My Struggle Learning to Deal With a Slow Building Anxiety Attack

Photo by Mitchell Hartley on Unsplash

I don’t shy away from discussing my own mental health. I struggle with generalized anxiety disorder and ADHD. I have for most of my life. It wasn’t until recently I received my GAD diagnosis. But dealing with slow-building anxiety isn’t new either. At times, it becomes unbearable. Like nothing I do will make it better.

I am not a mental health professional, but I am dealing with these mental health issues. I had developed some unhealthy coping mechanisms in the past that I have been working to challenge and move past. It’s hard and takes a lot of mental effort. These are a few things that I’ve found helped some recently.

Ask what I can control and what I’ve done

I know it sounds stupid. If you’ve ever dealt with anxiety, an anxiety attack, a panic attack, or any combination of the above, then challenging this can be really difficult. My brain tends to go a thousand different directions, often lingering on worst-case scenarios. It revolves around those same scenarios replaying over and over in my head. It’s so hard to silence those thoughts and fears.

Through therapy, I’ve learned one thing that works is asking and identifying factors that I can control. This identifies and puts limitations on things that are actually in control…