Surviving an Anxiety Attack-Part I

AAA Happy New Year Everyone!! This is my first post for the year and I wanted it to be something personal so here we go :)

Anxiety Attacks are pretty common amongst people suffering from an Anxiety Disorder.

I know this because I am one suffering from it and tbh, its really not easy on us when they start acting up. We go through so many excessive, random, worrying thoughts which a lot times we aren't able to cope up with at that moment. 

I mean for the longest time I didn't even know I had it and would just find excuses and methods to come out the weird feeling which somehow helped me a lot. Which is why, I wanted to share my tips and tricks on how you can fight or overcome an upcoming anxiety attack when you don't have someone present around you (physically). So, lets get to it :)

I initially heard of this method in a T.V. show I was binging where the character too had an Anxiety Disorder. I know it might sound kinda dumb but I decided to give this method a try after they started becoming really frequent and they actually work! The second I realise that my stress is building up to an attack I start counting backwards from 100 and usually by 30 I'm quite calmed down but, you should ideally finish up to 0. I would also recommend clenching your palm and wiggling your legs while counting as they do help sometimes. 

As basic as it may sound, DO IT. I cannot emphasize enough how having a go to playlist for an attack is necessary. Koi bhi gaana ho sakta hai. Whatever calms you down. Make it! They genuinely help calm you down and can help you get through the entire process. Music therapy is a thing. 

As for watching something, try making sure that you know the ending or something that won't build up too much anxiety and at the end it's just a huge disappointment. My personal favourite, which I may have mentioned about a billion times before is watching Friends and ZNMD. It reduces my anxiety and stress almost immediately because I already know the ending ( ain't watched it over 5 times for nothing :P )

I would exhort this to you. This has worked countless times and I cannot believe it took me so long to figure it out. You just think of things that would calm you down. I like to follow the C-A-L-M Rule wherein I think of one word that calms me down the most starting with those four alphabets. Anything that would distract you from the bombardment of thoughts crossing your head. Or you can start planning a hypothetical situation. What I normally do is plan a road trip somewhere in the future that I would take with my best friends. It distracts your brain thus making you forget about the stressful situation. You can approach it later with a cool mind rather than an anxious one.

Lastly, Grounding. Focus your mind on the concrete details of your immediate surroundings, like squeezing the chair you might be sitting on or pressing down on the ground with your feet. This serves to concentrate your mind, eliminating the sense of derealization and bringing your body's physiology under control. If you're anything like me during a panic attack, the panicked part of your brain is going to convince you that everybody is wrong and that you are, in fact, staring death right in the face. Just ignore that little voice for a minute, and focus on grabbing that chair beneath you, pressing your feet down, feeling your own weight. There in the present, you are sitting safely. 

Okay! So that was it for today! Let's hope 2021 treats us better than 2020 :p

Jaake share and subscribe please and don't forget to drop your thoughts and coping mechanisms if you ever suffer from one!

Signing off,

Kuhu :)