Breathing exercises like square breathing can help:
- Breath in for 4 seconds
- Hold for 4 seconds
- Breath out for 4 seconds
- Hold for 4 seconds
- Repeat
this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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Anxiety
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Thank you. I'll practice square breathing.
Yes, I came here to suggest this too. Also known as box breathing: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321805
Meditation should also help improve the condition over the longer term.
Had panic attacks a few times before I knew what they were, and knowing that I was simply experiencing a weird biological reaction dialed the unreasonable fear in quite a bit.
Anyway, all I knew to do was get out and march. Drop what you're doing, nothing else matters, go outside your door and walk. Walk until you get back in control. Walk if it take miles and miles. Just do it, don't think about it. Walk. Fuck else you gonna do, examine your navel while your heart spirals out of control? Walk.
And yes, absent physical causes, your stomach problems are 100% due to anxiety. You need exercise. Humans bodies did not evolve to live as we do. We evolved to work our ass off, all day long.
And for anyone who comes along and says, "Hunter gatherers only worked $X hours a week!" STFU. I'll throw you outside for a week, see how easy you think it is. Hell, just regulating your body temp through the day is "work". Commanding a keyboard is not.
Thank you! I do need to get out more, I enjoy walking even despite the cold. I could definitly benifit from excercise. I'm really trying to get my life back on track which has been difficult. Prioritizing my mental health has been hard but I'm trying to be optomistic.
There's a paper-thin line between physical and mental health. You cannot have mental health without physical health. Physical health (whatever that means for you) may not be enough, but it's still essential.
My last job saw me making $82K/yr. with fat benefits, sitting at home on my PC, not doing much of anything. Lost that job due to them needing someone hands on with the laptops and servers. Depressed as hell. Most of my panic attacks were during those 5 years. Related? Dunno.
Now I'm slinging rocks and mulch at Lowe's for shit pay, and I'm so much happier. Not dying to go in, but I'm not dreading it, feel great after only a 4-5 hour shift. After only a month I can see the difference in my upper body physique. My general constitution is much higher, even this quickly.
Anyway, back to walking. Scan Google Maps for ideas. Holy shit the places I've found, right by my house. Had no idea there were miles and miles of natural trails within walking distance. Saw my first black bear (with babies, shit!) and a coyote in the last month! Found a beautiful swamp 3-miles away, kayak and canoe there all the time. There are endless miles of creeks and rivers I've never been on, woods I've never hiked.
Sure like to help! HMU if you want to chat.
And BTW, almost had a panic attack today. My chest hurt the slightest bit, terrified of having a heart attack, which is what usually kicks that shit off. I have few logical reasons to believe my heart is going to blow, but here we are. Getting off my ass right now to find some projects to get into.
The breathing and of course talking to a therapist. Someone else said basically exercise or walking, most definitely! Aside from that I know this past month has been hell for me because of politics and the cold weather. You might be in the same boat. Limit your access to need and social media. Using a SAD lamp may help.
Also learn or do something new. I recently picked up sewing and went balls deep into learning about how to actually do it properly and creating projects. In the past I've also done things like picked up books on a new subject, delved into a new hobby, and one year I just decided to do puzzles. What it's done for me is gave me something to focus on and keeps my mind occupied. It's also gave me the satisfaction of learning something new which I guess makes me feel accomplished or something. And sometimes it gives me time to actively work on something and think about what I'm doing while somehow allowing me to sort shit out in the back of my head. I don't know how else to explain it but it's done wonders for my mental health and I just figured I would share in case it resonates with you.
I know it's rough, but you'll get through this!
The current political climate has really been fucking with me. I find it really hard not to read every news article I see that looks concerning. The cold weather I don't mind too much. I'm probably in the minority there. As for hobbies I'm trying to learn spanish and esperanto. Both are languages that I love and find fascinating. I guess all I have are hobbies and worrying. I don't think I have SAD. I could be wrong though. I love winter for the most part. I'm glad you found sewing, It's really cool. I'm not the most creative type, aside from writing which I don't do much anymore. Maybe I should start again. It's funny, I don't read books much but I think I may like to write one one day. I'd really like to read more too, which would be a great hobby to undertake. Thank you for your kind words. You've given me alot to think about. We'll both get through this.
Look into vitamin d deficiency
I have had a mixed set of results. Sometimes I have to take something that chemically affects my mental health until I figure out what is happening and then I manage it on my own. I always make sure the medication only takes the edge off so that my body will keep repeating the anxiety process. This is so that I can find the pattern for what is causing my anxiety and then work through it. Anxiety is not a bad thing. It is there to teach us more about ourselves. So in effect this is a meditation on why. Meditation is great but it is also very very hard and painful. Modern studies on meditation and meditation groups used to focus too much on how wonderful meditation is but never actually said clearly why it was effective. It forces you to address yourself. All of the scary bits.
First off it helps to realize that anxiety will not kill us. I discovered that when I would feel it kicking in I would stop whatever I was doing and repeat that I was okay, that I was loved, and that I was thankful for the anxiety. Really do your best to be grateful for it. Then tell it that you hear it and you love it. Really embrace it. I did this for about a month before I whittled down 40 minutes of heart breaking panic and blacking out to where I could get it to fade within seconds. The key here is to stop whatever you're doing and face it. Step aside and acknowledge it. DO NOT treat it as if it doesn't matter and is an inconvenience. You're telling yourself that "I don't matter" and IT WILL make the cycle worse.
You may need to let some people know what you're doing if your life is the kind that makes anxiety super inconvenient to address. Also believe it or not but just going outside and hugging a tree helped me so so much. It sounds stupid but visualize breathing deep into the earth through the tree roots.
The box breathing in the other post works wonders too but it wasn't enough for me. Stretching out the breathing so that it is deeper and slower is key to maximizing it. Don't get locked into the counting too much. Your breath can and will last longer and longer and counting can get in the way. Pay close attention. At first you will feel like you can't match the counting because you're out of breath and then it'll feel like you're squeezing your breath into the box and it is at that point you want to drop the counting and just be the breath.
Edit: You've got this!