You Can Beat the Monster in Your Head Called Anxiety
Enjoy the ride
I feel the floor moving when anxiety visits me. Standing on my two feet in this big world seems impossible. I feel vanishing and separated from reality.
There isn’t enough air. The world feels too much to bear
Maybe if you suffer from anxiety, you have experienced those symptoms, or just your heartbeat beating at a speed of light and your hands getting cold as an ice cube.
Probably you’ll never escape anxiety completely. It will go, and it will come like a wave. And you will need to learn how to ride it.
Although there are millions of articles about ways of healing your anxiety, and they mainly focus on exercise and breathing techniques, what worked for me in the last two years have been:
1- Calling a friend in the worst moments of anxiety
A year ago, I constantly had panic attacks. Before the explosion of panic attacks in my brain and body, I felt sad and catastrophic thoughts invade me.
Finally, I understood that verbalizing my thoughts and how they made me feel slowly helped the panic attack stop.
Calling a friend calms you. It makes you feel safe. And anxiety is danger.
Panic attacks taught me that vulnerability is required when experiencing anxiety — for example, spelling out your thoughts even if they sound too horrible for another person to listen to them.
When you call your friend, try to verbalize:
- what you’re feeling
- Tell them the crazy thoughts going through your mind
Be vulnerable in moments of deep anxiety.
According to a study done by the University of Cambridge, 2000 adolescents showed they could develop more resilience by having the support of their peer groups during stressful events.
2- Journaling
The constant chatter in my mind sometimes keeps me awake at night. Taking a pen and a piece of paper and writing gives you the power to liberate your mind from your thoughts.
Sometimes those thoughts can feel too intense and embarrassing to show to other people.
But journaling will never abandon you; it never rejects you. And the best part about journaling is that you are not receiving an answer or a piece of unsolicited advice.
An answer or advice that many times people desperately spill at you. Sometimes we want to write, speak and express ourselves for the simple fact of doing it.
Journaling can offer you that — liberation of the mind, a release of secret thoughts that only you have the right to discover.
If you’ve never done journaling before, you might ask yourself what you should write. Honestly, write about everything you want. Feelings, emotions, thoughts. Spill it out.
According to psychologist Barbara Markway, “there’s simply no better way to learn about your thought processes than to write them down. She notes that to address our problematic thought patterns, we first have to know what they are! Journaling is instrumental in helping us identify our negative automatic self-talk and get to the root of our anxiety.”
3- Puzzles
I am obsessed with puzzles. They get you out of your head.
Puzzles give you a sense of accomplishment. Each piece that fits perfectly provides you with a state of satisfaction.
Puzzles resemble life. We’re always missing pieces and finding new ones to make our life makes sense.
If you’ve never tried doing puzzles, you could start with a small one of 500 pieces. You might be skeptical about this idea but getting out of your comfort zone and finding creative ways to beat anxiety is necessary.
According to a psychologist, Dr. Stephan Lermer, “puzzles make us happy because it gives us a sense of accomplishment. Achieving goals, which we have set for ourselves, strengthens our self-confidence and brings us inner harmony and satisfaction.”
4- Therapy
I love therapy. I always wait excitedly for my following sessions. During my worst moments of anxiety, therapy helped me understand the chaos inside my brain.
Therapy helps you explore your thoughts and feelings and gives you the tools to better deal with stressful situations. Besides that, you will never be judged in the therapy room.
Many people call “therapy” a bunch of things that are not therapy. The gym is my “therapy,” for example. Therapy makes you think and question your beliefs. It gives an order to your mind by helping you validate your feelings. However, you can’t pretend to call therapy any type of self-care activity. They aren’t equal to having another human being helping you resolve your life problems.
The monster is frightening; you’re scared of him. Sometimes, he robs you of living good moments. Sometimes he’s just an indication of an issue much deeper you need to dig in with a magnifying glass.
I bet you lived moments with the monster you wouldn’t want to remember. The monster will be the obstacle, and you’ll find ways to beat him as the glorious winner you are.