non pharmaceutical anxiety remedies

Hang in there, Kelandy, there are many techniques for realxation....I use visualization: I sit in a comfortable position usually on my bed, close my eyes, and see myself beside a little stream....I focus on this until I can smell the damp earth banks, hear the water trickling over the rocks, hear the wind gently blowing through the leaves on the trees....I practice breathin in through my nose and exhaling slowly though my mouth. After 20-30 minutes, I usually feel great! Try it and see if it works for you.....the least distractins as possible during this time or you will not be able to fully put yourself there. Best wishes, my friend..

Aww (((((hugs)))) to you, I know just how you feel. It really is a daily struggle! You're right not to lose hope though. I'd say I've been fighting panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder for more than 30 yrs now and it has gotten sooo much more managable! There are loads and loads of meditation and relaxation techniques but you'll find that there are some that work for you and some that don't. Your best bet is to keep trying various methods to see which ones do work for you. I don't believe I suffer as much from the day to day anxiety issues too much, I just consider myself a very "tightly wound" kind of person and give myself some leeway for that. If any problem/symptom is most troubling for me it's panic attacks! They used to really RULE my life and I really avoided doing much of anything at all trying to avoid them! It's better now that I've managed to control them to a point where having one is much less often but it's still a work in progress. I can tell you that just yesterday my fiance and I went diving. I felt a touch of vertigo at one point just because the visibility was so poor where we were and the slightly nauseous feeling it gave me along with nothing but coffee and sinus drainage in my tummy and starting to get a headache made me feel like I was slipping closer to a panic attack. We quit diving immediately, my fiance was sweet enough to haul all my gear and do all the work for us to pack up and leave, and I simply did what I always do now when I'm feeling symptoms of an attack coming on. Maybe this will help you too. First I concentrate VERY hard on my breathing! It's very easy when you feel this way to hyperventilate and make symptoms worse! Concentrate very hard on breathing in slowly...1...2...3...pause a second then out slowly...1...2...3, over and over again. I also try to stay very still, cover my eyes, and withdraw into myself trying to shut myself off from all external stimuli as best I can. I find it's best if I can be alone somewhere dark, comfortable, and familiar. As soon as I feel like I've gotten good control of my breathing and shutting out the rest of the world I...it's hard to explain but I'll try for the sake of a fellow sufferer :) It's kind of like looking at a point in the air at the height of your forehead but 1-3 inches out with your eyes shut. You "look" with your mind's eye trying to get a certain sense of calm, peaceful, blankness. Sometimes just concentrating hard on getting to my "safe spot" works wonders if I'm not able to do the "mind's eye" trick. My safe spot is my bed because it's familiar, oh so warm, cozy and comfy, dark, I can be alone and away from the rest of the world for awhile, and I know that if I can manage to take a small nap I'll wake up feeling right as rain again. Other times if I can't get to the right place with my "mind's eye" trick I'll try to concentrate on putting "white noise" into my head instead to distract my mind from thinking about anxious things. It's kind of like just letting your mind wander and babble to itself incoherently without concentrating on any one thing at all. My mind can wander from pictures to sounds, commercial jingles, cat food, abc's, carpeting fibers...just nonsense things! The trick with this one is to let things just float into and out of your mind without trying or holding onto any of them. When my mind tries to hold onto one of them or comes across anything anxious or distressing I quickly and firmly give my head a small internal shake (like thinking about shaking your head without actually moving) and picture big croc jaws "snapping up" the thought or a blackboard eraser wiping it clean then try again. Let me know if any of that helps you or what else you come up with!