I'm still struggling with this one, as I find it hard to concentrate while having anxiety issues. But maybe it works better for other people on this forum. Whenever you feel an anxiety attack coming on, try the following:
Picture yourself in a room. Inside this room, you're doing whatever you're doing (or trying to do) in reality at that moment. A few yards in front of you (or further away if you don't like confined spaces), there is a wall with a door. The door is completely transparent. Behind it, you see a small room with inside it the ugliest monster you can imagine. This monster is your fear. It's hideous. It shows its teeth and roars at you. But it cannot get in. The transparent door cannot be destroyed, and there is only one key: you have it in your pocket. Now there are different ways to deal with this:
1. Ignore it. Do whatever you're trying to do, knowing that this monster cannot get at you. You're in control here.
2. Ridicule it. Dangle the key in front of it. Show it that you call the shots. You have the power here, and there's nothing it can do. Imagine it getting angrier and angrier as you laugh at it.
3. Get angry with it. Even use verbal abuse if you like. This is a great one to combine with the ridiculing thing. "You are nothing! This is my life, and you are not getting in, you SOB!"
4. Let it in and overcome it. Mentally open the door. Watch it as it charges for you. But you're faster and stronger. Kick the heck out of it. Shout out stuff, one word at a time with each punch you land. "YOU... ARE.... NOTHING!" With that final blow, send it flying back into its little room, wounded and battered. Close the door again but do it calmly. Even if it gets out again, you can kick it back in. No need to rush, because there's nothing to fear.
As the evening sky faded from a salmon color to a sort of flint gray, I thought back to the salmon I caught that morning, and how gray he was, and how I named him Flint. - Jack Handy
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