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Waking up before my alarm goes off with my heart racing so hard I wonder if i’m going to be sick, or if something must of happened causing me to wake so quickly. I lay there and realise the house is still quiet, both kids are asleep, In that silence I feel my heart still racing and I suddenly realise it’s just my anxiety.

Now when I say just my anxiety; I cant even begin to put into words how crippling it can be some days. How strong minded you have to be to even function to get the children to school in a happy mood.

Walking into the loud, ridiculously busy playground when your still mid anxiety attack is hell, kids running around shouting, playing football feels 10 times louder than it normally does. Your sight goes to tunnel vision and you’re just trying to keep a straight, calm face until you can run home and hide under your blanket.

Anxiety doesn’t care what you have going on in your life. If you have appointments that you need to get to or events you’ve been looking forward to for months.

If anxiety wants to attack, it will and you have to manage it the best way you can.

I never thought i’d be the type of person that would have anxiety attacks, apart from being a bit of an awkward child, I pretty much just got on with life as best as we all can. I’d go out with my friends after school everyday, have sleepovers at the weekend and just do normal kid things.

I remember my first major anxiety/panic attack very well. My friend and I had just met up with a few other people on the way to the pub, I was 18 and went from fine to face sucked in and not being able to breathe in the matter of a minute. I remember thinking “Am I going to die?” “Is this really how my life ends.

That the time I had no idea what had happened to me. All I remember is staying in for a few weeks after (completely unlike me) scared that it might happen again.

Nowadays I live with anxiety most days, pretty much anything can set them off, but over time I have realised a few triggers:

  • Bright lights in shops
  • Lack of sleep
  • Hormonal changes
  • Poor diet
  • Sugar before bed
  • Overthinking
  • Overly crowded places

Some but not all of the possible symptoms:

  • Panic, fear
  • Unable to sleep
  • Dry mouth
  • Feel sick
  • Dizziness
  • Heart racing
  • Shortness of breath
  • Tense muscles

Here are a few things that could help:

  • Eat a healthy diet
  • Meditate
  • Sleep
  • Practice deep breathing
  • Say bye to Caffeine (Chamomile Tea helps me)
  • Stop smoking
  • Exercise
  • Limit alcohol
  • EFT (I found this pocket book helps me only £3.99

Now instead of the major panic attacks that I felt when I was younger; they have changed to heart racing, dizziness with shortness of breath. Luckily on most days I am still able to function without anyone really noticing.

So if your feeling like your anxiety is starting to affect your life, please talk to someone and I really can’t recommend EFT enough. If you don’t like the look of the pocket book, there are many more out there to try and also many practitioners that can help you.

Why not check out Enviroline Blog, for tips to help cope with anxiety.

Good luck and thanks for reading.