alternative positive anxiety coping tools:

h0odrich:

running - (my personal favorite/most successful for me) it gets my heart rate up through activity and peaks it in a different way than anxiety makes it, so after a nice long run my heart rate slows down, i’ve had a nice distraction and also some reflection time to think about whats been bothering me. i also feel pride in being active and that helps counteract the negative feelings that come with anxiety.
yoga - its a good way to relax your mind and your muscles, anxiety tends to cause a lot of tension and doing yoga helps loosen you up so you don’t have to deal with at least some of the physical symptoms.
meditation
breathing techniques** - i starred this one because its something to take note of no matter what tool you’re using to calm down, slowing your breathing generally helps calm you down and helps counteract the catastrophic thinking and helps you to think more rationally, someone described it well: Sit in silence. Close your eyes. Take some slow deep deep breathes. Listen to your heart beat, and your breathing. Try to not concentrate on anything but your heart beats. Don’t let any bad thoughts enter your mind, if your mind wanders focus it back to monitoring your heart rate and your breathing. its also important to breath into your belly, not your chest!
doing chores or small tasks - helps you get shit done and gives you a sense of accomplishment
long hot bath - read a book, light a candle, make yourself comfortable!
listening to slow/relaxing music (someone said jazz is really helpful specifically)
make a list of the things bothering you - and then start writing solutions for them, getting your thoughts down on paper helps you realize them how they actually are and can help you come to a solution or approach more easily when you aren’t being bombarded with negative thoughts distracting you from finding a solution. only the words you’re writing are what you should focus on
take a nap - i know its usually hard to sleep with anxiety but if you can get some rest it usually helps with cooling down and getting through/avoiding the panic
5-4-3-2-1 -Take a deep breath. Name the basic shapes and colors of FIVE things you see (ex. red circle=stoplight). Close your eyes. Name FOUR things you feel touching you (I feel the chair under me, I feel the air from the fan.. etc.) Name THREE sounds you hear at the moment.Take two deep breaths. Name TWO scents in your environment. Take a deep breath. Name ONE thing you are grateful for/like about yourself. Exhale slowly. (this was said to help with especially with public attacks)
4/7/8 - breathe in for 4 seconds through your nose, then hold 7 seconds, then you blow all your air out from your mouth for 8 seconds. repeat this until your calm. you can also use it if you have trouble sleeping
a cup of hot tea
make art - don’t worry about being neat, be sloppy, be emotional get that anger or frustration or whatever feelings that are fueling that anxiety and put them into your gesture, throw paint on the canvas, scribble hard with the pen, really allow your emotion to be put into the art. it helps you relieve tension and also reflect and gives you something cool to look at after. it gets the feelings out of your head/chest and on to something else.
write down everything you’re feeling - don’t think, don’t plan, just write.
cook something hella yummy - the process helps gives you something to focus on, and gives you something good to eat by the time you’ve calmed yourself down
holding an ice cube in your hand - focus on the cold and nothing else, til it melts, let your anxiety melt with it
tense and release method - Tense your face for 10 seconds relax. then neck, then shoulders, then one arm, the other arm etc… when you’re tensing hold your breath. when it’s all done lay down/or do this laying down and at the end just allow your whole body to relax
sit down - put your head between your knees, close your eyes, inhale through your nose to fill your lungs, hold for 10 seconds, exhale slowly while counting to 10
brain stimulation - puzzles/crosswords/building something/sudoku etc
taking a string - (thread or a hoodie string anything) and wrapping it around your finger then unwinding it and wrapping it around the other finger helps bc its so monotonous but easy to focus on
take a long warm shower - let the water wash the anxiety off of you
clenching and unclenching your fists
singing loudly
visualize the worst possible outcome - and how even in the worst turn of events there is always the next time the following day your world will not end regardless of what is to come there is always another opportunity another chance although circumstances change the potential remains the same your potential your ambition is undiminishable failure may be a lost battle but never a lost war
glitter jars - shake it, watch the glitter settle to the bottom, its calming to watch, repeat as many times as necessary
i compiled this list from personal experiences as well as tons of asks and advice from my followers. everyone has a different experience with anxiety, there’s no universal method or technique thats going to help everyone, but i will say controlling your breathing is something everyone should try and take note of or practice because it really does help alleviate a lot of the physical symptoms. these are not all of the possible methods or techniques just what either me or my friends and/or followers have found to help them. i hope this helps you guys as well. much love to all of you!!! you’re not alone with this!!

(via shanniballecter)

♥ 97579 - 6 years ago

So I woke up this morning in a pool of my own blood.

cancerously:

itscandidlycara:
Wait, let me back up.
Hi, my name is Cara and I’m a 21 year old woman. Every 28 days, give or take, I have a period. And it fucking sucks. Today, was one of those where I take from the 28 day cycle. I wasn’t due for another period for at least a week, but considering that my period is pretty much permanently irregular, I get to wake up a lot of mornings in a pool of my own blood. Hmm. Lovely.
I then proceed to dump my sheets, my underwear, and my pajamas in my laundry room in a tub filled with cold water, with the hopes that this time I haven’t ruined them permanently.
What next? Well, a shower of course! To wipe off the smell of rotting blood from my body! Squeaky clean and towel fresh I have about a two minute window before the volcano of blood begins to erupt again from my vagina.
What will it be today? A piece of chlorinated toilet paper cardboard with a string that I get to shove up my hole wherein the blood will sit and rot until the next time I can shove another piece of chlorinated cardboard up the same hole? Or, a plastic lined toilet paper diaper attached to my underwear that causes rug burn to my vaginal area when I walk? Well the later requires less coordination, and it is early, so I guess I’ll be sitting in a period diaper today. The best ever.
Of course, I could always just get birth control, and lessen this whole shit. But 1) I can’t afford it 2) I can’t ask my dad to pay for it because, guess what? Just like the men who run my government, my father correlates birth control with sexual promiscuity! Thus, sitting on my rotting blood, undergoing severe cramps that have on more than one occasion caused me to black out, it is! (Not that birth control is such a walk in the park either, our bodies have to learn to deal with the hormones and other chemicals and consequences that birth control entails.)
Then, I get to go to class, where I have to pretend that I am not a leaky faucet of blood and tissue. I get to sit in Calculus, and if heaven forbid, I need an additional pad, I have to be discrete about it, so as not to offend the men’s gentle sensibilities to the fact that I am the one dropping tissues and blood from my body through my vagina.
I once asked a male to take me to the pharmacy so that I could pick up (GASP) pads, or as we like to call it “feminine products” (again, so as not to offend the gentlemen’s overly sensitive natures) and had him equate me talking about my period to him talking about his erections.
ARE
YOU
FUCKING
KIDDING
ME
No.
This is nothing like your fucking erection’s. I don’t derive any enjoyment from this. I can’t mentally control any ounce of this entire process. I can’t masturbate my problem away. My period does not end in orgasm.
It stays. For at least five days in my case. Draining blood out of my body. Causing me severe cramps, making me irritable -not because I’m uncomfortable (which mind you, would be reason enough) - but because my hormones are all over the place, bloating me up to two sizes larger than I normally am, I have to actively fight not to smell like a fish market, and on top of that, you want me to be hush-hush about this? Because it’s icky for you?
And this is not an attack on that one man, this is an attack on ALL MEN who on top of sitting on their throne of gender privilege want me to stay quiet and be content about the fact that five days out of every month I get to undergo this happiest of joys.
And then, these very same men have the audacity to get annoyed because we don’t want to listen to their bullshit complaining about traffic? Or whatever other meaningless story they happen to tell us while our bodies are actively fighting against us? Then we get to be the butt of their tired-ass jokes? Sorry, I am most certainly not sorry.
I repeat NO. I say women come out of the period closet and say, “You know what, this happens to me. Every. Fucking. Month. And it’s terrible. LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY MORNING.” Because the truth is, if I live in a country where Viagra is covered by medical insurance, but birth control isn’t, I can no longer keep denying that I live in a country that is actively waging a war on women. And if I live in a country that is actively waging war on my sex, the least I am going to do is break patriarchal social propriety to inform anyone and everyone of the shit biological process I was BLESSED enough to be born into.
Hello, my name is Cara, I’m a 21 year old woman, and today I’m on my period. Let me fucking tell you about it.
hello yes this is a good post