How I Deal With Anxiety Attacks hello babes, Lorelle here, sitting at work in my office just recovering from an anxiety attack caused by stress and loud noises and timelines. thought i'd share some things i do to help cope so that i can be somewhat functional at work. Preventative:
limit my caffeine intake. it makes me twitchy and anxious, and it is too easy to drink too much coffee and become suceptible to attacks
make an anti-anxiety playlist, my personal one includes a lot of the ramones, upbeat and fast enough i can distract my thoughts, and not super angry sounding.
have a notebook to draw in, write down my stressers, or draw to distract myself and calm down,
similarily, a word find book or sudoku or something i can focus on
exercise every evening around 6 pm to release stress (jumping jacks to punk rock)
During the Event:
if i feel an attack coming on, i either shut my door or go to the bathroom, somewhere i can be by myself, and deep breathe, run my hands under cool water
put my head on my knees and deep breathe as well as possible
if especially bad, call a loved one or friend, get them to talk to me about their day so i can focus on that
put my head on my desk and breath
After
make myself tea, or drink some water
i have a list of affirmations saved on my phone that goes as follows: I am not useless i am not defective i can overcome what is making me anxious in small steps i am not alone in my anxiety just because i have attacks, does not mean i am weak
put on a sweater, keep warm,
give myself a 5 minute rest period before going back to work
Hope this is helpful!
Stay Calm, Stay dangerous,
Lorelle // raind0wn
