Finding comfort in your anxiety, fears and panics. What helps you get through?

 I got a lot of feed back and direct messages about people going through these fears and attacks. Many of you spoke about what helps you get through them but wanting the attacks to stop all together. 

What I want everyone to understand is that anxiety and panics and even fear is very common! You are not alone and a lot of people just like you are trying to figure them out and prevent them from happening all together. But know that you can't do any of this without first knowing what trigger or contribute to these moments. 

Focus :

• on where are you most of the time when you begin to have your attacks? 
• Is it a person, a feeling, or thoughts that put you in that space?
• Is it a current event or experiences of the past?
• Do it overtake you when your alone? Are you in a room full of people when your attacks hit? 
• What action or thought help you get through them? Is it another thought, video, song, picture or saying that calms you?
• Is your attacks related to a traumatic event? 
• if you are in a certain place... do you find that the attacks always come in when you're home alone or around a bunch of people at work or out in public? 
• If it's your thoughts what leads you to think about the situation that brings you these strong feelings? Is it after watching a movie related to your traumatic situation? Are there words that trigger it like death, birth, children, a fire, detachment, hearing stories similar to what you are going through? 
• Are your attacks from the past? Something that happened to you more than 5 to 10 years ago? 
• Is the event something that happened last week or last month or maybe earlier this year? 
• Do you address the feelings or push them away? Have you spent time trying to figure out what you are emotionally attached to that you can't let go of but that bring on an attack? 
• Spend time trying to figure out what your feelings are attached to. 
• Is it an event that makes you feel hopeless? Is it overwhelming? Think about what you can do to chop these overwhelming feeling in half. 
• Is it a person? Do you have attacks after an argument? After seeing them, after talking to or texting them? Is it a person you can spend time away from? If it's a person you can't avoid what are some conversations you can have with them to let them know they are a trigger? Are you willing to put space between you two to help you overcome the attacks they bring on? Can someone step in between you two? Do they know they are your trigger? If so do they intensionally set you off?

Spend time lost in what gets you through your attacks. If it's YouTube you can spend 3 hours a day in one sitting watching videos, if it's listening to music listen to music, if it's outings  with your child/children take them out, if it's drawing or writing, then engage and engage deeply. Overcoming anxiety, fears and depression will not happen overnight, that takes work like everything else. 

Don't let your attacks win, don't push the horrible gut wrenching feelings to the back of your mind because as you can see they will keep resurfacing. Sit down, figure them out, figure out what they are attached too, where you have them, what words or spaces trigger them, what gets you through them and spend most of your day doing that activity. 

What are somethings you engage in during or after your attacks that get you through the day? Share how you deal with them so that others may take from you and help them overcome even if your attacks are attached to something completely different from theirs. 

As I shared before watching psoriasis hair scratching videos for 2-4 hours at a time gets me through my depression and anxiety attacks. Listening to music and smoking hookah also helps calm me when I'm at my lowest. Being around my siblings, boyfriend and close friends also bring me the most joy so when I'm home I make sure there is always someone in my family along with my boyfriend that's always here with me. I do these things all day through the day so there is little to no space to be overwhelmed with thoughts that trigger an anxiety attack. 

But the number one thing I do that help be her through my anxiety and depression is prayer! Talking to the only person that can truly help me and motivate me to get out if that dark space! Tell God everything and ask God for everything that will help you get out of that dark hole you're in. 

What do you do? Whatever it is don't stop doing it until it helps you overcome those overwhelming feelings and thoughts.