1. Breathing - please please please learn how to breather properly. if you know how to breathe properly, please continue to practice when you are NOT anxious. Sit down somewhere and practice breathing, 10 minutes a day is good enough. This clears your mind as well as retrains your body to breathe correctly at all times , therefore increasing oxygen flow to your body. I'll tell you this, you cannot have a panic attack if you are breathing correctly during it, i've used 3 breaths to stop a full blown panic attack before. If i can do it so can you, our bodies are the same. what i used to do when i started and still do is sit on a bench in the park and just breathe slowly with my stomach. Google abdominal breathing its easy to do and there are many articles that will explain how to do it much better than i can.
2. Meditation - trust me, meditation is very important. you don't have to sit in a quiet place to meditate, although it is helpful. Once you learn to breather correctly, meditating will be much easier. I know i used to laugh and avoid meditation, but when i took it much more seriously it has definitely opened my eyes to my own ignorance. You can meditate doing anything you usually do, like showering..I do it while I swim..which brings me to my next and probably the MOST important point.
3. EXERCISE !!!!!!! - honestly there are not enough exclamation points to stress this. Exercise is so important, forget physical benefits.. Mental benefits are almost instantaneous. You don't have to intensely exercise, just do something everyday. Go for a swim, a walk, a jog...work toward your goal, don't try to do too much too soon. Working toward a realistic goal will make you feel much better and wont make you feel like you are not accomplishing anything. Exercise is known to release the proper amount of endorphins and chemicals that help you deal with stress...in anxious people it also uses up extra adrenaline that our bodies produce. I can talk about this all day, but let me just say that from first hand experience, exercise has taken me from agoraphobia and constant panic attacks to a traveling to work on a bus in traffic and tunnels and sitting at work all day and having a good mood. Sure I have my "off" or "down" days, but i just think about how I'll get home and run around and play some ball and feel better, it's almost an instant relief especially once your body associates exercise with pleasure, just thinking about it will put you in a better mood. DO IT! dont think to yourself that you can't. JUST DO IT!.
4. Diet - once you get into exercising which I hope you do, diet will simply follow...you won't even think about it. you will feel so good after exercising, that you will look for ways to make yourself feel even better. you'll be on a path to self acceptance and recovery, you will be motivated and diet will come in slowly. You'll start drinking more water, start cutting out bad food.
5. Share- once i started talking openly about my anxiety and panic disorder, i've felt much better. people understand it and i am more surprised how many people deal with this and you just don't know it. I don't hold back anymore, if someone asks me why are you in a bad mood at work, i just tell them I am slightly anxious. they understand and if they don't its not my problem. sharing gets things off your chest and makes you feel like you are not hiding some big bad monster, you are not. you are a regular person going through a difficult time, that is all. everyone will have to do something difficult in their lifetime.
Nothing has to happen in one day, take it slow. Remember don't think you'll be cured in one day, this is a long process. Determination and patience wins the day. look at this as a challenge. at the end you will be rewarded with a much more healthier and mentally balanced self. a much more self confident person. a patient person and a genuine person and please remember to accept yourself and your condition regardless of how much you want to fight it.
Good luck.
Stan.
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