I tried so many things to help my anxiety- here’s what actually worked

So, a couple of you have asked me to have a chat with you about anxiety. Not long ago, I did a very in-depth blog post on stress; and how it impacts almost every part of our body. It was an eye opener for lots of you-myself included- and I’ve had a few of you chat to me about anxiety and stress since. Lots of you said it was all very well understanding that stress messes up our body, but how do we actually deal with it?  

I’ve had anxiety for a long time and it escalated massively when I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. I never really blog about it because I feel it can sometimes be a bit of a blogger cliche. However, I do feel I have turned a bit of a corner with it this past year and that’s something to be celebrated.

 I’m not 100% convinced I can completely answer everyones questions, but I thought I’d have a go at blogging about what I have done and how effective it actually was- to see if it helps other

1.Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

So I tried cognitive behaviour therapy on and off over a period of a year or so. I blogged about it at the time but on reflection, now I’ve stopped, I think it really helped.

For me, cognitive behaviour therapy did not completely change my thought patterns (which is what it sets out to do) However, it taught me ways to sometimes replace negative ones.

For example, the other day I had a bout of health anxiety- usually when I take a simple symptom and assume the worst about my health. However, I noticed that after the ‘negative’ thought, I started to think things like: ‘If it’s still bad tomorrow, I’ll deal with then’ or ‘think of all the other times you’ve panicked and it’s been nothing.’ It was a worry but not one which completely consumed me like it did before. I didn’t consciously train myself to think these thoughts- but CBT helps you look at things from another perspective and also find patterns. It also helped me realise just because something is an automatic thought does not make it true.

Effectiveness rating: 8/10

2. Meditation

Meditation is taking a moment to completely cut off from everything- Headspace and Calm are my favourite apps for this. At the time of meditating, it does make me calmer. Especially the 3 minute ‘SOS’ button on Headspace for when you are feeling like you’re head’s going to explode.

However, I didn’t find it beneficial to prevent anxiety, instead, it helped calm me down. I struggle to commit to doing it regularly as I get quite bored at times! When I am not anxious, anxiety seems the furthest thing from my mind strangely (and I almost can’t imagine feeling anxious)- so it’s almost as if I can’t see the point of it then.

Effectiveness rating: 5/10

3. Acupuncture

So you might know I tried blogged about it at the time and that it was a bit of a disaster! However, it did amazing in terms of relaxing me. After each session, my head felt like it was in a protective bubble: almost as if negative thoughts just bounced right off me! I wouldn’t keep it up as it seemed to impact my Crohn’s negatively but I did love how relaxed it made me.

Effectiveness rating: 6/10

4. Exercise

Yoga is great for me. I blogged before about yoga and digestion (and how to get a free trial) and the best thing I’ve learnt from Yoga is abdominal breathing. This is particularly helpful for me because I sometimes panic when I need the toilet if I’m out of the house (more of being out of comfort zone than my disease being severe) abdominal breathing helps with the pain and also really calms me down. It gives me another focus and concentrating on the breathing means I stop focusing on the pain and can think more clearly.If you do one thing after reading this blog post, google abdominal breathing!

Walking is also one of the best forms of exercise for my anxiety-, especially with my dogs. Again, having a focus on walking them seems to help me lots! More streneous exercise can make me more anxious as it can make me run to the loo and I also worry about irritating my fistula wound.

Effectiveness rating: 9/10

5. Supplements and Medication

When I first got anxious (around the time of my Crohn’s diagnosis), I was temporarily put on Citalopram. I did not last long at all- It upset my stomach (which made me more anxious) and I felt I really didn’t want to be on more medication than I already was. I know this medication does do wonders for lots of people.

About a year ago, I downloaded Patrick Holford’s Optimal Nutritional for the Mind.  In it, he talks about the different chemical imbalances in the brain and how they can impact your mental health. This is also something I had learnt about on my nutrition course. I looked into 5HTP and various other supplements.

In the end, I decided against it. For me, I feel my anxiety is a learnt process. I find supplements so temperamental in terms of my digestion so I felt cautious about supplementing without proper advice- and it’s very difficult to find it. I felt I wouldn’t take a vitamin without knowing if I was deficient, so I didn’t want to take some of the suggestions without knowing it too. At some point, I would like to delve more into this but I don’t think it would be my main approach to anxiety.

Effectiveness rating: 1/10

6. Books

The NHS has a books on prescription scheme so do have a chat to your GP. My CBT counsellor recommended Overcoming Health Anxiety to me- and I really thought it was a great read. It gets you to map out your thought process and consider the likelihood of the worst thing actually happening. 

I have also enjoyed reading The Anxiety Solution

Effectiveness rating: 7/10

7.Changing my job

I know it’s extreme but the thing that really helped my anxiety the most was changing my job and working from home. I know it is not feasible for everybody but for me, it cut down on so many things that made me anxious.

I realised I was anxious about lots of different things but they were all kind of linked: to not having control. I would stress over something a student had said to me, a performance management meeting, needing the loo when I was in the middle of something and what others thought of me.

Now common sense would suggest that I should have learnt to deal with those individually, and perhaps I should have. But instead I decided to go self-employed and it’s made me SO HAPPY. It’s not necessarily that I wasn’t healthy enough to work in my previous job- but simple things like knowing I can make an emergency trip to the doctors, eat proper meals on my own schedule without rushing and not feeling like I’m good enough. Even health worries are less because I feel like I did fall ill, I wouldn’t have sick pay but I would be able to decide when I’d be healthy enough to work and of course I can work from my sofa!

Strangely, even bigger life worries seem less now. It might because I genuinely enjoy each day, my job and I suppose my self-worth has improved from that- as I feel like I’m doing what I’m meant to be doing. This means that previous worries about silly things such as feeling insecure about friendships and relationships have less impact. Since I’ve learnt to enjoy my own company working from home, I feel as if it’s give me an increased sense of acceptance that being on my own sometimes is ok!

Effectiveness rating: 10/10

Wow that was 1200 words in one evening! I have really loved taking the time to sit down and blog properly about this! I’d love to hear your feedback and I really hope it’s helped.