Anxiety: 5 ways I cope with it
By Presley Cuthbertson on February 28, 2023
Living with anxiety can be an everyday struggle. From that shaky feeling in your body to overthinking about everything and sometimes it’s so bad it can make you sick. I know firsthand what it’s like. For as long as I can remember I have dealt with severe Anxiety and have tried everything to make it go away but sometimes the pills or therapy can’t help and that’s okay. Anxiety comes in many shapes and forms like social, school related, or severe like I have but no matter what kind of anxiety someone is dealing with doesn’t make it less important. I want to share some of the ways I have found that helps me keep my anxiety under control.
- Find 5
Find 5 is what I like to call a game of grounding. It works by going around the area you’re in whether that is at home or in public and finding 5 things you can see, 5 things you can touch, 5 things you hear, and sometimes not always but 5 things you can smell. Taking deep breaths as you do this can help lower anxiety and give you the feeling of being grounded.
2. Taking a bath
After a long day of feeling anxious, I like to take a nice long hot bath with (now this might sound crazy) lavender baby bubble bath. I use a bubble bath made for babies because it has a soft smell of lavender that doesn’t smack you in the face and for that reason, I use it to relax my body. Other bubble baths use strong scents that can make anxiety worse, so using a soft-smelling bubble bath helps ease the mind and let the body relax after being too tense.
3. Rescue Pastilles
Rescue Pastilles is a natural little candy that contains different flowers used in homeopathic remedies for anxiety. Sucking on one as needed is supposed to reduce the disruption of the emotional processing center in the brain. whether or not they actually work that way is unknown to me but I find they still help especially with anxiety at school.
4. Stress-Relax Mental Calmness
Mental Calmness are these chewable tablets made with 100% L-Theanine. L-Theanine is an amino acid found primarily in green and black tea and some mushrooms, it’s said to help ease anxiety, stress and reduce insomnia. I use these at night to help with my anxiety-induced insomnia because they help to relax the mind and body, this way I don’t have those “what if” moments when I am trying to fall asleep.
5. Pick N’ Peel Stone
Finally, a Pick N’ Peel stone. One thing I learned about myself is that when I am very anxious, I like to pick. I would pick at my nails, cuticles, skin, you name it. This is not good for the skin and can cause much damage in the long run, so I got a pick-and-peel stone. It’s a porous stone covered in latex that can be picked at with tweezers or a hook pick and it helps to take the mind off things. By focusing all my attention on this stone I find that the anxious feeling I once had slowly disappears.
These 5 things in the last five years have helped me so much and I hope they can help you as well. Keep in mind however, these will not work for everyone so do some exploring and find some things that help you. Anxiety can be managed it just takes time but once it is under control you will feel like a whole new person!