Overcoming the anxieties of Daily Life

We all have them

Today was my first day of early college. I got up at 6 am., sure that I would be able to handle this with no problem. I helped my mother and little brother get ready for their school days, I said goodbye to them and my father as he left for work. And suddenly, I was alone. Not just physically alone, after all, I had my cats and my turtle in the house with me. But so deeply alone that I felt like I had fallen into a pit I would never be able to work my way out of.

I haven’t felt this existential-type-of-alone-feeling in at least two years. This used to be my normal. The fear and the dread and the self-doubt and the little angry voice screaming “how could you be so stupid, you shouldn’t have left high school you aren’t ready for this.” I had almost forgotten the sound of that tiny voice.

About two years ago, I started therapy to help me deal with this tiny voice; to help keep me level-headed while it screamed and shrieked until it slowly faded away. So, here are some tips I learned in my time in therapy.

I am NOT a professional, I still suggest counseling or therapy on top of these coping skills.

1. Diet: I know that I’m about to sound like a Preachy Vegan to some of you, but I firmly believe this. If you are sensitive to certain foods, and continue to consume them, your body can stop showing physical reactions to them, and start showing mental signs instead. As soon as I went vegan (which, I’ll admit, should have been sooner.) I felt significantly better.
2. Try to understand the voice, and question it. Just ask it why. You aren’t good enough, “Why?” Of course for a while, it’ll have answers. But after some time they stop making sense. That’s when I realized the voice was full of shit. (Sorry for the profanity.)
3. Art: My therapist told me to draw something whenever I heard the voice. Something that made me happy, like a picture of a bud on my watermelon plant or one of my pets. She told me that it would help me to combat the voice, because after a while I would associate it with things I liked. (It actually worked, weirdly enough.)

I know that some of these are, questionable at best. These are just the coping skills that work for ME personally. I also refused to be prescribed medication for my depression/anxiety (not for any particular reason, I was just stubborn and cheap.) which is why I used some of these weird coping skills. Feel free to tell me your coping skills in the comments!