A conversation with Sarah Wilson // Wed. 11 May // 7pm AEST

@Sarah108 I have lived experience with PTSD and anxiety and have also helped care for my mum who battles severe depression and anxiety. She isn't on the forums tonight but this resonated with her when I just spoke to her...

"I need you to reach out to me, even when I’m so anxious I’ve stopped leaving the house. I need to know someone still cares and wants to see me.” — Hayley Lyvers

Hi Sahara,

I think that for anxiety CBT can work wonders. I don't think that CBT is a one size fits all therapy as some would make us believe but for anxiety it can work really well

Counting steps helps me. Long strides are best!

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@Sarah108 wrote:

what helps you when in an anxious panic?

For me, getting touched - a cheap Thai massage. I'm a meditator, but MEDITATION JUST WON'T CUT IT WHEN I'M SUPER ANXIOUS!!!! It make it worse...

I find small things work. Simple things. Often WEIRD things...

Other repsonses I've come across... which I liked becaues they were so unique and personal... do you do anything like this!?

“I take a big fluffy makeup brush and stroke my hand or my face with it. I keep a small size one in my purse for emergencies. It helps a lot if I’m out.”


“The act of taking my hair down and then braiding it always soothes me. So does someone else braiding or brushing my hair.”

“Wiggling! When I feel anxiety in my chest [and] it’s really bad, I’ll put on a song and literally dance it out. I pretend that I’m physically pulling the anxiety out of my chest, pull it or shake it out of my fingertips and slam it on the ground. This method has gotten me out of a lot of panic attacks.”

"I rock back and forth in my rocking chair. Eventually I calm down and the rocking goes down to almost nothing"

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@Former-Member

When i have managed to have things in routine it helps alot... and i can cope with the changes that happen if most things are still in routine and ok but at the moment everything in my life is in a state of chaos.. unknowns everywhere.

I too have used meditation and breathing techniques for over 30 years now. They do help sometimes but not at others. I tend to believe in the genetics of these conditions a fair bit too. Medications may have helped me most with the extreme symptoms of anxiety that I experienced when younger. Both my parents were extremely anxious people too.

Hi @Sarah108

I've recently been told by my therapist that i have GAD. I tend to worry about every single that in my life. I have been told this afternoon that I need to have the rest of the week off or go to hospital. It was a case of those two options so i chose have week off work. But the guilt is playing on my mind, the stress of all the work I have left behind; the guilt of leaving the other staff and they don't know how to do stuff; i feel so bad. sorry not in a good frame of mind tonight 😞

I can so relate to this aswell....