laryna6:

As studies have recently proven, if the problem is anxiety, distraction will not help you. 

The only cure for anxiety is activity. Is doing something.

See, anxiety is like anger: your brain and body go “Oh crap, there’s a problem! Quick, here’s some energy! Go do something about that problem!”

This is why people say ‘if it weren’t for last-minute panic I’d never get anything done’ – anxiety is a potent source of energy if you use that energy.

If after registering anxiety you then proceed to do nothing, that energy remains in your system and your brain registers this and goes, “Oh crap! There’s nothing that can be done about the cause of anxiety! We’re doomed!” Causing even more energy to be dumped into you, in case it helps, and giving depression major ammunition to work with if you’ve got that too. 

However, if the energy gets used up, preferably in a way related to the problem, then the brain/body go “Ok, we did a thing,” and are more willing to believe you when you try to tell them “Crisis averted.” 

Unfortunately, this is why depression and anxiety are such a nasty one-two punch. Depression tells you that everything you do is useless, so it’s harder to convince yourself that doing the thing to get rid of the cause of anxiety or at least reduce the damage will do any good, and anxious energy frays the focus and self-discipline needed to push through depression to do a thing.

Calming exercises and activities that aren’t tiring in some way (doing things we find stressful is tiring, which is why the body gives us energy to do them) are only useful for gaining enough control of yourself to punch through depression so that you can do something to attack the cause of the anxiety, or making yourself get dressed so you can go for a walk and burn off the energy that way. 

Hiding from things that make you anxious allows the stress energy to remain in your system, allows the situation making you anxious in the first place to get worse, strengthens learned helplessness and feelings of worthlessness, etc. 

When you feel anxious about something, first go: 

1) “Is there anything at all constructive that I can do to get rid of this problem or make it less severe?” If so, do it. This will often be hard, because if it was easy you would have done it already, but remember, you need to use up that energy and it’s better to not have things hanging over your head. Remembering ‘Oh yeah I need to do X’ every five minutes will trigger anxiety over. And over. And over. You don’t need that crap.

2) “Is there anything else constructive that I can use this energy for, things related to other, minor worries or projects I want to accomplish?” When you’re dealing with a big stressor, you do not need other problems making you more anxious and getting worse because you’re too focused on the big thing to find the energy to deal with them. If all else fails, there will always be cleaning to do, and the body is a physical thing. It understands that physical activity solves problems. 

3) “Am I too frazzled to push past depression to do dishes or something?” If so, walking is effing amazing. The body understands walking, it’s the flight or fight reflex. While metaphorically running away from your problems will generally only make things worse, physically running away from your problems is a fantastic way to deal with them. Once your body is convinced that you are safely away from the threat, then it will calm down and you can strategize how to deal with the threat when you return home. I got through middle and high school anger by walking until I’d burned through enough energy to calm down, find a bench and think.

It’s a good thing to avoid thinking about things that cause irrational anxiety, or things that are entirely out of your hands, and activities that make you happy are good for depression and keeping depression under control makes it easier for you to do things to get rid of anxious energy.

But, if you are anxious and jittery, do not randomly browse the internet or sit there and do nothing at all. Think of it as if someone just dumped a bucket of water over your head. You need to go dry off, or else you’re going to get sick. Get rid of the anxious energy and then do something calming to reassure your brain that ‘See, everything’s ok now, there’s no need to dump another bucket of water on me.’