New here... nervous about posting but here goes.

[VioletSky7]

I need some ideas for healthy coping mechanisms for severe anxiety. I was diagnosed with depression and GAD years ago but only struggled with depression until recently. Now I can't stop worrying about the future, even though I KNOW it's ridiculous. Losing lots of sleep and don't know where to start. Thanks!

[gerrerd]

Go online, potentials unlimited, get the relaxation download ! Ray. also try Hayhouse products to help you !

[Daveacr1959]

Hi, I can only tell you what helps me. 7-8 hours of sleep each night. 45-60 minutes of daily cardio exercise to produce endorphins that battle your anxiety and depression. I take a shower. Then I make the water Luke warm and fully cold 5 minute pure cold shower. Google cold shower therapy for mental health. I take my medicine the dr gave me. And I talk to god. Just like I talk to my family. I don’t think the sun made it all by accident. So I just talk to god . My family is helpful in making me feel better. And being around dogs and cats is nice .

[designguy]

hello Violet, my main issue has been anxiety but this spring I had a depressive episode that left me very confused. I thought my antidepressant had quit working but it turned out that my hormones (testosterone) and thyroid were not functioning properly. I started on testosterone shots, found out I was on the wrong thyroid med and changed it, I also made sure my adrenals were functioning well. All of these can cause or contribute to anxiety/depression. You don't mention if you are on meds, if not you might see about an antidepressant. It turned out that my antidepressant was functioning properly.

I also found that my body processes adrenaline/cortisol slower than normal so I started taking phosphatidyl serine, magnesium glycinate and ashwaghanda to help lower cortisol before bedtime to help with sleep. I've also found melatonin before bed helps. All of this helped improve my sleep which had been disrupted from the depression. The other thing I did was switched to decaf which helped.

All of this really helped reinforce for me how much our gut/body is directly linked with our brain and how they affect each other. Welcome to the group.

[VioletSky7 in reply to designguy]

Thank you so much for your reply. I am on meds (the lowest dose of fluoxetine, verapamil, and trazadone). I also just recently had blood work done and aside from low vitamin D, everything "looked fine."

I do drink a lot of coffee, but not past a certain point in the day, but perhaps switching to decaf still isn't a bad idea.

Thank you for mentioning ashwaganda, as I remember hearing about that not long ago and never really looked into it. Sounds like it might be beneficial to me, so I appreciate the reminder.