Steps to Overcome an Anxiety Relapse
How to Overcome an Anxiety Relapse
Until very recently, my anxiety had been in a really good place. Sure, the things that trigger anxiety were still there: crowds, heat, stress, feeling trapped - you know, the “normal” things. But, my panic disorder and agoraphobia had been pretty contained, and it was honestly quite lovely. I even wrote a blog post on how I was handling the agoraphobia. As anxiety does, it says “oh you are feeling good...think again!” Queue the anxiety relapse. Sometimes there’s a trigger, sometimes it happens for no perceived reason at all. Anxiety can be such a sneaky little B.
A friend recently told me that she was on an “anxiety bender” and as much as I wish I could coin that term, I have to give credit where it’s due. This is such a perfect description for an anxiety relapse because it’s never just a single day when the anxiety is bad. It tends to be days upon days, it’s all consuming, and very easy to catastrophize. There will be periods of time when my anxiety is little to none and I simply forget how awful it is, and then there are times it’s on red alert, and it feels like it’s back to square one. It constantly feels like a backtrack, which is frustrating and frankly annoying.
The way I handle an anxiety relapse is similar to how I recover from a panic attack - it’s about immediately taking note of what is happening and then pulling out all the stops (more on that here).
The difference for me here is that when my anxiety is heightened, my agoraphobia and panic disorder tend to get triggered. That’s when things can get scary for me. When the agoraphobia, or the anticipatory fear of a panic attack, is heightened it’s extremely important for me to do everything I can not to talk myself into a panic attack. Because once the panic attacks start, things kind of seem to spiral. You remember how awful they are, and you start to fear them even more. Thankfully, this time around, I nipped the anxiety and agoraphobia right away and avoided the panic attack spiral.
Steps to Handle An Anxiety Relapse
1. Listen and Accept
Listening and accepting my alarm bells has been a work in progress for me because sometimes I’m in denial of my new “norm” of anxiety and panic attacks. In the past, I would attempt to ignore and push through, only causing the symptoms to become more severe. I’ve gotten much better at listening to my anxious thoughts, accepting them, and putting an action plan in place. This has helped me recover more quickly when I relapse.
2. Speed Dial my Therapist
I utilize both a psychologist and psychiatrist in my mental health journey. My psychologist helps me with mindfulness and cognitive-based therapy, and my psychiatrist prescribes my medication and explains the science behind it all. Since I am on a daily medication, I have a “floor” that won’t allow the anxiety and panic to become all consuming of my life, as it once was (yeah, I didn’t leave the house for like a month prior to medication). They jointly help me understand the trigger, and help me try not to catastrophize the situation. Honestly, the external reassurance from a professional telling me that I will be ok is incredibly helpful in itself. My psychiatrist, Dr. G, provides more information here.
3. Avoid Trigger Products
Man oh man I love coffee. And skinny margaritas. And recently, pie, which is random. Sadly, sugar, caffeine, and alcohol are all anxiety triggers and must be reduced or eliminated when I get in a bad place with my anxiety. They give off that “high” that leads to the subsequent crash, which intensifies anxiety. I constantly harp on how managing my anxiety is simply about creating a life that I’m pumped about, and giving up those things makes me sad, but sacrifices must be made. The last thing I need is any external substance triggering my anxiety when my brain is already doing it for me on it’s own.
4. Avoid Trigger Situations
I have to avoid any trigger situations until the anxiety and agoraphobia have eased. Sometimes I have to bail on things that I really don’t want to bail on like concerts, traveling, and even smaller events like dinners. What I need to do instead is be gentle on myself and rest since anxiety causes spikes and drops in your energy, which leads to overall fatigue. This also goes back to honoring what my body is going through, and not pushing it beyond its limits, even if I have FOMO.
5. Meditate
It is incredibly important to strengthen my brain and my mindfulness when my agoraphobia is trying to take over. My thoughts about panic attacks are actually try to sabotage me into a panic attack. Sometimes they are loud, too. It’s up to me to stop them, and meditation is literally training your brain to thought stop. This is why it’s crucial that I keep my practice up because these are the times when I really need it. My therapist shared this video with me in our last session. It made me LOL because this is basically what I’m doing to myself internally with agoraphobia until it stops.
6. Rely on Medication for Acute Symptoms, if Needed.
I take a daily medication to help with my agoraphobia, but I am not afraid to proactively take half a Xanax if my anxiety is bad to avoid having a panic attack. It’s only for a temporary time, and if I need to take it to either rest or relieve panic induced symptoms, I’m not hard on myself about it. I don’t particularly like having to rely on medication, but that’s what it’s there for - and I’m cautious and smart with it. If I had some crazy disease I wouldn’t think twice about taking an antibiotic! Taking a small dose of an anti-anxiety medication helps me proactively reduce anxiety without going into full panic attack mode. This works for me, but this is something you definitely want to discuss with your doctor.
I think the more I bounce back from these blimps of anxiety, the more I recognize that I will get through it and it makes the relapse a bit shorter every time. Will this happen to me again? It’s likely (as much as I want to deny it). The easier I am on myself and the quicker that I implement these strategies, the faster I can go back to daily life and my margaritas.