Boundaries & self care during the holidays with Brooke Greenwald, Coach

Live on Instagram @okclarity on Oct 6 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time

How to deal with severe anxiety?

i've been struggling with severe anxiety for the past few weeks, can you help me figure out a way to deal with it? I'm not managing my day to day because of the anxiety.

 

Living with Severe anxiety is not easy and I'm sorry you're struggling this way.

Here are a few thoughts and ideas I want to share with you in the hope of being helpful:

1/ One thing that stuck out to me from your question was that you said the"last few weeks". I'm wondering if you know where this extra severe anxiety is coming from. Why it's been stronger recently? perhaps that insight will be your first clue in how to alleviate some of it. Or at the very least help you reinforce that it's temporary and based on a life event or the like.

2/ In line with that you can ask yourself "what was I doing the last time I wasn't feeling this intense anxiety on a regular basis? "You may find that you weren't listening to the news as much, you were getting better sleep, daily sunshine and movement or whatever the truth in your experience was.

Try to conjure a clear ish memory of a week where your anxiety was at a healthier level and see what changed - what can you adjust to move closer to that previous reality.

This reminds me of something I shared in my FFF newsletter a few weeks ago. The concept That insanity is doing something different and expecting the same results. We often let go of certain habits and then wonder why we're getting less than optimal results in our life without realizing that changing our behaviors or experiences changes how we feel and cope.

3/ I want you to do a basic needs check. How are you scoring on getting consistent 7-9 hours of sleep, eating balanced regularly

Drinking too much caffeine and or caffeine on an empty stomach spikes cortisol which sets that feeling of anxiety on fire. Not eating a balanced breakfast makes our blood glucose level wacky which contributes to anxiety in a big way.

I'm not encouraging you to become obsessed or hard on yourself if most or all of these areas are lacking. Rather, im hoping it can be exciting and encouraging to know that small steps in the right direction can set you up for a life of success and reduced anxiety.

Side note. Everything I'm sharing here is with the assumption that you're already in therapy to work thru stuff - anxiety included and that you know that medication for anxiety is an option and might even be on it. Hence I'm not offering that as a solution.

In general, I am and never was a believer in therapy or psychiatry being the one and only solution for our aches and pains which is why everything I'm sharing here are alternatives or better yet therapeutic add ons.

5/ I'll share a supplement that I've personally used prior to public speaking gigs but it can be used daily. I share that I used it bec as you may already know I'm super careful with what I put into my body. This is all natural and didn't do any harm. It's from a company called forces of nature and I believe it's the one called calm mood. It's a liquid dropper (in case capsules scare you). I also know clients who used it with great success in taking the edge off anxiety on a daily basis.

6/ another non invasive idea that I've heard great things about are something called super patches.

I've never used them for anxiety but have heard firsthand that they help people immensely. I believe the Liberty + peace + joy combo is great for anxiety but you can try any combination of two of the above to start. It's complex to go into how this works but you can learn all about it online by googling super patches etc.

To order them you'd need to have a code from someone who already has an account which I believe OKclarity does as I planned to share about them a while ago but my to do list had other plans haha! I will ask our community manager to share and post the info on the status and Instagram.

7/ Remember that you can and will be able to reduce your anxiety and the intensity of all painful feelings. Just bec you have severe anxiety now it doesn't mean you will have it forever. In fact if you don't give up you will find ways that work for you to reduce it to a healthy level.

We don't need to eradicate it we just need you to be able to manage it so it's a small part of you and doesn't feel like the whole you!

8/ last but certainly not least, lean into Hashem as much as you can. Get involved with Emunah and bitachon if you can. It would be remiss of me not to say this because I truly believe this is the best solution. Me and you both are likely not on the level that it can be our only solution to every problem but that doesn't mean we don't strive for that.

I hope some of this was helpful and from my heart to yours I'm sending you so much love and strength and I'm rooting for you!

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About the author

Fay Brezel, LMHC

Therapist, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, LMHC

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

  • 🎯 Direct
  • 💙 Warm
  • 💪 Challenging
  • 💡 Solution-oriented

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