Coping With Anxiety

The Philosophy

Ok, you're still here with me - that's great! Now, before we go any further I'd like to tell you what I truly believe is the number one thing you absolutely must have if you are going to beat anxiety and panic attacks: self-belief.

Without self-belief...

- No pills and medications will work.
- No amount of counselling will break through your self-doubt and empower you.
- No amount of love or friendship will pick you up and get you back on track in your life.

Self-belief and strength come from within: You absolutely MUST believe that with the right tools (which I'm going to give you) that you can, and will beat your anxiety.

Truly, I know it's asking a lot; I was the same, and if someone told me what I'd just told you, I'd still struggle with it and feel helpless. But please, search deep inside of yourself, now. Even if you hold only the smallest amount of belief, hold on to that tightly - because from that seed of strength will grow a strong tree which will survive anything life and nature can throw at it - that will be you.

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm wittering; It's a fault of mine, but I'm really trying to hammer this point home. If you need to take a few moments to think, that's fine... you can simply join me on the next paragraph, I'll be there waiting for you...

Are you ready to proceed? Super - let's go...

So, how do you go about taking that little bit of inner strength and self-belief, and using it to tackle a problem which has the power to overwhelm you emotionally and physically at current?

Well, like all great feats, huge advances are made starting with the basics and small steps first. The foundation, if you will.

Anxiety and panic can come from a variety of areas, but more often than not they come from several sources; each which aggravate and inflame eachother, until you become overwhelmed. And, by systematically eliminating the contributing factors to your anxiety, and learning how to change the smallest factors, eventually - and quicker than you think, I might add - you will make HUGE inroads into conquering your anxiety problems.

The Practical

I hope in my rambling way I've described the basic idea of what I'm going to show you. Now, I'm going to actually give you real, practical tips which if followed and practiced, will become so routine and so second-nature, they will literally begin to systematically dismantle the walls of anxiety which are now trapping you... brick by brick.

Sleep

Did you know that the number one contributing factor to anxiety is sleep? And for me, long-term poor quality sleep and anxiety went hand-in-hand.

Yet, I had no idea just how much sleep depravation could raise anxiety levels, until I started reading up on sleep and the effects poor sleep can have on a person.

Once I'd learned this gem, I set about trying to sort my sleeping problem out - which actually began way before my anxiety problems started.

I'd always been one of those people who would end up staying up until 12am, 1am, and later, watching TV or reading a book. Foolishly, I'd even do this during the week when I had ot be up for work in only a few hours!

But to me, feeling a little tired, and a little distracted was all normal. It had become normal over time.

I have a little photo on my profile, and I'm not sure you can see it properly but, I'm overweight and have been for years. I thought much of the tiredness I was feeling was down to my weight, as well as plain ol' "getting older."

But, once I consistently began to go to bed earlier, within a month my body had adjusted to getting more sleep - and the difference I felt was phenominal. My mind was so much clearer, I had so much energy - and above all, my emotional state improved 10 fold. All because of a few more hours sleep!

This alone had a dramatic impact upon lowering my anxiety levels. Before this, I would estimate I was having around 7 - 10 panic attacks a week. Sometimes more and now I had only around 4-5.

I still had a big problem; sleep isn't a cure all, but it's one heck of a start.

Exercise

The next thing I did for myself was start to get a little exercise. (I know, I know - I hated the idea too when I first considered it.) Not so much to get in shape - I'm still very overweight! - but just because I had no idea that doing exercise could naturally lower anxiety levels. It does this because when you exercise, endorphins are released into the body. (Endorphins are the bodies natural painkiller which have a very relaxing and soothing effect.)

I'm not saying you have to take up jogging; I didn't. But just a little cycling a few times a week at least for 30 minutes at a time at a steady pace will do you wonders. It did me. When it's raining too heavily I simply use my exercise bike I have in my spare bedroom. On the nice evenings or mornings, I like to take my real bike out and get some nice fresh air. I felt this worked wonders for me.

Distract Yourself

This for me, was the beginning of the end of my anxiety problems. Unfortunately, it was also the hardest idea to grasp, in the beginning. I first came upon this idea on a forum for anxiety attack sufferers, which unfortunatley is now defunct.

One of the users had been having a particularly bad time of it, and out of the blue claimed they had somehow avoided having a panic attack by IGNORING the fear and panic raging inside of them, and diverting their attention to something else - and the attack subsided.

They were overjoyed. This was the first time their mind had had a positive impact upon a panic attack, rather than a negative one; rather than fuel the panic with the fear... they had simply ignored it, and it had gone away!

At the time, I just thought they got lucky. I couldn't understand how intense panic could just be ignored... but I admit, I was very intrigued, and the thread on the forum grew and grew and GREW!

The more I thought about it, the more sense it began to make to me - in theory at least. And, it took me a while to master, I won't deny it; but within months I myself was doing just that - ignoring the fear, and actually stopping myself from having a fully blown panic attack.

But before I got to that point, while I was still scepticism about this technique, I realised I was overlooking the fact that I myself had already - albeit in a different way - been 'distracting myself' from my anxiety problem...

You see, when my problems became too severe I had to stop work for a while. I was pretty much stuck in the house day in day out, and I got very bored. So, I took up crochet! (A fun distraction!) And the incredible thing is, while at the time I didn't even realise what I was doing beyond my activity - I was distracting myself from my problems...

On hindsight, I should've noticed the changes and questioned why. I still had panic attacks weekly, but, once I'd gotten myself a little hobby, I had far less.

At the time, I thought nothing of it. I'd had good times and bad times ever since I began suffering; it was no cause for concern. But... the longer I continued my hobby the longer the 'good' period of lower anxiety lasted. (And at the time, it still didn't register in my brain!)

Anyway - that's hindsight for you, I'm sure we've all missed the blindingly obvious at some time or other.

But... even though I'd been able to distract myself from my anxiety, I seriously doubted my ability to actually stop the build up of a full blown panic attack - I just didn't think I could do it. I lacked self-belief!

Sure enough, the next panic attack began to form, and, I just did what always came naturally: I began to let the fear in, and within seconds, I was in the midst of a full-on panic attack. And you know what? The idea of trying to distract myself from it actually seemed silly and futile at the time - and I suffered for it.

After a few more episodes like this, I decided enough was enough, and the very next time I was going to try this method. I was going to focus my mind 100% on absolutely ANYTHING other than the fear and the panic. I didn't have to wait long, 2 days later my chance arrived...

Sure enough - the next time came around and you know what I did? I immediately got up from my sofa, walked to my spare bedroom where I kept my crochet patterns, and immediately began working on a handbag I was making - like it was the only thing in the world that mattered at that particular time. (As strange as it may sound, but do bare with me...)

Of course, I knew the fear was there... I could feel it, but, I actually felt detatched from it. The best I can describe it is, you have an intruder outside forcing your front door open, but you have a security chain on. You know they are there trying to get in, but you know they can't. So while you still have fear, you know you won't come to any real harm. It was very, very strange. But - it worked; within a minute or two, the build up to what I knew would have culminated in a full-blown panic attack began to subside. I had controlled my fear and won!

It was the first time I had ever done it in the 3 years I had been suffering, and I felt so empowered I got on the phone to my partner and I cried. I actually felt like I had control, like I was a winner, and I'll never forget that wonderful day.

I've absolutely no idea who the person was who first discovered this method, and I never got the chance to thank them. But what I do know is, there is a wonderful e-book you can download written by a man called Joe Barry which can teach you the exact same method I used in great detail and much, much more.

You can visit Joe's site by clicking here...

I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read my longgg (and first!) Lens. I hope I didn't bore you too much.

All my love, Olivia.