Dealing With Anxiety

Writing about how I dealt with anxiety gives me anxiety but here goes…

My anxiety had begun freshman year but I didn’t know I had it and didn’t even know what it was. Up until about the middle of my junior year I thought it was stress. I thought “Oh I’m crying and shaking and can’t think because I’m stressed.”

Anxiety is such a scary and strange feeling. You don’t know what’s happening till something you hear or do or say pushes you over the edge and it feels like you’re falling and the air around you takes over you’re body. In my case, I had no control over my anxiety. It would come and go when I was upset or mad or sometimes even excited about something. My body would start to shake and I would just cry. What sucked the most about crying is that I would cry in school. I would cry in about 3 out of my 7 classes each day. I cried so much I started to make it my goal every day to try and not cry and control myself, but sometimes I physically couldn’t control it. Anxiety does this thing too where it basically starts to control your thoughts.

Every year I take a class that really gets to me or pushes me harder than any other class. As my anxiety got worse I would leave those classes every day thinking to myself “I’m honestly so stupid” “I don’t understand how I’m in here” “All the kids know I’m dumb too.” These thoughts I had aren’t what I really think about myself, but as soon as my anxiety began to kick in I started to believe them.

I’m in my senior year of high school now and I finally got a grasp of how to handle what I go through (and maybe after reading this, it can help you too!) First of all, when you feel your anxiety setting, cause you definitely feel it, go to a dark room or space or put your head down on your desk and close your eyes. If you can put in your head phones and this may sound weird, but put on music that has no words and is instrumental. If you can’t you can still do this next part with or without headphones. Clear your head and begin to list off your top 10 favorite things, whether thats a place, a food, a person, an animal, whatever works for you. Try as hard as you can not to focus on the fact you’re body has begun to shake. Ignore it and focus your favorite things. Take at least 10 deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. By now your anxiety should begin to leave your body, if its not continue to list off more things in your head and take deep breaths. If you’re listening to music too, focus on that as well.

Anxiety is super common and normal especially amongst teenagers who probably don’t get enough sleep and are involved in ten thousand things. Anxiety is a serious issue and can really affect your life, learning how to deal with it is the way to make it stop happening so frequently. You’re not alone.

Another way I have dealt with anxiety, is a daith piercing. A daith piercing is a small piercing in your ear in a very thick piece of cartilage. In your daith you have a nerve ending that triggers the brain. This nerve ending usually gives people migraines, anxiety and more. By piercing this nerve ending you will ultimately have less migraines and less anxiety attacks. If you would like to read more on this piercing, I recommend this article – http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/8531022  Now I know a piercing isn’t for everyone and trust me it hurts, but if you’re up for it I totally recommend it.

My daith piercing and the exercises that I do have lowered my anxiety to almost nothing. I rarely get anxiety anymore and haven’t cried at school yet since I’ve learned to control it better. I do still get anxiety but its more of a natural, healthy sort of anxiety.

Thank you for reading! I hope this post helped you out or maybe you learned something new! Byeeeeee