Anxiety Coping Methods

I sympathise and it is horrible. I am like you, anxious all day and all night. 

I have also tried various medications in the past but they either had no effect or actually made my anxiety much worse. The SSRIs made me extremely agitated with constant suicidal thoughts. At the time I did not know I was autistic and that it is more common for autistic people to have such reactions. Benzodiazepines are not helpful for long term anxiety, as they are extremely addictive.

The problem is that when a person has experienced repeated elevated anxiety for a long time the body gets used to that and it becomes the new 'normal' operating state. That results in a constant hypervigilant state of high baseline anxiety. The window of tolerance whereby the elevated anxiety can spill over into full panic when triggered is small.

Queen said:

I wake up through the night, hardly ever get more than three hours of sleep each night.

When this happens to me I find that it helps to listen to some spoken audio, maybe a podcast or an audiobook. There is something about the spoken word that can send me back to sleep, in a way that silence or music cannot.

Queen said:

My brain can't stop working and thinking. Never gets any rest.

Have you been assessed for ADHD? 

If it isn't that then I find what can help is some sort of distraction. The distraction needs to be sufficiently absorbing to channel all of the thoughts into and achieve total focus. If I can achieve a state of hyperfocus on something that interests me it can provide some much needed relief from the constant anxiety for a few hours. Of course I also forget to eat, drink, sleep and everything else!

With regards to the finger chewing would it help if you were to wear thin gloves most of the time? 

Good luck. I hope you find something which helps.

I find audiobooks really helpful too at night or if I wake up really early in the morning.
I’ve also recently discovered a couple of Vagal Nerve breathing techniques which really do seem to work surprisingly well. I also take L-theanine and lemon balm (made by Viridian and I think this has helped too.

I’ve had really severe anxiety for about 20 years - I feel so much solidarity with others who struggle with this too. It’s such a difficult thing to live with and to find solutions to. Good luck 

I find audiobooks really helpful too at night or if I wake up really early in the morning.
I’ve also recently discovered a couple of Vagal Nerve breathing techniques which really do seem to work surprisingly well. I also take L-theanine and lemon balm (made by Viridian and I think this has helped too.

I’ve had really severe anxiety for about 20 years - I feel so much solidarity with others who struggle with this too. It’s such a difficult thing to live with and to find solutions to. Good luck 

Thanks for reminding me about the L-theanine. I bought some when it was mentioned on here previously and put it away for future use, as I was trying something else at the time. It's still in the cupboard and isn't much help to me there!

Do you have a link with more information about the Vagal Nerve breathing techniques?

I am so sorry about your anxiety.

Do you find you cannot recognize what the trigger is sometimes? 

I get it where I am anxious all the time but I don't know why.

I hope yours get's better.