Top ten tips to deal with anxiety

It's Fri-yay bitches!

Hello my dears, gather round and have a seat. I'm not sure if any of you have twigged this about me yet, but I'm a bit of a nervous nelly; yes, surprising as it might be, I suffer with anxiety. Anxiety is more than being worried about something, it's waking up worried, being unabel to focus on making your breakfast because you're so worried. It's calling people when they don't reply, or arrive on time, because you're worried they've had an accident. It's needing exact phrasing on agreements, so it's in black and white, because you're anxious they'll change the terms. 

Anxiety is a beast, a really mean beast. If you're like me, or have any mental health condition, you should research coping mechanisms and find out what works for you. It's a very personal thing. To give you some hints or ideas, I'm going to explain how I muddle through life, 9/10 with these coping mechanisms, I cover my anxiety pretty well. 

1. Ground myself in Logic - Okay, they got out of the hospital visit at 4, that's a busy time on the roads, so chances are they haven't had an accidcent; they're just in a jam. 

Why this helps - This helps me remind myself that the anxiety is an irrational visitor in my house and it is not welcome here. 

2. Distraction - Using distraction techniques work across a wide variety of mental health issues, including anxiety, and borderline personality disorder. There's just so many distractions you can find. 

Examples:  - Talk to a friend

Talk to your pet

listen to music

write some music

read a book 

write a book 

adult colouring

drawing

graphic design 

create a blog

play a facebook game.

3. Get to the root of the problem - If I can work out why I am stressed, generally I can resolve the problems.

4. Write a letter, expressing how frustrated, angry, anxious, upset or whatever you are and then tear it into teeny-tiny peices!

5. Jam out to music, LOUD. I mean, pretty loud. Loud enough to feel a little naughty and very cathartic, maybe the level is custom to each person, I don't know! 

6. Lavender filled microwavable pads - essentially scent beads in a pouch, you pop it in the microwave and the world doens't seem to bad

7. Laying on my heating pad somehow often helps me. I think it's something to do with the heat just being soothing. 

8. A hot lavender scented bath and pampering session can remind you why self care is important, while the lavender acts as a relaxing agent.

9. Take any prescribed medications

10. If I really can't shake the anxious feeling, I will try to go to sleep.

Never Refuse Equipment!

Hey all, 

So recently social services finally got their butts in gear and came over for a visit. They assessed me, but said they couldn't offer me a stair lift, instead they could offer a bath lift. I asked if it was one of the ones that lifted you all the way out, and when she replied no, I said I didn't think it would help. 

She urged me to give it a go and reminded me that I could always send it back. So I relented and agreed. 

Two days ago a knock at my door prooved to be the installation man. 

So, now this ugly bath chair is in my bath, taking up valuable space because at 5'9 I don't fit all the way in anyhow! I sort of glared at it and shut the door, I hadn't intended to have a bath anyway. 

But today I had intended, infact I needed to feel the warm water soothe my muscles. So, I transfered onto the bath lift, got semi-comfortable and down we went. I did what I needed to do and came back out. 

The most spectacular thing happened...I wasn't exhausted. Like I didn't want to take a nap for a year, which is the usual state of play after a bath. I was amazed. The bath lift is easy to use, waterproofed all the way throughout the unit and charges really quickly. 

It has lots of very cool features, like you can't get stuck IN the bath, it will only run out of battery in the UP position. 

So, never refuse equipment unless it would endanger you to use it. Give it a fair go, a fair shot. See what happens, if it helps, fabulous! If it doesn't, at least you tried!

 

A Mis-read Reading List

Guys, I made a boo-boo! I mis-read my reading list. I made a public plea to others enrolled on my degree to see if they had any ideas, as I didn't want to be left behind. A very kind young lady posted her reading list, she grouped it in three pharagraphs, with one book still to be decided and give to us on our orientation.

This was great, and very kind. Except after budgeting, planning, and spending the lesser portion of 200 pounds. I took another glance at the list, to notice two dates, too many authors. There were six books and one to be given to us at orientation, not three.

I should have really known better, my degree is known for being heavy on reading and writing skills. So what do you do now?

First of all, don't panic -

Do some googling and find all your books, Google has this fantastic feature where you can go to the tabs that say ''news, images etc'' there's one that says ''shopping''. Click on this and it'll offer you a varied selection of options for purchase. Then when you've found one you think would be a good price, click ''add to shortlist'' and it'll save it. Do this until you've got all the books you need and DON'T BUY ANY YET.

Put your books in price list order - lowest to highest.
The lower priced books are more likely to be, although still needed, accompanying texts to the larger priced books.

Work out how many weeks left till the semester starts, and work out how much you can afford to live without.
I recieve funds on the 1, and 15th of each month. I have another 2 payments to go before the semester starts, I will be more than fine.

If you are strapped for cash until some time after the semester starts, take a peek at the library and see if you can borrow the texts.

Search for online copies, kindle versions of most books are usually cheaper than their physical alternative.

But really, don't panic. It's fixable, most things in life are!
Hope you're having a great weekend!!

L xox