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Tips on coping with anxiety/panic attacks

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Super CoolTM

Learning
I love sharing my experiences with this stuff and being able to help out. I am not a professional and I can't say this will work for everyone, but I made some techniques that really help me. I will try to include healthy coping mechanisms, but again I'm not a professional. This is just what works for me and might for you.

Anxiety toys:
1.Silly Putty or some sort of slime/play dough. It's very handy if you tend to be on the destructive side when anxious. You can dig your nails into it and rip it to pieces and start over again.
2. Bubbles. Maybe do this at home, but my therapist says it will take your mind off of a panic attack if you try to blow bubbles. It's impossible to blow bubbles when anxious, so it's interesting to try it out.
3. Grounding. Honestly this doesn't work for me but it might for you. Take in deep breaths and point out all the things you see. (Ex: I see a lamp post. How many colors does it have? Count the colors. What am I smelling? Point out all the different smells).
4.. Puzzles/math. Yeah, I know. Math sucks, but if you sit down and try to do problems, it completely distracts your mind and helps a lot, even if you hate math.

Mental mantres:
1. You need to stop any anxious thought. It's hard, and you need to learn what your anxious thoughts are. Instead of "Oh my god, I'm freaking out", try "you're okay. You've done this before. You can make it out. See? You're calming down. Deep breaths".
2. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Repeat. Focus on your breath. Breath through your stomach. The reason you can't breath is because you're breathing too much. Let it out.
3. You're going to be okay.
4. Count and try to do mental math.

Physical:
1. If you feel nauseous, rub parts of your body that feel good. Also apply pressure to your wrist. There's a nerve there that stops that sick feeling.
2. Apply pressure to your stomach. That's called deep pressure therapy (DPT). Service dogs can be trained to do that.
3. If you feel like gagging, rub your chin.
4. If that doesn't work, rub your eyes (gently) or the inside of your mouth.
5. If that doesn't work, hum. You can't gag or throw up if you hum.
6. Do not imagine yourself throwing up. Redirect your thoughts onto something else. If I'm getting intrusive thoughts, I replace the imagine with flowers instead of vomit or blood.
7. Tense up your muscles if they're not already and let it go throughout your body. Repeat.
8. I don't know if this will help, but I repeat actions (rolling my foot or waving my arm) or making "music" with my body (Ex: Clicking my teeth to a beat while rolling my eyes and pretending that makes a tune)

I hope that helps
 
Thank you for sharing these things. I am going to get some bubbles.:happy:
 
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