How to deal with this

I aways encourage a physical health check up first to rule out any medical issues. Anxiety is a natural reaction that occurs internally in response to external situations (triggers). To start managing anxiety, one should learn about symptoms of anxiety, how it impacts the brain and body, and more specifically how those symptoms impact the individual suffering from anxiety.

Some of the ways anxiety impacts the brain is by causing excessive worry, racing thoughts, desire to run away/escape, having an intense sense of doom, and fear that something bad is going to happen. Anxiety impacts the body by causing restlessness, tunnel vision, sweaty palms, trouble breathing, rapid heart beat, headache, and nausea to name a few. It is important to learn these things because it helps in understanding why certain coping skills work. Ex: If the heart is racing and breathing is more shallow, the rapid beating heart it is pumping blood through the body faster; blood carries oxygen and oxygen is going up to the brain faster which causes that tunnel vision, disconnected feeling. To help this feeling, one would incorporate some deep breathing methods such as 4,7,8 (breathe in through the nose slowly for a count of 4, hold the breath for a count of 7, and release the breath through the mouth slowly for a count of 8). This helps slow down the heart, allows breathing to become more controlled, slows down the racing thoughts, and reduces the overflow of oxygen to the brain which helps the tunnel vision/dissociated feeling. 

Understanding the brain and body connection helps one to develop coping skills specific to each symptom. Mindfulness, yoga, deep breathing, and guided imagery are all coping skills that have been proven to alleviate symptoms. Once the physical symptoms start to reduce, it allows the logic part of the brain to kick in and the racing thoughts, excessive worry, etc are more manageable and the identification of triggers can be explored. Knowing triggers can be empowering because it builds insight. Depression and anxiety tend to go hand in hand. When one constantly fears having physical symptoms of anxiety this can lead to avoidance of any situation that causes anxiety, and isolating enters the picture. 

When working through depressive symptoms start with small, realistic, obtainable goals. For example, if it feels like too much energy to get out of bed, create a goal to open a window and get some sunlight. It is a small and obtainable goal. Accomplishing small tasks can stimulate the reward system in the brain. One of the most important things to remember when it comes to depression is to be patient and compassionate with oneself. We can often be really hard on ourselves and it can cause depressive symptoms to worsen. Try to save energy to divert towards tasks that are going to help in feeling better like eating, drinking water, and going for a small walk rather than washing dishes or doing mundane chores. Those chores will always be there and your mental health is more important.

Working through these symptoms with a therapist is always helpful because they can continue to help with insight building, identification of triggers for both anxiety and depression, and development of specific coping skills. Hope this helps!!!