Anxiety and coping techniques

My T and I spent yesterday talking about some coping techniques she wanted me to practice this week in between appointments. One is having a safe place to go to mentally and the other is having a container to put distressing things in.

But I am finding it really difficult to actually have them be effective. I feel so anxious right now, but I don't know why. Something I saw/thought/read about triggered it, I'm sure. But I don't know what that is or what it actually triggered. And so I don't have anything I can put into my container (I chose books on a bookshelf, like writing down things and sticking mental pictures in a scrap-book type album and putting those on the shelf). And I just struggle all around with the "go to your safe place" technique. I can't really escape reality in that way. I feel like such a failure because it isn't working. I know it's only been a day, but if it's not working now, how can I know it will in the future? I want to cry because I don't know if anything will ever really work.

Anxiety is so cruel to us.

When I am anxious, I go outside and get fresh air. I've also practiced thought stopping and radical acceptance.

Thought stopping: I imagine that the bad thoughts are like kick balls in a yard. And I have my yard with a big fence around it. And I keep kicking the kick ball out of the yard. And sometimes, the ball will pop back into my yard. And then I kick it out again. And I keep doing that, kicking thought balls out of my yard until my yard is just clear green grass.

It doesn't always work but sometimes it does.

Radical acceptance: I take the thought out, examine it for what it is, and say, "Ok, I feel this way but this is not how I will always feel. I accept that I cannot control this right now."

And then I try to distract myself somehow.

My T assigned me homework of 20 minutes of deep breathing a day. That also helped. Focusing on my breath helps.

I sincerely hope you feel better.

I been very anxious myself, but you're not a failure. I dont understand putting it into a container though. I use breathing exercises, they dont help much.

I think I've sort of figured something out a little. Maybe.