damn man. college is tough. but when you have anxiety? sh*t man. youre in for the ride of your life. oh that presentation that is in 3 months? yea you might wanna start having panic attacks over it now. (obviously sarcastic, guys). and for those who dont have anxiety, college is still pretty friggin' stressful. so i wanted to share 3 things that help me when im freaking out over the littlest things.
here we go...
1. take a cold a$$ shower. i promise IT HELPS. i dont know why it does... someone that has the brains wanna explain that to me? its crazy. its like i start panicking and im like "GO. SHOWER. NOW." and it calms me down. i just sit there with the cold water running over my neck and it soothes me. try it sometime!
2. plan stuff out. my freshman year of college was the HARDEST TIME OF MY LIFE. every. single. little. thing. made me FREAK the f*ck out. i did not spend 1 weekend at school because i just could not get myself to do so. i wish i had. i regret it. but if i did not have my calendar to mark down every single thing that i had planned, then i would not have made it through the year. its like i planned when my family would come see me for dinner, when my next exam was, my next quiz, when there was a day off, where i would be going home... it just helped me because i had things to look forward to. so, all in all, have things to look forward to. if it helped me, i can 99% assure you that it will help you.
3. draw. i had a sketchbook that i drew in whenever i felt anxious in my freshman year. by the end of the year, it was almost completely full. they are some cool drawings... its like you could tell what i was feeling through my drawings. it really seemed to soothe me.
i thought id add a little humor into this blog post. so i have a little story. when i was going through a really tough time, my doctor was like "you should try exercising. it really helps with anxiety." so i did just that. i hopped on the treadmill and started jogging. however... me being the out of shape girl i am, i started having a panic attack BECAUSE I WAS OUT OF SHAPE. i could not breathe. then i was like, sh*t man... im having a panic attack... and it went on from there. i gotta lay off the toaster strudels and doritos. ugh. sad.
i hope those who suffer from anxiety can use these when they feel an attack coming on. if they work, let me know!
what do you guys do to help your anxiety? im so curious!
xo, a storied mind