Assumptions about what people are thinking/saying about you are huge signs of either sign of anxiety, like “God they must think I’m dumb”or wanting to eavesdrop so you know what they really think of you. Or, in the same vein, ‘knowing’ what people are gonna say or do when you approach them for something or with a question and that ‘knowing’ always ending up being negative. Taking an hour or the like to fall asleep, or needing to walk around a lot or fidgeting or J I G G L E L E G are really common symptoms. But also a short fuse; if you sometimes get irritated by small things out of proportion that could just be a different way the anxiety surfaces. Perfectionism is also a way anxiety channels itself.Quelling anxiety and social anxiety is about grounding skills like concentrating on five things you see, four you hear, three you can touch, and so forth, or moving your toes/fingers and concentrating on how it feels or breathing exercises. Those help in times of anxiety and should be practiced while you’re not anxious so your brain can absorb them and trust them better. Actually lowering the frequency and level of anxiety is more difficult. That’s about challenging your anxiety. Something that helps is keeping a ledger of every time your anxiety acts up but whatever horrible thing you’re imagining doesn’t occur. That way you’re building up proof (preferably written out by hand, physical proof) that so much anxiety isn’t needed. Keeping record of what happened right before anxiety spikes can help you know your triggers, and practicing speaking to remove filler words like “um” and “you know” or whatever you say when you get frazzled helps you sound and feel more confident to combat social anxiety. When you find yourself spiraling, talking to your anxiety like it’s a person and has the ability to shut up can help. One of the things I do that really helps is that, when I can’t sleep because of anxiety, is write out whatever I’m being anxious about. My dad taught me too to, when unable to sleep or stop freaking out, is go through every room in my apartment mentally saying “is there anything in here that will fix what I’m being anxious about, right now?”. If not, then you have permission to think about something else. If you start being anxious again, go through your house again. Supportive friends and family are of course deeply helpful, and yoga (no matter how simple) and meditation a few times a week have been proven to help decrease all kinds of anxiety.
If anyone else has questions for a mentally ill therapist-in-training about Persistent Depressive Disorder/Dysthymia, OCD, Anxiety, Social Anxiety, PTSD, Complex PTSD, Anorexia, self harm, being hospitalized, therapy, hallucinations, delusions, or medication PLEASE ask!!
