Beat Anxiety Without Medication

You know what, the same thing happened to me, I was about 11 years old when I started getting panic attacks, they lasted until I was about 15, when I got into friends and fun I forgot all about them, they would strike here and there. Then when I was about 19 my family moved out of state, a lot of things were going on I became very depressed and started panicing again, so I do believe that it comes and goes and it is in your mind, but I am still suffering now since then and im 23, and its easier said then done to just start a business or just walahh make life better, my sister took medication and felt great, me I tried once and bugged out, everyone is different and I wish I could overcome it like you did, congrats! Some people arent as strong to fight it!

My biggest fear is vomiting. Im scared to death of it, I used to live with a nausious feeling 24/7. I wouldnt leave my bed just incase I threw up!!!!!! I would never leave the front door without someone dragging me. I couldnt eat incase I got food poison, I thought I caught a bug everywhere I went.(i have never actually thrown up due to anxiety). Your symptoms never go, you can just control them very well and they will not appear as much and when they do you know exactly what to do when they come. Like for me when I go to the movies, I sometimes get the feeling that I feel sick and I just shake my head and tell myself I am being stupid. You are a strong person you beat this when you were younger, so why not now? Cause you are older and can analyse what you are feeling so much better. This is actually feeding it. I remember this one time I was sitting on the floor saying this is the night when im going to get sick, I can feel it. I sat there scared to move until I said to myself it cant get any worse than this. So I jumped up shook my head and said "i am the healthiest, fitest person around" I went outside and walked around the block singing to myself, and telling myself, im fine and I feel fantastic. You know what? I felt 80% better. I then started knitting!!!!! That took my full concentration and at the end of the night it was the 1st time I felt kind of normal!!! It is as simple as that.

Im not saying it's easy or that what you are feeling isnt the worst and scariest thing to go through. It is!!! But I want you to have hope that you are strong enough to get through it. For me the feeling that I will vomit is the worst symptom I have, so to make myself feel better, I needed to do something 1st of all to make myself feel hungry (cause how can I feel sick if im hungry??!!) so I made up this breathing technique: you get a digital clock. You breath in for 3 and out for 3. Every 10 times you do this the clock clicks over 1 minute. So after 10 times you do it, you look at the clock, a minute would have clicked away. If you do this for 10-30min you will find yourself relaxing and I always started to feel hungry!!! The trick was, I wasnt thinking about how I was feeling, I was counting my breaths and counting that every 10 times and then I looked at the clock and it would tick over. I didnt have time to think about feeling sick. That is the trick. Talk to yourself and tell yourself how great you fell and then straight away occupy your mind.

I have anxiety..I agree with everyone saying that maybe if you keep your mind busy it will go away. I had it during the first years of high school then during junior and senior year I made alot of friends and went out and was enjoying life- no anxiety at all. Then after two years of college, I moved away from the life I use to have and now live in this very quiet and low populated area...Totally different from the big city I use to live in, san francisco. Recently I have been experiencing alot of anxiety and panicing....Im trying to keep myself busy. There is one certain thing I worry about, like my health. I have shooting pains in my chest, my breast, randomly and periodically...My doc says its acid reflux and for some reason I don't believe her........That makes me think of all the other things I might be. Anyhoo..Im undergoing tests for different things which relieves my anxiety a little...Especially when I get negitive results.

I totally agree with you! Good for you! :d

I had my first panic attack out of nowhere while I was driving about 3 months ago. Didn't know what it was...had everything checked by the doc and physically I was fine. Then I had another while driving and started to fear driving. Then I had a bad low grade one that lasted for 2 days while I was at home. I did not sleep that whole night until 7:30am.

Doc prescribed Xanax, Took it once and it worked wonderfully. Felt high for an hour and once that subsided just felt normal. But I didn't want to live life taking a med and knew it was addictive so I did not take anymore.

What helped me was getting educated. Read some books and realized how much of it is in your head as others have suggested here. It comes on when I don't want it to but I try to ignore it, stay busy, and always say in my head "whats worse case scenario? my heart beats fast, I get paranoid and then recover in 20 minutes??" and when I put it that way it doesn't sounds so bad. That in itself stops it. I think what worked me up the most in the beginning was worrying I was going crazy because I did not know what was happening to me.

It is a constant battle though. I do find I am getting better and better where sometimes I go a day or two without even thinking about it, but then other days I am pushing it down all day. I find its worse when I am at home all day with my 2 year old. So getting out when I feel it coming in is good. Go to the store, the park, whatever...get my mind onto something else. Or call someone on the phone and clean multi tasking takes up your mind. Chamomile tea also makes me feel better at night or taking a hot bath...I do this when my mind starts moving 100 miles an hour and I fear I won't be able to sleep. Also avoiding caffeine has helped too. I notice if I have lots of sugar and caffeine it comes on more.

The funny part about all this is everyone said in the beginning I needed to relax. But relaxing I have found is the worse thing to do if I feel it. Staying busy and having a lot on my plate works great, but you would think it has the opposite effect.

Yeah, I see what you are saying about keeping busy, but at the same time, my anxiety comes on when I am very far from home or if I know that I will have to be away from home for a long period. My anxiety is the fear of being really sick or fainting, so I dont like being in an uncomfortable place where I feel like I wouldn't be safe if I was to start not feeling well. So I would like to run errands or somethign to keep busy, but sometimes that just brings on more anxiety about being alone in a store or something and passing out by myself. I have fainted about 8 times in the last 3 years and my doc agrees that it doesn't sound like the faiting is anxiety related, but they don't know I am more prone to fainting. So now I have created the anxiety and fear of thinking that every moment is the next potential moment that I will have another episode. Instead of just living life and dealing with the episodes as they come, I obsess about the possibility and don't really live my life because I am afraid of what might happen. I just wish I knew how to stop that cycle.

Wow that must be so hard for you. At the beginning of my attacks I felt a similar fear about being afraid to leave because I might pass out somewhere. I never actually passed out though so your situation sounds more intense.

Well you can still talk yourself out of those anxiety feelings by saying "what the worse case if I pass out? A stranger finds me and people at the store have to help me" sure its not ideal but its not life or deal either. I read this book called Anxiety: Finding Strength in the Face of Fear. It taught me some technicques to self talk myself out of it the attacks. I also think seeing a professional to help you learn some techniques might be helpful too.

Just know that your normal....this is just something your body is doing on its own and you just have to find a way to work around it. Never stop seeking answers, if succumb to the fear it will ruin your life and no one deserves that!

My anxiety began after graduating high school, life totally changed for me and I guess I didnt know how to handle it..so poof! my first anxiety attack came along. Some of my symtoms were the feeling of butterflies in my stomach to the point where I couldnt sleep when I needed to and also loss of weight. I am now 23 and I also agree that its all in your mind, try not to concentrate on your anxiety. Occupy your mind on activities, try to remember how life was like before your anxiety took over. You can become that person that you once were.

i had this since i was little but i dont remember how young.. but i got it really bad during a very abusive relationship with my ex husband.. then i got better. so from about 20 to 25 i was a complete nimwit... then i just got better after fighting it and being on my own with 4 kids to feed. then it came back at 29 i am now 30 and still cant get rid of it.. cant remember how i did it before so if anyone knows any sure fire ways let me know.. it seems so much harder to beat the second time around.. has anyone noticed this?