Daily Question: Tues. April 13 2010

Good morning.....

Todays daily question is:

At times when you are nervous or anxious, what to you do to keep yourself calm? Or are you a lucky one who does not get nervous/anxious about anything?

I text Blaine, he always knows what to say to calm me down

Hmmm. It depends. If it's daytime, I'll either hop on my bike, or go for a run. If it's nighttime, I'll pour a glass of wine and pick up a book. I'm pretty good at compartmentalizing, so I'll just tuck it (whatever's making me anxious) away for a bit, and think about it later.

Depends on the degree of anxiety, but I generally just stop and think about what is making me anxious and once I figure that out, I calm down.

My worst anxiety attack was the night that a tornado hit our house. I'm inside our storm cellar while the tornado passed over head gabbering the entire time about what it might be doing to the house. My husband had to holler "shut up, I'm trying to hear what's happening" and I realized that if I only shut up, I could hear if the house was being ripped from it's foundation. So I shut up and calmed down. (the house had only minor damage)

Usually, I'll flop on the couch or the bed with a book. Having a kitty on my lap to touch works wonders on stress, too.

Momofmany, I'm glad your house only had minor damage from the tornado.

Depending on how severe it is I can go from just reading one of my romance books or crocheting to having a major panic attack and bawling like a little baby! Normally when its just me overreacting to something BF can calm me down hes really good at getting to the bare bones of the problem and letting reality pop thru my head.

Cuddling with the kitties and read a book.

I almost never get nervous or anxious. When I do, I just cuddle up with the kitties. It's really hard to stay nervous when there are 3 cats laying on your chest purring

Either that or I play some guitar. For some reason that calms me down.

Originally Posted by nanner

Hmmm. It depends. If it's daytime,

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Just try to find a moment to be alone for reorganizate the Ideas...
But as well she said, depends really of the moment of the "crisis"

I kind of pace the floor and spend a lot of time in the bathroom since my stomach bothers me when I'm upset about something. I call people to get what's bothering me off my chest. I also read a book to try to get my mind off the anxiety. I don't get this way often but it's a real b---- when I do.

I hug Bella and a 1/2 gallon of butter pecan ice cream.

I play my guitar and sing.

Oh I do get anxious at times - specifically any situation that is completely new to me. If I have no way to predict it I'll have problems. As strange as it sounds, I have to work a lot of conversations out in my head, add in as many possible directions it can go - the appropriate actions and responses, ahead of time in order to be able to function. Otherwise I'll be completely lost and won't speak at all, or worse I'll stutter/mix words up or act oddly enough (fidget/move strangely) that it makes other people nervous. So yes, I get very anxious in situations I can't control.
I also have issues with going to places alone that I'm not very familiar with due to getting lost easily - so I try to avoid that until I at least know one direction from another.

I guess my way of dealing with it is planning and control - scripting everything.

Otherwise I don't get anxious about anything else and don't really need anything to de-stress. I naturally prefer to be left alone as much as possible.

I liked that way of putting it -scripting - its what I do also. I really only get anxious or nervous in unfamiliar circumstances so I try and map out in my mind what could happen and come up with ways of dealing with those situations.

For general everyday anxiety I listen to my favorite music and sing or dance to it. It gets me right out of that anxious moment into remembering that "this too shall pass" and just to have some fun. Nothing like a little Earth, Wind and Fire to put it all into perspective.

Originally Posted by fifi1puss

I liked that way of putting it -scripting - its what I do also. I really only get anxious or nervous in unfamiliar circumstances so I try and map out in my mind what could happen and come up with ways of dealing with those situations..

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At least I'm not the only one. My overactive imagination tends to betray me, though, and all the possible bad scenarios pop into my head, too.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

At least I'm not the only one. My overactive imagination tends to betray me, though, and all the possible bad scenarios pop into my head, too.

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I know what you mean. I was probably the only kid that would go through possible scenarios about what I would do if the house caught on fire, or someone broke in, or my Mom (who was primary care giver) passed away. I was a very highly stressed kid.....