When life gets to be too much, I don't grrrr!! I get incredible anxiety & feel paralyzed & get the phsycial as well as mental symtoms of anxiety--can't concentrate or make a decicion, chest pains, shallow breathing, etc. I've learned a few tricks that work for me. First of all, I go into "survival mode" & figure out what I need to do to survive & then I cancel the rest of life.

I cancel coffee dates, meetings, doc appts., groc shopping, getting gas, folding laundry, etc.

I figure out what I need to do. Sometimes it is to exercise, sometimes to rest or read (though usually hard to concentrate on a book). I always do the deep breathing techniques the dov taught me & the self-taught about how I've been here before & I will make it through again thoughts & reassurances.

I fix a simple meal for myself, but my husband is on his own for dinner & he does all the dishes.

I'm usually overwhlemed by paperworkk & backup of chores around the house so I will tackle one small job of paperwork in the afternoon after I feel refreshed, then I feel like I've accomplished something.

I had one of these paraylzying days a couple months ago & dropped off the board of an organization that was draining me as I haven't yet figured out how to express my boundaries so I'm a "yes person" & was getting drowned in projects (plus I'm a perfectionist--bad combo for a bipolar wih anxiety). So that was a good step that my therapist helped me do. i was feeling like I was letting people down to do it, but my mental health has to come first or how can I even help one person in my support group if I'm a "basket case?"--Suzy