How To Cope With Anxiety | Mental Health | More Than Just A Disability |
A few months back I remember writing a blog post how Cerebral Palsy is more than just a physical disability; I think that many people do not understand how much obstacles and challenges we have to face day to day basis.
I think one of the hardest thing I have to face is when I have an anxiety attack or feel anxious my CP turns into a mess; I get super shaky which makes it hard for me to do the simplest thing, like, pulling up my socks is an example of many. Sometimes there even times where I can't talk which makes me so hard to understand or get blocked on letters I can say perfectly fine in days where I am ok. Also throughout the years, I have noticed that I lose my oxygen quickly so my breathing is a constant mess and bringing it back is really difficult.
When I tell people that I have mental health which are anxiety and depression but mostly anxiety nowadays because of everything that happened to me throughout the years and it somehow leaded me to this, they ask me: ''How do you cope with it all? It is hard having one thing let alone two.. How do you cope with it?'' This question has always been a tricky one to answer, I have always ignored the fact I lived with anxiety, I used to tell people ''I am fine, just the CP is playing up again'' which partly true because people with Cerebral Palsy have their bad and good days but the anxiety made it 10 times worse than it originally is. Like my hands would go completely numb and I would have to learn how to do things from scratch but that used to happen a lot when I did not know to handle it but right now, I do and really pleased about it!
The first thing I have learnt was to stop beating myself up everyday trying to be present in places, like for example, even though there were times where I felt super tired after a bad day filled with anxious moments or even having an anxiety attack; I would not let myself rest, I would go to that party I was invited too, forgetting to allow myself to rest. I did not know how to say ''No!' when I should really have because your health always comes first. Nowadays, I am more outspoken about this topic, if I am having a bad or bad week and people invite me out I always say ''No, I am not well!'' I guess I have learned that my health comes first and not people.
Here are a few tips on how to cope with Anxiety: (I will be listing the ones that are helping me or have helped me)
- Talk to someone you trust - Sometimes it can be extremely HARD to stop worrying when you have anxiety. You might have feeling that you cannot control. Or you might feel like you need to stop worrying because it feels useful or that bad things happens to you.
- Try to get enough sleep - Sleep can give you the energy to cope with difficult feelings and experience.
- Keep a diary - It might help you to make notes of what happens when you get anxious or have a panic attack.
- Challenge negative thoughts - You should ask yourself: Is this a productive thing? Is it helping me get closer to my goal? If it's just a negative thought that you're rehashing, then you must be able to say to that thought ''STOP!'
I always make sure that I take photos of all the things I managed to do that day! It reminds or makes me think that ''I can do this!'' It always makes me feel good about myself, even if it just throwing the rubbish sometimes. It makes me realise that I pushed myself to do that then I can push myself to do anything.Also yoga helps too because it makes you forget about your mind and it helps you focus on your body. Something which helped me out a lot when I was going through my days of being anxious!
Be sure to follow me on my socials for blog updates & many exciting things!
Comments
Post a Comment