Acute Anxiety.

I can’t tell you why I’ve been feeling anxious lately, not really. I could guess a few contributing factors but I don’t know why it feels so bad, or why when I’m led in bed at night things I did 15 years ago pop into my head and I can’t get them out. Or the fact that I can be stood in the post office queue and have to walk out leaving my parcels on the counter because my mind is in flight mode. Or why I wake up at 4am crying. Why I feel like I can’t breathe.

I can tell you that intrusive thoughts (like those in the above pic) are fucking awful I can be there one minute planning my next holiday or working on the laptop and the next – bam ‘why did you do____ (insert all and any life mistakes here.)’

Hormones are also the devil when it comes to anxiety. People often underestimate their power to make you feel off kilter seemingly for no reason. Anxiety can manifest into physical symptoms such as stomach upset, fatigue, tension and or cluster headaches, increased flare ups in other conditions eg in my case fibromyalgia.

I’ve spent this week convincing myself why I should keep putting one foot in front of the other. (With a little help from my friends) I’m not exaggerating when I say somedays I can’t see the wood for the trees, and the urge to disappear is overwhelming. I don’t want to feel like this, but it’s exactly the out of control response that is anxiety’s sole purpose.

Fight or flight, our bodies natural response to intensely stressful situations. Some say they also freeze in these situations. When I’m anxious I find it hard to retain even simple information. I can become irritable as the panic overwhelms me and overly sensitive to noise, smells, touch. A literal sensory overload.

Here I’ve included some things that have helped me this week. They are by no means a cure or substitute for medical advice but they have helped me go from ‘I don’t want to be here anymore’ to ‘let’s get through today one step at a time.’

Fresh air is free and highly underrated. My natural response is always to take to my bed when I feel depressed or anxious. To block the world out and keep myself safe in my sanctuary, but this week I’ve fought that urge, it wasn’t without difficulty and I took some convincing from my friends and mum, but I got outside. And the results were almost instantaneous. The blustery air helped calm me in a way that lying in bed shaking just wasn’t doing.

Phone a friend. This one is always really hard for me because I hate talking on the phone and the idea of speaking to people when I feel like this is all consuming. I worry what they will think of me and I know I’ll cry because crying is my autopilot response, but on Monday I dragged myself and my daughter to my friends house and for a few hours I felt completely relieved of the demons in my head. It was a great distraction. Choose friends you know will understand if you need to offload.

Crying is a completely normal reaction to an anxious situation- let the tears come they release oxytocin and the likely hood is you’ll feel a little better afterwards.

Distraction is a great therapy tool and never underestimate its power. Some people say you need to face the problem head on and I’m sure in certain circumstances that’s true but to get through an acute phase of anxiety I find it particularly helpful. I do a lot of reading so choose the kind of things you read based on how you’re feeling. If you’re anxious a chic lit book maybe more suitable than a psychological thriller.

Finally my last and favourite – Swear!! No I’m not joking. Science somewhere proves that swearing aloud can’t reduce stress levels. So chuck it in the fuck it bucket and call it a prick for good luck. You can read this blog over on House21 also!

Mindfulness

As a rule I’m not very good at mindfulness. I don’t practise it anywhere near as often as I should. I know it’s proven to work for millions of people and I am trying to warm to it, but I’ve always been a bit skeptical assuming it borders on hippyish and that’s just not me.

However I realise now I’m wrong and actually it can be as simple as getting outside for ten minutes a day and taking stock.

Today I sat by the river working on my novel and applying for yet more jobs. Feeling absolutely exhausted with corporate bollocks and rejection. I’ve been attending interviews like it’s my full time job and I’m starting to take the knock backs personally.

If you know me, you’ll know I take everything to heart and have a real complex around rejection. I decided instead to try and be rational. Give myself some time to take in the beauty of today. I know it sounds über cheesy and it’s not what you think. I don’t chant mantras or meditate (not that there’s anything wrong with those things, it’s just not very me) instead I just sat watching the river, listening to the running water of the weir and gave myself a bit of a pep talk. I always try and be thankful for the big and small things in my life. Like I have a roof over my head, a beautiful family, we don’t live on the bread line (even if we are always skint) and it was important for me to remind myself of these things today. I am a professional, I will find a job that suits me soon, it’s just taking longer than I anticipated but that’s ok.

Mindfulness is about being present, focusing on your surroundings and calmly accepting your feelings. So that’s what I did and I felt all the better for it! I was only sat there an hour, it gave me just enough time to write a synopsis and edit my copy to 3000 words. It was also enough time to feel like I’d had a break, got outdoors, took in the fresh air and got a bit of ‘me’ time in. The sunshine helps and maybe I wouldn’t of made the effort to be mindful if I’d been stuck indoors, but I plan to, going forward to get in a few minutes of mindfulness everyday.

How does your sleep space affect your sleep?

I’ve recently decorated my bedroom, which you’ll know if you follow me on Instagram, because of course I’ve uploaded obligatory progress pics.

It’s been a long time coming though, and before we’d painted last week I was actually becoming quite depressed by my surroundings. This happened to me in our old house also. I’d given up on trying to make it look nice and allowed clutter to take over, subsequently my mind became cluttered too. It sounds cliché tidy house, tidy mind and all that jazz, but actually I believe it to be true. If you suffer from anxiety like I do, it’s likely you too are sensitive to your surroundings.

Dark colours can really affect my mood and prior to painting we were living with this awful dark pink, and some ghastly girl’s wallpaper! It was just too busy. Excuse the mess but that’s what I mean, it was a state!

We sold our bed, and before we could find one that was low enough in height to fit under the window,(because of our room’s weird layout,) we were sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

Once the bed situ was sorted and the room was painted, it was time for my fav part. Adding the colour! I chose grey carpet and decided the accent colours would be grey (standard if you know me) and the ever fashionable blush that seems to be doing the rounds in everyone’s gaff at the mo. Pink is actually a really positive colour, and for most people brings a sense of joy and calm. Of course the shade of pink is important, hence me swapping that atrocious dark and dusky pink for some lighter, softer tones.

A huge mirror is also a must as it gives off so much light as well as giving the illusion the room is bigger.

Still left to do is personalise! The walls are bare at the mo and definitely need a few signature photos and prints donning them. I have to say though, even with Shaun’s snoring, I slept so much better last night. I woke up relaxed too, and I’ve actually spent all day up here writing today as it’s just such a nice calm space now.

So if like me you are starting to climb the walls of your mind, a colour change and de clutter might be exactly what you need!

I don’t always believe in feng shui or other spiritual advisory’s but in this case it’s really worked for me. Give it a go, and if it doesn’t work at least you’ll have tidied your room!

Product details are:

Mirror and lampshade The Range

Bedding, love cushion and table lamp George at Asda

Bed and voile panels Amazon

And finally the blind Blinds2go