Ways to deal with Anxiety

Anxiety
#1

Every once in a while I have what seems like a small anxiety attack. My extremities feel numb, my nose seems to clog up, and I tense up all over my body. Now these do not happen to me very often so I have never really looked into them further with my physician.

I am curious as to what other people find are the best ways to fight off one of these feelings. What happens to me is I usually feel that I can control it in my head. I try to find activities to get my mind off things but when I stop those activities the feelings always come back. Finally, after dwelling on it my body just feels like a minor anxiety attack.

I read that I can close my eyes and look right and left at 1 second intervals but that doesn’t seem to help me much. Yoga never seems to help either. The one thing that has always helped is diving deep into my work. But still after a binge of work that feeling would usually come back. I have no idea how I get rid of the feelings eventually and again they don’t happen often, maybe 2 times a year.

Any suggestions? Thanks :slight_smile:

#2

Wow. I've actually experienced something similar especially when I was under tons of stress in grad school. It was like my sinuses would start to act up for no reason until I felt like I couldn't breathe.  Then panic would hit me which of course made me start to lose feeling in my limbs. I also found it was a mind thing. I actually put an engrossing game on my iPhone. When I started to feel panicked, I would play the game until I was distracted enough and my feelings passed. Apparently, there are a few cognitive coping strategies you can try. I've learned about them, and what may be triggering my anxiety on a really excellent therapy site called 7 Cups of Tea. It has a few self-help guides. It also connects anyone who is hurting to a trained active listener who will listen to you without judgement. It can be anonymous as well. I liked it so much I even trained to be an active listener, and now I'm helping others. It's been a great way to help me deal as well as feel like I'm serving others. You can check it out here if you are interested http://www.7cupsoftea.com/11120717