think about something nice…something realllly nice. Thinking about bad things when they really don’t concern you is worse than pointless.

I took xenaphalaphahydoxilotl. It really help….zzzzzz.

I go for a run. I had tried medication but I found physically exerting myself was the best way to handle it.

Anxiety is just an mood that everyone experiences (absolutely everyone). Anxiety disorders are when the severity of that anxiety and/or frequency starts to really get in the way of everyday life.

Yeah, I’ve had some anxiety issues. I had some drugs to help me (a couple of benzos and Lexapro), did a lot of mindfulness and meditation, did some EMDR around the things that were causing severe anxiety. There’s a list of things that’s really great for helping you when you’re anxious or depressed.

The biggest thing I can recommend for dealing with the physical symptoms is breathing. When you’re in a panic attack, you’re totally in fight-or-flight mode with the sympathetic nervous system, which means that instead of your body doing things like digesting or other normal bodily functions, it’s taking all the brain power to deal with the situation. Deep breathing (like yoga breathing) is a way to engage the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the “opposite” of the sympathetic nervous system – the it’s all cool, we’re just trucking along doing basic bodily things like peacing out and digesting things nervous system (yes, that’s what it says in the textbooks). So by engaging the parasympathetic nervous system, you can lower the level of anxiety down to a level you can handle and deal with and look at rationally, whereas with the sympathetic nervous system it’s all “dealing with this with logic and nuanced, adult approach? Fuck off, asshole”. Obviously, this is only for when you’re having a panic attack, which by definition means you’re not actually in a strictly flight-or-fight crisis situation. If someone’s coming at you with a knife, this is a great time for the sympathetic nervous system and it’s fight-or-flight, but we don’t call it a panic attack, we say that mo-fo was coming at you with a fucking knife. So, breathing. Also, hot packs. Seriously, those things are awesome for panic attacks, you just put them on where ever you feel the panic (for me, it’s in my lower back).

alcohol and valium and sometimes just a few deep breaths

Thanks for all of your responses. I figured a few people would mention breathing techniques, which makes complete sense. I find that almost impossible when I’m in the midst of a panic attack.
@tom_g I will try this, thank you very much!
I find writing good after the fact so I’ll keep that up.
I find it to be one of the most difficult feelings I’ve ever experienced.
Thanks again all.