anxiety

[pillowy]

I've dealt with generalized anxiety disorder in the past (and still do, to a degree). I find that cognitive therapy works best for me. I'd highly recommend the book "Feeling Good" by David D. Burns. There's a lot of good stuff in there to help you identify the patterns in your thoughts that are making you anxious.

Sorry, that might be a bit more serious than you were looking for, but that's what helps me.

[Katya]

Medication (for panic attacks, specifically) and breaking big tasks into smaller, more manageable ones, since it's usually feeling overwhelmed that makes me feel anxious in the first place.

[Violet]

Ditto to Chilly gator on the yoga. Taking the time to focus on breathing and be aware of my body helps me a lot. Running does something similar, but I like yoga so much more than running.

Therapy is great too. And as always, if it persists, medication is an option. My doctor gave me anti-seizure medications and told me to use as needed at one point and that made a world of difference.

[NerdGirl]

I've dealt with generalized anxiety disorder in the past (and still do, to a degree). I find that cognitive therapy works best for me. I'd highly recommend the book "Feeling Good" by David D. Burns. There's a lot of good stuff in there to help you identify the patterns in your thoughts that are making you anxious.

Sorry, that might be a bit more serious than you were looking for, but that's what helps me.

Yeah, several of his books actually helped me a lot when I first started getting help for my OCD and GAD. I had forgotten about them, but they were really good.

[Portia]

Mine has been really bad the past month or so. It's a vicious cycle where doing something about it means no time to resolve the issues. Yuck. (And I've noticed the knockout properties of Benadryl with my severe allergies, but the hangover's not great.)

[Whistler]

sometimes I get randomly tired of people I don't know very well asking after me (I know it's well-intended, but mostly I just want to be left alone with my close friends/family!).

[Rifka]

Ditto on David Burns. When Panic attacks is also really good for anxiety. Ditto the advice for counseling (and medicine if necessary), too. Counseling and medicine have made a huge difference for me.

[SmurfBlueSnuggie]

A lot of these are awesome ideas to use before/after work to lessen the anxiety you'll take to work. But, at least in my experience, it doesn't always stop the obsessive thought stream that takes place during mindless busy work. I've used memorization to fix that. To memorize a poem, I have to think about the words pretty repetitively. Print off a talk or poem or song you want to memorize (or a few) and then start working on it. If you want tips on how exactly to go about this, just let me know. But it works great because you have to focus most of your mental energy on the words you're memorizing, rather than whatever is stressing you.