How do you cope with anxiety in a healthy way?
 

I'm just curious, because when I get anxious, it's often hard to put away the anxiety. I often write to try to allay my anxiety, or talk with other people about my problems just to vent. How about you?

There is little that will put away my anxiety, if I ever get such crap happening to me. It will stay on my mind until I go to sleep. I can usually wake up refreshed with a clear and forget about my worries. And alcohol does nothing to soothe anxiety. It has the completely reverse effect. :/

If I were to pick a healthy way that I cope with anxiety, it would be that sometimes I go to the gym and run until I'm too tired to think. But most of the time, I just eat 3,000 calories and sleep 18 hours a day.

I wish I had a healthy way of dealing with anxiety. It is a major problem for me, far more devastating, in its way than the actual problems that give rise to anxiety. I usually just try to spend more time with my friends, if possible. If that is not possible, I tend to just try to get an early night.

I doubt eating is an healthy way, so I usually resort to singing in my room, dancing, drawing, some exercises or mugging as a distraction. (all in my room)

I'm naturally a very laid back person. I do have my anxious moments, but I can usually tell myself to put my anxiety in the back of my mind if there's nothing I can do about what I'm worrying about at that moment. That anxiety usually stays tucked in a corner of my mind until I have to deal with what I'm worried about. Exercising myself to where I'm so tired that I can barely think is another option if I can't manage to set aside my worries, but I don't have to resort to this very often.

When I'm anxious, my body responds via itching. Since I have eczema, itching is not the best way to respond at all. So, I play piano. The piano and how I play the songs for the day end up reflecting my anxiety. Afterwards, I feel that I've expressed my anxiety to the world and I feel refreshed because of it.

From my experience, I'm not entirely sure that there is a truely healthy way to deal with anxiety.

I've tried lots of different methods. The two most sucessful for me were journaling, and indulging oneself in one's true passion. Putting my thoughts into words that actually make sense (because God knows I don't think comprehesively), or turning up the bass (and pumping up the volume) and just playing whatever riff comes to mind are my escapes.

If I can find someone I can truely confide in, then I find that venting is my coping mechanism. But, because this is a rare occurance for me, it is often not sucessful...

Anti-depressants and sleep. Zoloft is my everyday solution. When things get bad, Xanax usually makes me numb and sleepy, which is all I can ask for. When things are at their worst and I'm also depressed, I try to do a lot of physical activity, be around people (go figure), pretty much anything to get those endorphins released.

I drink. Vodka is fairly cheap and does wonders. You can get wine for even cheaper, but it gives you terrible hangovers. It's pretty much the only solution right now as it's summer and I live alone, meaning I interact with other human beings roughly once a week, and by that I mean that I say "Hi" to the cashier when doing groceries. Fortunately the only times I seem to have trouble with anxiety is when I go to sleep.

I see many people suggest ways to distract oneself. That did not work for me as I found my focus to return to triggers of anxiety once the distracting activity was over.

The most effective method I have found is to remove those thoughts which cause anxiety by placing them in their proper context. Not every moment in life is pivotal. Not every action will resonate through the rest of your life. Don't change what you do; change how you think.

sleeping...
or sewing. that really helps me a WHOLE lot. either that or doodling while listening to music, that tends to get the stress out.

Physical activity, cooking, and writing poetry help me cope with anxiety. However, nothing I have written so far when I was depressed ever appealed to me after my mood gets better.

I find that binge drinking, meaningless sex and the occasional line or three put away my anxiety pretty well.

I wouldn't worry too much about the snowball effect.

haha and thats healthy?

I don't know that it's really any less healthy than the average american diet combined with the stress/anxiety that other americans deal with in their daily lives.

just saying :P title of thread was healthy way to deal with anxiety. xP

and nowadays, i don't see why people stress out so much D= they just gotta learn to lean back, sit down, and forget about things ;3

and coke, booze and sex help achieve that relaxation.

i think i'm in love with you. :tpg:

A good trick I've heard but don't do is to write down whatever's bothering you on a slip of paper (not a LJ entry, just the general idea) and toss it into a drawer. A few weeks/months later go back through the drawer and see how many of the things you were stressing out so much over were actually worth the mental strain you put yourself through. Odds are, very few of them. It helps you realize most of the things you're freaking out over really aren't that huge of a concern and you're much better off just making a decision instead of fretting.

(Also, I've never gotten how drugs/alcohol can ease stress since they cost money, and generally money is the cause of most peoples' worries.)

I've never paid any money for drugs, then again, I don't do them as like a regular habit.

Well, I can't do them, now, anyways. But, when I did, I never had to pay.

Alcohol, on the other hand, really isn't that expensive. And, again, it's not like I get drunk everyday.

I simply masturbate.

Masturbation is a cure for stress/anxiety plus it also helps your immune system. So guess how often I get sick?

Honestly, having a bad day at work, go into the boss' office and jerk it right on their papers. They'll be pissed off and you can laugh.

Explain how masturdation helps your immune system, this is a new one on me.

I masturbate all the time, I still get sick, seems like every season.

I've heard of this masturbation-immune system link too. It's just speculation but I bet it has to do something with the hormones that are released during an orgasm and how it synergies with your immune system.

Uhm... doing it sinse I was 15, I think.

I've not had any major illnesses from 15 to now at 24. I do it cause it feels good though >____>.

My method for dealing with anxiety WAS writing short stories. Did that for 2 years, then I started getting chronic writers block. Right now I have no healthy way of dealing with anxiety.

Health benefits
Some of the known health benefits of masturbation include:

* Eases some of the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome
* Relief from menstrual cramps
* Muscle relaxation
* Helps you to fall asleep
* Promotes release of the brain’s opioid-like neurotransmitters (endorphins), which cause feelings of physical and mental wellbeing
* Reduces stress
* Enhances self-esteem.

To be honest, the best (and natural cure) for a headache, is an orgasm. Sometimes I masturbate a few times a day.

It honestly DOES help with stress. Much more than most people realize. Plus, it also helps out during sex as well, if you know your own body/when you cum, you can control these things.

Most people will just pass off masturbation as "for sex only" but I know when I have a headache or a migraine (yes, I've got the female disease:() I just rub one out and say goodbye to my headache.

I don't know about you guys, but when it comes down to stress/anxiety, my cure for it is of course, masturbation. Don't believe it works?

Next time you're stressed to the max, and nothing works, masturbate!

Doesn't work for everyone. I've tried it a few times and only wind up with a worse headache afterwards.

Agreed.

As for other methods of coping with anxiety... If taking my mind off it or forcing the emotion into something creative doesn't work, I just keep on going over whatever is causing it until I am so sick of thinking about it that I realize worrying about it isn't solving anything and it suddenly becomes so easy to stop thinking about it.

Most of my non-healthy methods of coping with anxiety have become completely fubar recently, and in fact present me with more worry than I had previously. Feeling ill doesn't help you forget what's bothering you (although some may say the hours which you have blacked out due to overindulgance were worth it as you can't recall being anxious).

I doubt any of my methods of dealing with anxiety are all that healthy, actually. Right now, for example, I'm freaking out in the anxious manner and being 100% unproductive: opening acad files with no purpose other than to close them without editing anything. Staring off into space happens a LOT and doesn't really help anything either. When I run (or rollerblade, or bike, etc) to change my mood, I tend to be in who-gives-a-damn mode, and I really don't give a damn where I am, what time of day it is, or anything else really. This would be healthy, being a lot of physical endurance activity, except that I tend to get myself in not-so-safe situations when doing so.
-Recently I went out biking, without a light, at 8pm (it was February, so it was well after dark). There were few lights, I had no clue how far I'd gone or had left to go to get back, nor did I particularly care, it was raining, windy, and cold. It was a fairly secluded area, so nothing really happened except I could hardly walk when I finally got back (about 2 hours later, having gone (when I looked it up), oddly enough, exactly 26.2 miles).
-This fall, down in Boston, I left the Fens area at 9:30pm, on rollerblades, headed in the general direction of the water, but didn't know how to get there and again didn't really care. If there was a red light, I'd just turn right simply so I could keep going. It occurred to me later that I'd heard a LOT of sketchy calls and whistles from dark corners, under overpasses, and in dark sketchy alleys (female alone at night = easy target?), but I didn't really notice then, nor give a damn. I ended up in (as a friend informed me later) Dorchester, which is apparently the worst area near Boston. I decided to head back, still in a terrible mood, and got myself about a mile or so into the USPS headquarters, which I'd thought was a bridge, before security freaked out and stopped me. That 'tollbooth' was actually an authorization booth that hadn't notice me going in. Going around the USPS, I got dead-ended into an empty parking lot, followed by a dude on a motorcycle, who ended up turning around and leaving. I got back around 11:15pm.
-I've gone walking through the bad section of Mission Hill with a visibly semi-broken arm in the evening (bad mood + needing to get back to campus + the ride (from the campus police) I was told would be there never showed up).
-I've gone running through the 'ghetto' of my rural town at dusk, 'ghetto' because sketchy people live there. Actually I've done that several times. Me = idiot. I've also almost been hit by a car while I was running, but that was all their fault, as it was broad daylight, sunny, I was about 6' off the road, and they were about 5' off the road.

Healthy way of dealing with anxiety? Sure. Until I finally get mugged/shot/run over/stabbed/raped/arrested/lost (more permanently)/otherwise harmed, it works. Usually. The most dangerous part of it is even if anything happened, if I'm not out of that anxious/depressy mode yet, I wouldn't even care.

If it's a nice sunny day, not too cold, I'll go out and lay in the sun. It really works, especially if you can clear your mind. It works with depression, as well, but I hear anxiety and depression go hand in hand.

when I'm anxious, I leave everything that I'm doing and I go for a walk, or do something to take my mind off of it. Call a friend to hang out, or go watch a movie. If it's at home, I'll just head outside until the feeling is over, and if it's at work, I might take a break and go outside. Anything really to take my mind away from the thought :eagletear:

I internalize all of my anxiety and stuff. I don't like venting it out to people or even writing it down. Usually, I just go outside and exert myself physically by running hard and long...that usually helps me to relax and let go of that emotion.

I'm taking lexapro for my depression and Clonazepam for my anxiety. I take the Lexapro cause axiety comes from depression of course and there are some days that i could go without the medication. I always try reading or just hang around people.