An Anxiety and Panic Attack Strategy To Try
When you’re looking for an effective way to combat anxiety and panic attack related problems, you will often not know where to turn, or what to try next. And that’s why I’d like to share an idea with you that I used myself a couple of years back.
This idea helped me to kick-start my recovery by allowing me to always have a clear, sharp mind, leaving me able to spot the early signs of anxiety, which put me in a much better position to fight off attacks before they got out of control.
It’s all about clearing off your desk, mentally!
Imagine you work at a desk, and your desk is a mess. You won’t function well. You won’t be able to find anything. Your stress levels will increase. You’ll get nothing done.
Well, it’s the same with your mind. If your head is filled with “mental clutter,” you won’t function right. Your thoughts won’t be sharp or clear, your stress levels will increase, and your anxiety and panic levels will skyrocket. Mental clutter can single-handedly cause all kinds of anxiety and panic attack problems.
So, how exactly do you de-clutter your “mental desk”?
You clean it off, just like you would a real desk. Except with your mind, you do it by venting what’s in your head. So each day, write what’s on your mind. Write it on a blog, in a journal, or even on scraps of paper. Just get it out.
And what you’ll find is that the longer you do this, the less random, meaningless, and harmful thoughts you’ll experience. Soon, what you write each day will only be half of what it was when you started out.
Getting your thoughts out, especially your negative thoughts, is an excellent way to stop those negative thoughts occurring in the first place, and when you’re desperately looking for an anxiety and panic attack approach that works, this can literally be a life-saver.
Anxiety and Panic Attacks - Can You Sleep Them Away?
Filed under: Anxiety & Panic Resources, Articles, Panic Attack Help
Have your anxiety and panic attacks ever left you unable to sleep at night? Maybe they stop you from ever getting to sleep. Maybe they wake you up during the night. However your anxiety and panic attacks are affecting your sleep, you can be sure it’s doing you no favours at all.
This is all very familiar to me. I suffered with severe panic and anxiety for years, and it used to play havoc with my sleep. I would have entire weeks where I didn’t sleep. And even when things were going well I would find myself awake for half the night, lying in the dark with my heart racing, feeling as if I might never be able to sleep again.
My sleep situation got so bad that I actually started researching sleep. I thought if I understood it better that I might be able to get the high quality sleep I knew I desperately needed.
A lot of the books I read were no help at all - many of them were like reading books on science and biology, and I just couldn’t understand them. But there was one good book that I really enjoyed, which I got a lot from, and I’d like to recommend that one to you now if you’re having the same kind of sleeping problems I had for so many years.
It’s called “The Insomnia Solution,” and it’s written by Michael Krugman. He offers a basic overview of sleep, and some basic, quick tips on how to get more quality sleep. But he also explains his “mini-moves” concept - a unique and subtle method for lulling yourself to sleep.
I think this approach and this book could really help you, so if your anxiety and panic attacks are messing with your sleep, give it a try and see if it works as well for you.
Your Anxiety Cure Could Be 1 Step Away
If you’re currently looking for an anxiety cure, then I’ve got one word for you: sleep.
I lived with severe anxiety for over 17 years, and one of the big things that I focused on that lead to my recovery was sleep. And if you have any kind of anxiety or panic disorder then it won’t be a surprise to you that sleep plays such a big role in how we feel and how severe our anxiety is on any given day.
When my anxiety was at its worst my sleep was almost non-existent. I would sometimes go an entire week on a total of less than an hour of sleep. And that made my anxiety 10 times worse than it would have otherwise been.
And this can easily develop into a vicious circle that’s close to impossible to break out of.
You have anxiety, you can’t sleep, you have more anxiety that you can’t sleep, you sleep even less, and so on, and so on. It can quickly become a nightmare.
But there’s good news.
If you follow a few simple “sleep rules,” you can quickly and dramatically increase the amount of sleep you have, and also increase the quality of the sleep you have. So try sticking to these 3 rules from now on, and I’m sure it’ll help you a lot. Who knows, it may even turn out to be the first step towards finding your very own anxiety cure.
1. Go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning. To get truly healthy, restful sleep your body needs to develop a routine. This step is vital.
2. Avoid anything stimulating for an hour before you go to bed. Again, for truly restful, relaxing sleep your body needs to be in a calm state as you drift off. So no exercise, caffeine, or stimulating TV for an hour before bed.
3. Don’t use your bed for anything other than sleep and sex. You want your bed to be a place your mind subconsciously links with relaxation and almost zero activity. So no reading, eating, watching TV, or talking on the phone in bed.
Follow these 3 rules as best you can and you’ll be one huge step closer to finding your anxiety cure.
