Hi Alison. I hope lots of folks post their strategies here so we can all learn from each other! For myself, I have realized that if you let yourself feel powerless for too long, it becomes more and more difficult (but never impossible!!) to get control again. So, the only way to get out of that powerless state is to fight back. Face the fear (there is apparently a great book called "Feel the Fear... And Do It Anyways" that I want to get my hands on soon). It's all about challenging ourselves to move, inch by inch, out of our comfort zone, while also learning and analyzing what is causing our fears or physical manifestations of fears, in the first place.
I plan to give myself a new goal every single week. Some will be exposure goals like driving alone, taking the kids somewhere alone (which not so long ago was no problem at all for me!), or going to a movie/theatre etc where I tend to feel trapped. Other goals will be to reduce my anxiety and stress by changing the way I think.
For example, at our CBT group 2 weeks ago, the facilitators challenged us to stop judging. Apparently this is HUGE among panic and anxiety sufferers. We were raised to judge, critique, analyze, measure, and value things - things that really don't even matter. I am SO like that - I judge people, clothing, the curb appeal of every house I drive by, media stories, hairstyles, etc etc etc. We spend so much energy focussed on critiquing that it translates into major negative emotions, resulting in added anxieties. So we were challenged to not judge for one whole week (well, more like try not to judge and catch ourselves when we did), and instead just be an observer for a week. I worked hard on this one, and it is already making a big difference to my overall state of mind. I feel much more at peace (not perhaps as much at peace as "normal people", but way more so than I usually am).
Anyhow, those are my best tips for alleviating anxieties. I hope to see some from other people too!
Caitlin
