Yesterday the New York Times published this little article from a therapist with concrete strategies to practice that can help when we are feeling anxious, and to use between high anxiety to improve our baseline management.
I myself have used a number of these, except the ice water one, which I'll give a try! What is helping you these days? What concrete tips help you over the hump?
I will also say that for most of last year my own anxiety became so pervasive and invasive that I had a medical consult after a run of anxiety so bad that I had an ekg done to make sure my shortness of breath and high heart rate wasn't a cardiac incident. After consultation with my provider I used a low dose of a beta blocker for March - July daily, reduced to PRN, went back to daily use Sept - Jan 2020, then PRN and have discontinued any use since March. So I also appreciate the place for anti-depressants, anti-anxiety meds (watch for the addictive potential of these), sleep meds (I've used melatonin occasionally when I couldn't sleep for days, as well as prescription trazadone). For me, when my environment with Wayne's health wore me out, the excellent mental health therapy support/ church community support/ family and friend help/ my own utilization of tried and true ways to be mental health well just couldn't keep up with the level of stress in our live that continued to get worse, I needed more help, and I'm very grateful for my medical provider for going over several options so we could talk through my history/concerns and questions/ and supported my choice even though it wasn't her first recommendation.
Acute grief also has it's own curve with what is needed, what is tolerable, and what is jus hard. I'm constantly grateful for the way this community shoulders so much, and reminds us that we also need to share our burdens in order to be effective partners to our partners, children, and parents.
Take care,
missy
