After a 10 year fight induced from stress, I can positively say that I'm free from it, just reading a page like this would have floored me 5 years ago.
Some stuff I learned:
- Stop* with coffee, for some reason tea does not the same thing to my body, coffee is like gasoline on the anxiety fire, I cant stress this point enough.
- Stop* with nicotine, (almost) same as coffee
- Stop* drinking, you need to stay strong 7 days a week to get out of it
- Start walking, at least 8km during weekdays day, in brisk pace, you should have to take a shower after. After each walk, do a workout, pushups, chins etc. Make this a priority, and dont walk when its dark outside, you need the sunlight.
- In the beginning, avoid everything stressful, its not hiding, its waiting until strong enough
- Stoicism contains allot of valuable lessons for us, its where CBT came from after all.
- If you come out on this like me on the right side (I hope), and your loved one is still by your side, remember that !
All the best !
*) To stop with something like "drinking" and coffee, it seems hard and rash, but it really helps, and dont make the mistake to once in a while break the rule, its much easier to stick to the rule if there are zero exceptions, less inner conversation, less guilt, more pride.
>Start walking, at least 8km... dont walk when its dark outside, you need the sunlight.
An 8km walk at a brisk walking pace is a little under an hour and a half (average 10k running times is about an hour). I get out of work at 5pm, and it's officially dark by 5:30pm. I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but this one is literally impossible for anyone in the northern latitudes (New York, Chicago, Seattle, London, Berlin, Hong Kong, even San Fransisco is officially dark before 6pm this time of year).
Instead, I'd suggest focusing on taking vitamin D supplements if you don't have a lot of sun then taking a vigorous walk whenever you can. You don't need one more thing to be anxious about!
Yes, I know, I live far north where the sun sets early and comes up late, we also have harsh winters, so its a challenge.
But building muscles and stamina is critical for recovery and walking/workout is something almost everyone can do. Running is much much harder, it takes a heavier toll on the body and when starting out your more likely to get sick etc.
When you set the routine (takes a month), you will long for walk every day, everything seems to calm down allot during and after the walks.
There's no rule that you have to do a specific amount, the same amount, at the same time, all at once, every day. Just break it up and relax.
Take a quick break from work in the mid-morning and walk outside for 15 minutes instead of drinking coffee. Go out for half an hour (or whatever) at lunchtime, go for another 15 min break in the afternoon instead of more coffee. Occasionally invite a coworker to go with you. If you can discuss business (on occasion) you can keep working while you walk. Then another 20 minutes in the dark after work.
And some days less, some days more, and extra on weekends.
The requirement to obey strict walking rules will end up CAUSING the anxiety it's supposed to relieve. Just make it a fun break and take fun breaks here and there when you can.
You can do it in the morning without too much trouble, if you can drag yourself out of bed. I get up around 6, and walk my dog 3-4 miles every morning between 6:30-7:30. This is a bit north of Boston, and it's already getting dark by 4:30 PM now, so afternoons are out. Whee, daylight savings time!
> Start walking, at least 8km during weekdays day, in brisk pace, you should have to take a shower after. After each walk, do a workout, pushups, chins etc. Make this a priority, and dont walk when its dark outside, you need the sunlight.
That's over 90 minutes walking every weekday plus time for the workout and clean-up after. Difficult to make time for and rather unpleasant in rain, bitter cold, and/or snow. There's currently 9 1/2 hours of daylight per day here, pretty hard to work full-time, commute, and devote this much time to exercise during the day.
I'm fully aware of this, I just had to get back to life before it all gone and this is what I did, it may not be the right thing for everybody, but I sincerely think that particular the training, being out during the day, strengthening my body, is what that final got me back on track.
Its like reaching a threshold when everything is "snowballing" in the right direction.
> - Stop* with coffee, for some reason tea does not the same thing to my body, coffee is like gasoline on the anxiety fire, I cant stress this point enough.
Tea has the amino acid L-theanine [1] in it, which is supposed to reduce the "jittery" effects of coffee.
A very interesting amino acid that I have just started to experiment with [0]. On a side note, I highly recommend examine.com to anyone who struggles to find decent information on dietary supplementation. Not a member of the company, just a very impressed and grateful user.
So not everybody will benefit from reducing caffeine intake. I think for most people, moderate caffein intake will actually have a positive effect on mood.
I'll second the walking when it is dark. I live in Norway. Tomorrow, the sun rises a bit after 9 and sets before 3. If you work first shift or office hours, you miss the light. This advice just isn't possible for some people.
If you are finding that the season's darkness gets you, it is really a seperate issue. Vitamin D helps a lot of folks as does light therapy.
I know that in the real world, people have work to do, kids to fetch and all those things, but if you can, please try, its not just about the sunlight = Vitamin D, its also about the sensory input you get while walking, that is very soothing and distracting, everything calms down considerably during and after.
But you miss so much of the sensory stuff - and beauty - if you don't go out at night! To be fair, a few times a year I catch things like Northern lights: Downtown is just charming with the christmas lights up on the trees with snow on the ground. In autumn the air smells like leaves, and the snow leaves a crisp smell to the air and an oddly echoing silence. Sometimes it downright sparkles from the reflection of the streetlights. Ice isn't so wonderful to walk in unless you've good footwear or some sort of cleats to put on your shoes, but it does give a neat shiny coating to everything, which is especially beautiful during sunrise and sunset - and sometimes under the house lights the trees just glisten with ice.
Walking is my main form of transportation, so I do a great deal of it, and appreciate it so long as it isn't too cold. Granted, I used to view it the same way until I moved here.
Yep, if you ever want a good nights sleep, go somewhere you haven't been before and spend a few hours walking around. Gets the mind working overtime, in a good subconscious way.
Taking responsibility for your situations can also help a lot. If you treat anxiety as an illness you give up your power over the situation. If you consider it only as a temoraly condition it gets easier to make the needed changes and get out of the anxiety.
Some stuff I learned:
- Stop* with coffee, for some reason tea does not the same thing to my body, coffee is like gasoline on the anxiety fire, I cant stress this point enough.
- Stop* with nicotine, (almost) same as coffee
- Stop* drinking, you need to stay strong 7 days a week to get out of it
- Start walking, at least 8km during weekdays day, in brisk pace, you should have to take a shower after. After each walk, do a workout, pushups, chins etc. Make this a priority, and dont walk when its dark outside, you need the sunlight.
- In the beginning, avoid everything stressful, its not hiding, its waiting until strong enough
- Stoicism contains allot of valuable lessons for us, its where CBT came from after all.
- If you come out on this like me on the right side (I hope), and your loved one is still by your side, remember that !
All the best !
*) To stop with something like "drinking" and coffee, it seems hard and rash, but it really helps, and dont make the mistake to once in a while break the rule, its much easier to stick to the rule if there are zero exceptions, less inner conversation, less guilt, more pride.