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Ask HN: Are there techniques to cope with acute anxiety?

by FreeHugs on 4/6/22, 2:52 PM with 23 comments

• by panda888888 on 4/6/22, 4:46 PM

  Step 1: Notice that you're anxious. Personally, I find that when I have that feeling of restlessness, it's because I'm avoiding thinking about it/avoiding my feelings.

  Step 2: Acknowledge that you're anxious, without judgement. It's perfectly fine to be anxious; it's normal. Notice it and make space for it. I literally say in my head "I'm anxious about going to the dentist." It sounds silly, but it helps.

  Step 3: Pinpoint EXACTLY what it is that makes you anxious. For me, the part about the dentist that makes me anxious is when they clean my teeth and poke me in the gums, and it hurts. (Also, I try to do the same thing if I'm procrastinating: EXACTLY what is it that I don't want to do?) Identify the thing and give it a name so describe it. It may be helpful to say this out loud.

  Repeat steps 1-3 multiple times until you're more comfortable with the situation.

  Step 4: Figure out if there's something you can do to make the root cause of your anxiety easier. When I go to the dentist, I'm upfront and tell them that I get anxious, and I ask them to play music to distract me. They're happy to do that, and it helps. As another example, if I'm anxious about traveling to a new place, I look it up on Google Maps or Yelp ahead of time. That helps me.

• by JohnBooty on 4/6/22, 5:35 PM

      It is not as if I feel terribly anxious. Just kinda constantly 
      restless. And not really able to enjoy life. I constantly think 
      "Ok, I need to get over this appointment first. Then I can live 
      my life again.".
  

  Yeah, this is totally me.

  As other posters have noted, just noticing it without judgement is a thing that helps too. Practice noticing it without beating yourself up for it. (Mindfulness, essentially)

  I think for me it's more of an "executive functioning thing" than an "anxiety" thing?

  Like, I'm not even worried or scared or dreading. I'll just keep thinking about it. It feels very adjacent to ADHD.

  Part of why I'm sometimes hyperfocused is because my mind can't stop thinking about the unknowns. Where will I park? Or should I Uber? How will traffic be? Is my neighbor available to dogsit? what will I wear? etc.

  So often, resolving those things is the biggest boost. If I can't answer the unknowns, I can sometimes cope by coming up with a Plan B ("I'll take a spare outfit in the car, in case I'm overdressed") or just resolving to leave early ("Traffic is too hard to predict, so I'll just leave a full hour early and have a drink at the bar while I'm waiting for the event if I get there way too soon.")

• by gdubs on 4/6/22, 5:09 PM

  Standard disclaimer that I’m not a doctor and this shouldn’t be taken as medical advice, but you might find cognitive Behavorial therapy interesting.

  The gist is that there’s a common set of cognitive distortions that we fall into. Things like, “fortune telling,” where we assume some bad outcome is going to happen even if we can’t really say that for certain.

  You basically write down all the things that are troubling you, and then see if you can call-out those cognitive distortions.

  This is just a 10,000 foot perspective, but it’s actually pretty straightforward.

  The book “Feeling Good” popularized it.

• by alex_duf on 4/6/22, 3:00 PM

  Anecdotal evidence around me suggest Cognitive Behavioural Therapy might be an approach that may help you on that front. Seek professional help.

• by dangrossman on 4/6/22, 2:56 PM

  For me, a combination of asking "why am I worried about this? what's the worst that can happen?" and propanolol. Propanolol is an easy prescription to get, it's a blood pressure medication, but it works VERY well for acute anxiety IMO because it takes away all the physical symptoms (fast pulse, shaky hands, nausea, dry mouth).

• by chrismeller on 4/6/22, 4:11 PM

  The other suggestions here are great as well, I just wanted to add that you should avoid alcohol. It wasn’t until a psychiatrist suggested it that I realized “holy crap”, after I drink I am more anxious in general for 2-3 days.

  For me at least it doesn’t seem to matter how much I drink, even a couple glasses of wine with dinner will make me more anxious the next day, but it does seem to scale up with intake. YMMV.

  Edit: as another comment suggested, CBT would very likely help, particularly if you’re nervous about certain things and there’s no “real” reason for it.

  If there’s a specific reason behind the anxiety (like worrying about a language barrier with the dentist), then CBT probably wouldn’t be my first priority.

• by sapiol on 4/6/22, 6:46 PM

  The book Managing Your Mind [1] has an excellent chapter about dealing with anxiety and the thoughts you described. The approaches in this book are rooted in cognitive behavioral therapy. Helped me tremendously.

  You might also profit from some mindfulness training in order to learn to live more in the present moment and let go of the future.

  [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/883834.Managing_Your_Min...

• by kleer001 on 4/7/22, 9:26 PM

  > Are there techniques to deal with this?

  #1 = View it as a desire to change a fundamental part of your personality and all the trial and error and life long effort that will entail to find the coping mechanisms and actionable wisdom that will work for you.

  https://bigfivepersonalitytraits.com/

  https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychiatry-the-peopl...

  https://helloskills.org/blog/neuroticism-personality-trait/

• by cocoa19 on 4/6/22, 7:03 PM

  Deep breathing and guided meditation audios or videos. For me, the guided meditation is especially effective for falling asleep.

  The easiest thing you can do is go to YouTube and search for guided meditations. I've recently been listening to Jason Stephenson sleep meditations on YouTube to fall asleep.

  You should also consider consulting a psychologist. A good psychologist should give you the tools and techniques to manage anxiety.

• by rrauenza on 4/6/22, 4:48 PM

  I’ve seen this book/method highly recommended:

  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205913.When_Panic_Attack...

  One point it makes is that avoidance actually increases anxiety about a thing.

• by kingnothing on 4/6/22, 8:07 PM

  I'd certainly recommend talking with your doctor and try an anxiolytic along with a therapist.

• by 11235813213455 on 4/6/22, 4:33 PM

  deep breathing - music (classical works well, but anything you like) - focus on your work/task to regain confidence and outside of a crisis: regularly go out - sun exposure - contact with nature - smile and laugh

• by greenail on 4/6/22, 3:44 PM

  don't participate actively in social media, try to avoid reading social media, avoid the news, and do something (hopefully productive) to occupy your idle thoughts.

• by hogrider on 4/6/22, 5:34 PM

  Just get prescription ansiolitics. They work like magic.