coping statements

[xxfairybluxx]

Does anybody have any coping statements to lessen anxious thoughts?

I've had quite a bad time with my anxiety over the last few days.

I keep trying to rationalise it as just being anxiety but then I think, what if its not and everything im scared of is real. E.g. what if I really am stupid? What if I can't cope? What if I have some other mental problem?
Then i'll think about it and think about it and get really anxious and depressed. I can't think straight and it feels like im stuck in a black hole.

I told my boyfriend about all of my weird fears and he put them into perspective. I felt really good afterwards. But then the next day I freaked out again. :(

can anybody relate?

[northstar]

fairyblu a counsellor gave me a great exercise once that you may find helpful with this: think about your top fears and make them into a statement e.g one of my top fears was "i'll feel anxious like this forever". then take this statement and turn it into a positive affirmation, so the positive version of my fear would be "i'm free from all anxiety" or something like "i feel great!".

then take these positive affirmations and repeat them to yourself in the mirror three times each morning, or whenever you feel you need reassurance. don't just say them though, believe them. it can help to write down on a scale of one to ten how strongly you feel each statement. or write them out nicely on pieces of paper and put them around your house like on the fridge door or inside the cookie jar :)

you might also like to write a little positive affirmation on some strong card and keep it in your wallet so you can take it out and look at it where ever you are whenever you need it :)

[xxfairybluxx]

That sounds like a good idea. I've tried doing something similar before but I felt like the positive affirmations weren't true and I just gave up. I guess if you do it often enough though, you start to believe them.

[02Batmobile]

I can totally relate to what you are talking about. I had wierd thoughts and worries that really got to me. As soon as I told my therapist, they put things into perspective so well that I felt at ease. It didn't last for long and probably at the end of the day I was back to worrying about it. That was a few months ago. I am doing a lot better now. I no longer worry about those concerns I had. Sometimes those thoughts will pop in my head but they are quickly dismissed.

My advice to you is to continue to open up to your boyfriend and don't hold in all your thoughts. Keep reassuring yourself and place things into perspective, and rationalize. Consider seeing a therapist also.

[xxfairybluxx]

Its hard putting your fears into perspective when you're feeling anxious. I wish i'd done that when I first started feeling anxious a couple of years ago. It would have been much easier than it is now.
I guess the key is not to worry about every single thought that pops into your head and make a big deal out of it. What did you used to get anxious about?