Spicy food really, really helps my anxiety.
On a bad day - and it’s been a pretty awful day today, mentally - I’ll take a little bit of chicken, add a few veggies, add a tiny bit of teriyaki sauce as a base, and then douse that entire thing in Sriracha, enough where it’ll start to make my eyes water.
Instead of wanting to cry because I feel like a failure, I want to cry because the inside of my mouth is on fire. So I get that emotional release that I’m craving, but I’ve shifted the reasons as to why.
And usually, five minutes later, I’ll feel like I’ve accomplished something. Which helps!