How to Deal

 So, hopefully a lot of you read my first post and wanted to read more. From the looks of it, nobody did, but hey, you have to start somewhere, right? I'm not giving up on my mission just because nobody has read my blog. YET. Still, I've decided to create another blog, one that's a little more for everybody, not just people with anxiety and other mental illnesses, about all sorts of crap, like movie and book reviews and my personal little rants (I have a lot of them). Here's the link: Viewing is Reviewing.

 Now, to the main topic of this post. So, the most important thing when you're suffering from anxiety is to learn how to deal with you're problems. Let's take the basis of my anxiety and use it as an example. I am deathly afraid of death (pun was ENTIRELY intended). I worry all the time about the safety of my family, particularly my mom, and my own demise. I'm really sorry if I'm making you afraid of all these things, and if you have a problem with it, please let me know, otherwise I'll probably keep doing it. Anyways, from time to time, I let my mind wander and all the awful, scary thoughts spiral out of control and before I know it, I'm having a panic attack. First things first: Keep panicking. I know it sounds a little strange, maybe even psychotic, but I'm being honest here. Fears are endorphins, we need them to stay alive, or we'd just jump in front a moving car without a care in the world. What you need to do it try and stay in that mode of panic, if you can, because like all endorphins, eventually, they'll fade away and the panic will leave. I know that sometimes, that can be really hard and maybe even impossibly. I can hardly do it myself. And if that's the case with you, there are other things you can do.

When I was little, and I started to have my panic attacks and couldn't sleep, I'd always ask my mom if she could give me something to think about when I closed my eyes. I'd end up dreaming about ponies and unicorns and Mickey Mouse, or something along those lines. Keep in mind I was eight, so that might now work for you, but if you can distract yourself with another thought of some sort, do it. It might just work.

As I got older, Mickey Mouse and unicorns just wasn't cutting it anymore. So I started to read and watch television and all sorts of other things. When I went to group therapy, however, they told us not to do that. They said it would distract us and we needed to face these things head on. Now, I don't know if the therapists there ever faced anxiety attacks, but I can tell you for sure that that method DID NOT work for me. My distracting thought was the television, or my book, or the radio. I needed that to stop my fears, and if you need it to, go for it. Because fears can be scary, anxiety can be terrifying, and when you feel like curling up and dying, the last thing you're going to want to do is keep suffering. 

That's it for today, folks. Tomorrow, I'll probably have something up about different types of anxiety and sites that you can go to when this won't cut it (like that will ever happen).

Until tomorrow (unless you need me NOW, then you can e-mail me at ifyouknowyourecrazy@hotmail.ca for anything urgent),

Elizabeth~