Roadie's Tips for Coping with Anxiety

Anecdote #8: Don't overlook those little pleasures in your day

And when I say little, I mean little. I changed jobs recently and that is a really stressful at the best of times. Am I doing things right? Are they getting annoyed yet with all my of questions? Am I the right fit for the team? There are a multitude of questions that can be running through your head as you try to find your place in a new organisation and I'm no exception. I found three things this week that really helped me a lot.

For the first time, I'm working in the centre of the city so I've been going about in breaks looking at new places and appreciating the new surrounds. I've also found a great spot by the river to eat my lunch with live music playing nearby. Both of these take me out of my head for a while, which is the goal. The third and final little pleasure is a small artsy coffee house near to my work where I can get a flat white and just chill out for a bit. I relaxed so much today that I almost fell asleep. It was just good "me" time and sometimes we just get so busy being busy that we forget about putting "me" time into our days.

Ultimately those little things can be anything. It can be talking to a friend for a few minutes. It could be talking to family, going for a walk, planning a holiday, or looking through photographs. It's important to not overlook the little things in life and the pleasure that they give us. Sometimes, that's all we're missing our lives.

Anecdote #9 : Keeping reflective lists helps can help with catastrophisation

We're all been through it if you're an anxiety sufferer. That thing that you're anxious about that snowballs as you talk about it. It goes from being an issue that 'possibly might happen' to an alien invasion that almost certainly will never happen but, irrespective, those feelings are all too real.

What I started to do some time ago was draw out in a notepad three columns. The first column outlined what I was anxious about. The second column was what I thought was going to happen. The final column was actually what happened. I drew two realisations from this.

Firstly, my expectations never came true (see anecdote 2). The second thing was that I've managed to cope with an awful in my life that I didn't think I could cope with. My own battles with anxiety stemmed from thoughts that I wouldn't be able to cope. The reality is that I have coped and coped really well when those times have been faced. Having that notepad allows me to calmly reflect and understand that while my brain may tell me one thing, I know that whatever comes my way will indeed pass and I'll cope with that just like I have in the past. Maybe this works for you or maybe it doesn't but it's an option.

@Roadie

Thanks so much for these tips

Anecdote #10 : Don't give up!

Not every day is going to go your way and not every day is going to go against you either. There'll be setbacks at times but they only belong to that moment and not to any moments that follow. Keep them in perspective and look forwards, not backwards

Anecdote 11 - Have a plan for different situations

I was taking a load of cardboard to the recycling centre today when half way through there was a big huntsman spider on the trailer deck. I'm terrified of spiders so my brain instantly sparked images of spiders all through the rest of cardboard and on my back. Deep breaths and I got rid of the rest. On the trip home, I was starting to suffer from a panic attack over the spider and knew that I had to go back to my plan of how to calm my brain down when that happens. My plan in the car is to look at the numbers in oncoming registration plates and multiply them together to focus my brain on something other than my stressor. It worked. Within minutes, I was calm and under control again.

I have plans for all sorts of situations. If I'm going to a social situation then "I fake it until I make it". If I start to panic then I use a strategy to calm my mind like breathing exercises or the registration plate strategy. It's like sports. You come up with all sorts of strategies for the opponent that you'll be facing on the weekend. If things start to go awry on the field, you go back to your game plan to try and get the game back under control. With anxiety, I find that following the same methodology is really helpful.

Just fall back to the plan

This is so helpful!

I find it helpful to carry a stress ball in my hand or have something to fidget with, focus on deep breathing or taking 10 mins out of my day to meditate and also art has been really helpful as a distraction or to express myself. (I like to draw mandala inspired stuff) :) Hope these can help with other. I've been diagnosed with anxiety for about 5 years now and I know how difficult it can be <3 Keep trying though, I promise it does actually get easier :)