Math

I’m feeling frustrated, anxious, worried, etc. This week and last week have hard due to reasons and on top of that, I have to take a college level math class. I’m not ready for college level math so I’m taking math classes to prepare. But now I’m really frustrated and overwhelmed and scared because I can’t seem to get the hang of factoring trinomials. I get all confused when it comes to the actual finishing it and getting an answer and it’s getting late and I’ve got so many overdue assignments and I’m just stressed.😩😫😥I can ask for more time on a test, but I don’t know what to do.

[beinganon]

I’m 46 and I’ve lived with the damn thing for 30 years, so just maybe I can be of some help.

You’re basically talking about anxiety that is (hopefully) temporary, and which will easily respond to simple methods. The three things I can specifically say are:

(1) Tranquilizers like Kava and valerian—and even small doses of diphenhydramine (Benadryl, OTC) before sleeping. I’m pretty sure your sleep has been affected, and then you don’t have as much energy during the day and so forth—it’s a vicious cycle. Without going into all the “how to sleep better” stuff, I’d say try one of these pills for now as a temporary fix.

(2) Acupressure: It doesn’t take any time to learn. It’s so easy you wouldn’t believe it, and so effective it’s hard to imagine that just pressing on some points on your body can help. Here’s a link: medicalnewstoday.com/articl...

(3) I’m sure the Internet (and people) will tell you about deep breathing, and I’m sure you’re not in the frame of mind to “get into new things.” Just remember that a breathing pattern where you inhale, hold your breath, then exhale will do wonders for your heart rate. One pattern is: Breathe in to a count of 4, hold your breath for a count of 7, then exhale for a count of 8. There are probably hundreds of variations on this, but just try it for five minutes. Change those numbers if you want to. The point is to inhale-hold-exhale rather than just inhale-exhale like we usually do.

And yeah, it definitely helps to think of anxiety objectively like you think of a headache. Thinking about your anxiety while you’re anxious makes it worse; try telling yourself “Oh, the anxiety is back” or something like that—so you objectify it.

[SirGrits]

Hey Anne... hang in there. I really like what beinganon is saying about treating it like a headache, something that is known, that is temporary but reoccurring, something treatable.As your mind starts spiraling, try to remember that. Things will be ok.

Prayers friend.