When the anxiety monster strikes :: Ways to cope

Every day of my life I have bad anxiety.  I have had anxiety since I was a young kid.  I oftentimes spend a lot of my day feeling pressure in my chest, cold or shaking hands, and repeating and circling thoughts.  It has become commonplace.  The anxiety is manageable, maintainable, and rarely intrudes on my daily functioning. 

However, there are the moments when the anxiety monster strikes and when he does - it's vicious.

There are tons of blog posts and articles on what a panic attack feels like so I am not reinventing the wheel on what mine are like.  Why?  Because honestly everyone has a different way that an attack hits.  Everyone perceives it differently.

So what do you do?  Here comes the anxiety monster (and, my roommate and I had the special bond where he really likes to strike on Sunday mornings) ... and you just want it to stop.

There are a couple things I do to make it feel better.  Some are healthy, some are smart, some are stupid, and some are silly.
1) Cry - a lot.  Lay in your bed and just sob.  Get on the phone and sob.  Lay on the floor and sob.  Go to the bar and sob.  Go to yoga and sob.
2) Drink - a lot.  Get some friends, go out, and get some drinks - preferably liquor.  Or, drink alone - in this case, preferably beer (Bud Light Lime does wonders).
3) Call a friend.  There are multiple friends you can call; the ones who will give you tough love, the ones who will baby you/tell you everything will be okay, the ones who will just listen as you vent, the ones who will bitch about whoever or whatever is making you anxious, the rational ones, etc.  Pick the one who has the personality you need the most at that moment.  Or, just pick the one that is actually free/willing to pick up the phone (anxious times call for desperate measures ... just don't call an ex or try to get a hold of them ... BAD IDEA).
4) Call your family for some tough love in a way that is different from your friends. 
5) Read a book or watch tv - this one is the hardest to actually focus on but when the anxiety monster isn't being the baddest bitch it can work well
6) Pop your anxiety medicine (IF you are prescribed it - don't be one of THOSE people.  Avoid this if you can ... medicine can make you a ZOMBIE
7) Go to yoga - duh, this is a yoga blog.  This past week my anxiety was killer.  I turned to yoga and practiced 4-days straight (and, unfortunately I wasn't able to Fri & Sat and I might today with my friend Sarah in Pittsburgh).  As I've alluded to before things are often a great temporary fix but THIS coping mechanism [yoga] is the one that is most likely to have LONG-TERM effects.  Yoga will teach you to control your emotions as you control your poses.  Yoga will help you to teach and control your mind.  Yoga will bring you a sense of community.  And, if you're like me - sometimes it will even bring you to tears.  

So when that anxiety monster strikes go ahead and re-visit this blog for some helpful pointers.  They work for me (albeit not all the time).  And either way just remember: this too shall pass.  It will eventually stop.  You will eventually pull out of it NO MATTER what you keep telling yourself during the attack.... and that's coming from me and I am incredibly dramatic.

Om Shanti Om.