We have interviewed 87 people who have struggled with anxiety. These stories are full of tips on how to overcome anxiety.
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I’ve interviewed 87 people struggling with anxiety, and here are the top 5 most mentioned tips that helped these people overcome anxiety:
In our many years of publishing helpful mental health content, we always received questions from our readers about specific situations. While we have a lot of helpful tips to share on how to be happier, we simply can’t offer advice for every situation.
That’s why I’ve set out to interview folks with every type of mental health struggle. My job as an interviewer is to categorize these interviews and present them in a way that is most helpful to our readers.
“I started to experience an anxiety disorder, an eating disorder (I lost around 10 kg), depression, trust issues, and other mental problems as well. I was becoming this person that I didn’t recognize anymore, all while drifting away from being the person I wanted to be.”
Struggled with:
Anxiety
Breakup
Eating disorder
“I remember collapsing in the stairwell and I thought I was having a heart attack. The staff that was in the building at the time recognized this as a panic attack and thankfully did not make the situation worse. Nobody there referred me to a counselor or therapist though.”
Struggled with:
Anxiety
Panic attacks
Helped by:
Exercise
Meditation
“I was embarrassed by my feelings and didn’t want anyone to know how much pain I was in, so I often put on a brave face. Even on my worst days, I tried to make it look like everything was okay when I felt anything but deep down.”
Struggled with:
Anxiety
Depression
“I felt broken. I had suicidal ideation because I sometimes could not see a way out of it. A wise person told me my children would be much worse off if their mother killed herself. That stopped me in my tracks.”
Struggled with:
Anxiety
Depression
Divorce
Miscarriage
Suicidal
Helped by:
Medication
Self-Care
Therapy
“The worst symptom was the sharp chest pain and my pounding heart. Fear took over, which only exacerbated the horrible sensations I felt. I never understood why my body thought the best way to react to a perceived danger was to cause sudden chest pain and simulate a heart attack.”
“At 16, I found my drug of choice, methamphetamine, which I began shooting up at 17. I had a few years of somewhat reduced drug use for the first years of college, then slid back due to a multi-assailant rape and abusive boyfriend. I lived in increasing misery until I was 32.”
“After a lengthy battle with cancer, my journey was made even more difficult by the added stress of acid reflux and esophageal achalasia. Three months went by in which I had to struggle through each day just to keep down any food that entered my system at all.”
Struggled with:
Anxiety
Cancer
Depression