My top tips

[Yankee_Doodle]

There are so many ways you can manage your anxiety. Here are a few of my most used strategies:

1. Talk to someone you trust about how you are feeling. The saying 'a problem shared is a problem halved' really is true!

2. Control your breathing. Breath in to the count of 4, hold it for 4, then exhale to the count of 4. Even just concentrating on the counting can take your mind off the anxiety.

3. Distract yourself with something that keeps you busy. For me, it's cleaning the house. By the time I finish, I've either gotten over what has made me feel anxious or I've thought of a way to sort the problem out.

4. Get outside! Going for a long walk burns off excess adreneline and allows me to get back to nature.

Those are my most used methods. What is yours?

[Hidden]

One thing that does help is cleaning, although i tend to move my furniture around lol silly thing i guess but hey it makes me feel better once i have done it and sure does help me focus more on my home again and not why i done it in the first place. I make cards too so when im feeling breathless again i make a card or start to make one. I write also mainly things that are going on in my head at the time. I yawn a terrible lot but that is a part of the anxiety and because we feel we cannot breathe properly. Then there is reading, well you have to have a lot of patience to sit down and do this, i don't so reading for me is really out the question so if you feel that reading is also not for you then why not do a puzzle instead. I tend to do them and that helps or i will go online and find some poems to read, wow there are some real effective ones too and maybe copying them down if they mean something will inspire you to pick from them some parts and place them into your own poem or just simply write your own poem. Are there any more methods of coping which maybe have not already been mentioned here.

[diaclone480]

I have tried these techniques over the years with varying success.

Initially the distractions work but then the anxiety for me gets smart and wises up and comes back stronger. It's as though the anxiety says to me "I know what your trying to do"

Other distractions like tidying, cleaning or organising for me have a danger of becoming a potential compulsion, I sometimes think "better move that or sort that or I'll be anxious and panicky all day". I admit that practice is key, however finding time with a family and full time job is hard sometimes. My anxieties are centred around travel and distance so going for a walk, whilst initially enjoyable does become a trauma. I apologies if I'm coming off as negative, it is not my intention, just my experiences to date. I live in hope that one day I will awake and it will all be gone, hopefully before my children are all grown up and my time here is over.

Be well people x

[Alice2511]

Usually I run 3 times a week but when I am like this I can't run. However, a friend has asked me to help her to train for a 5k run and going out with her has actually helped me to feel better. So advice - get out and do some exercise if possible.