I have learnt many things on my journey dealing anxiety, panic and intrusive thoughts so far and still have lots to learn. These are 5 of the things that stuck with me and will maybe be useful to someone else!
1- Don’t JUST use coping techniques like breath work and mindfulness exercises at the point when you are feeling stressed, anxious or panicked. If you only use them when the feelings become overwhelming they actually become less effective and could even escalate anxiety by signalling to the brain that “yes we need to do this right now as we are in danger”. Making relaxation and mindfulness part of your routine works a lot better. Some examples of this is doing a daily 15 min yoga practice, taking 5 mins out to meditate, having regular massage/relaxing treatments.
2- Talk therapy is great for unpacking past trauma or experiences you may have had.. but don’t get stuck on it. We have to move through and move on from these experiences leaving them as they are and becoming the person we want to be based on our goals and values. “You are not what happened to you, you are what you choose to become.”
3- Exposing yourself to your fears are the only way to overcome and grow from them. Experiencing anxiety and panic can make your world super small and cause you to avoid a lot of the ‘scary’ things. But avoidance just gives those things even more credit and tells your brain ‘we can’t deal with this’. The only way to prove your brain wrong is to get out there and do the damn thing! You may feel uncertain and uncomfortable emotions initially, but starting off slowly and then repeating exposures builds confidence and makes you realise “yes I can do this!!”.
4- Talking to friends and family about your experiences is really important, you don’t want to feel alone in your journey so confiding in a loved one is a really good idea. I actually spoke to friends about how I was feeling and a couple of my close friends had been through very similar situations so we were able to talk really openly about these things!
5- educating yourself! This one was a game changer for me, when I first started to have intrusive thoughts/panic attacks I had NO idea what the hell was going on in my brain! It was super scary and isolating. I eventually came across therapist accounts on Instagram that accurately described what I was experiencing and I felt so relieved that so many other people were experiencing the exact same thing! I educated myself a lot on my symptoms and it made me feel so much better in myself and more confident in my recovery journey
thanks for reading
ge x
Comments