How I deal with my anxiety

Good morning,

Recently, i’ve just had so much more flare up than usual; thus wanting me to spread how I personally deal with my own anxiety, just in case somebody would relate to this and maybe it’d help them a little.

* I’ve talked about some “less-discussed about” effects that anxiety had on my body, right here.

My symptoms;

How my flares up usually works, I’d start to feel a pressure on my chest. It’s just there, like a big rock, pressing above my breast. It’s not painful at all in itself.

Then it’d feel like i’m suffocating, although I know very well that all is fine and my breathing is normal. I just get the urge and need to hyperventilate (don’t do that!), like i’m just under water and there’s not enough air for me to breathe.

I also get what’s called “Sensitivity overload”, which means even the bare sound of people talking, tv in the background, someone asking me question, barking.. anything like that actually makes the panic escalate even more and I become overwhelmed. This is usually where I snap at people — although not wanting to, it’s part of the panic. I cannot keep it contained; usually happens when mom constantly ask me what’s wrong, why I feel this way, and she just don’t listen when I ask her to stop.

Brain is usually racing with thoughts, seeming like it just can’t stop down. Not necessarely anything in specific, just intensive thoughts over and over. This one is most flagrant when it happens in the middle of the night.

May or may not include the urge to randomly burst out crying. Rarely get to the point of actual crying; which would happen if my sensitivity overload would get in conflict with a minor incident, per exemple.

How I deal with them;

First thing I wanna do, is go lay on my bed or somewhere quiet and un-bothered. It’s just easier for me to deal with – though it sometimes doesn’t mean being alone. Mom’s presence do not help at all, as i’ve said above, she’ll bombard me with questions and it’d make everything escalate even worst out of control — However, 95% of the time, I crave the touch of my boyfriend. Just, being in his arms and cuddling with him until it passes.

Another thing that helps alot is fresh air. If I can open a window or if it’s the perfect weather, i’d go sit outside. I find that the breeze helps with the feeling of suffocating. I also pay more attention to my breathing, making sure it remains constant and to not be hyperventilating, which would actually make things worst.

To help blocking sensivity overload aswell as the thoughts, I put my earphones on and listen to music. Usually I have a craving of listening to something in specific, as of which I put on repeat. My most listen to in that time is Linkin Park (Numb, In the End & Heavy) aswell as Logic (Confession of a Dangerous Mind, mostly on repeat).

It’s usually quite easy to identify at a glance when i’m in a flare up, as something I start doing instantly that comfort me is rocking my body back and forth.

Lastly, I wanna do something that’ll allow my brain to hit the “neutral mode” and eventually stop the flare up. My go-to lately has been picking up my New 3ds XL and play “Hyrule Warriors”; allowing me to zone off on the music, turn off my brain, and just fight monsters by pressing random buttons while playing as a Zelda character. The game gives you some to-do’s to achieve your goal, so I can just focus onto the task at hand in the game and not onto whatever my brain is arguing with itself about. So far that has been working wonderfully, allowing me to being back to calm after only one or two fight.

How do you deal with yours, do you have some tricks?
Do we share some symptoms or little habits to calm us down?