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desperado said:

Juliana, besides CBT & meds, how do you cope w/ & fight off anxiety?

Thanks, my fellow Canuck

Des

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Hi fellow Canuck!!! Besides using the techniques that my CB Therapist taught me and taking meds (mainly Lexapro these days), I do yoga (Iyengar and Ashtanga) -- that helps me a lot with the anxiety. I also try to get out with friends more often and have some fun once in a while. For me, distraction has been one of the best weapons against my anxiety. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I feel like the anxiety is still lying in wait and I have to work so hard all the time at keeping my mind focused on other things. That gets tiring and the anxiety still sneaks up on me quite often -- no full-blown panic attacks lately, though. I do a lot of exposure stuff -- making myself do things that I used to be extremely phobic about. I also play the "what's the worst thing that could happen?" game with myself a lot and TRY to logically talk my way out of anxiety. That works sometimes... not all the time, though.

So, I feel like my anxiety isn't controlling my life so much anymore, but it's still there. Procrastination is still a HUGE problem and I think that's related to my anxiety... and causes MORE anxiety.