Last night I had an anxiety attack.
In the moment it was horrific and the mental and physical symptoms were super strong. It lasted about 15 minutes and then faded. After it passed I felt exhausted, drained, and defeated.
After it passed I texted some friends who have anxiety and started reading the book my roommate gave me about natural ways to handle anxiety.
After a bit of examination I narrowed down some culprits that contributed to the anxiety attack:
- skipped cardio at the gym in favor of a strength workout with my weights at home (exercise/cardio is very important)
- drank more coffee during the day than normal because I felt sleepy (caffeine can trigger)
- ate a slice of roommates cookie cake to try it out (sugar is a trigger)
All of those combined plus general stuff came together to send my brain to crazy town with me along for the ride.
I’d love to not have another one. Seriously. Anything I can do to avoid that would be stellar. For that reason, I’m giving up a few things.
What I’m Giving Up To Improve My Anxiety
Alcohol. This one was the first thing I gave up and the easiest since I’ve never been a big drinker anyway. I do miss it occasionally on weekends but I find it’s not something that is missed.
Coffee. It’s not surprising to me now that the period of worst anxiety in my life also coincided with the start and escalation of my coffee drinking habit. I now drink 2-5 cups a day depending on how my day goes.
Sugar. It’s also clear how much sugar affects me and how it can trigger things like this. I’ve got a sugar addiction so this one will be the most difficult since I’ve been downing sugar like a boss since I was a kid.
To be honest, I’ve avoided giving up both coffee and sugar because they “make me happy”. I enjoy them. They are little treats. They are inexpensive ways to feel better. I’ve also avoided giving them up because it feels like I’m giving up everything these days in this quest to heal myself.
However, I know it’s necessary. My body isn’t tolerating them as well as I’d like to think and there are huge negatives that come with these things. Huge negatives like having anxiety attacks at 9 pm on a Tuesday.
So, What’s The Plan?
Honestly in this moment I don’t have an exact plan other than to not drink any coffee today and go to the gym to get 30 minutes of cardio. I know these two things are critical so I’ll start with them.
I’m going to finish reading a few books to craft a plan.
Right now I’m finishing Natural Relief for Anxiety: Complementary Strategies for Easing Fear, Panic, and Worry and will combine it with Potatoes Not Prozac: A Natural Seven-Step Plan to: Control Your Craving to come up with a complete plan for myself to follow to relieve the anxiety without drugs. It will happen and I’m already to the point where I know giving up coffee and sugar are necessary in this quest.
If you’ve given up coffee or sugar before, how did you do it? Was it crazy hard or a breeze? Got any tips for me?
I’ve never been a coffee drinker, but I used to drink a lot more Coke. When I decided to cut back on that, I got a huge “caffeine” headache. Just watch out for that.
Good luck with your plan going forward!
I assume that will happen as I’ve gotten tiny caffeine headaches before on days where I didn’t drink coffee early enough. I’ll deal with the caffeine headache to get to the other side! Haha. Thanks Tammy! :)
My anxiety strategies include YOGA< YOGA YOGA… breathing during these attacks is so key. Finally, hard core cardio. Whatever and however that works for you. Remember your pace is THE pace!!!
Actually this is something I’ve been thinking about. The book mentioned yoga and is super focused on breathing as a way to calm. I’ve been thinking about trying to find a time for yoga at my gym or a way to do it at home to get back into it.I think it would really help!
I have a love hate relationship with Dr. Pepper. It never even occurred to me that it might contribute to my anxiety. So interesting! I’m totally going to have to read more about that!
It definitely might! Those are sooooo good but they do have a lot of sugar and caffeine. I gave up drinking sodas a long time ago but I still have plenty of caffeine and sugar vices. ;)
I have such respect for you to for approaching natural ways to help cope with your anxiety, I think you will see a great bit of difference. My grandmother suffered from bad anxiety, especially with her job as a controller, and giving up coffee and sugar, really helped her. If only we could get her to give up the alcohol, ha.
Thanks Liz! That’s awesome and hilarious about your grandma, btw. I’m thinking giving up sugar and alcohol will be a big help. :)
Not giving up coffee and sugar because it makes you feel good? Precisely my problem. Even when I can stay away from sugar, I still want coffee. “It’s the only thing I have that makes me feel happy, how can I give it up?” is my favourite excuse. Silly girl, I know.
But you are right, caffeine is one of the culprits of anxiety (as well as of bad sleep at night). However, keep in mind that chronic overexercising doesn’t help either. Couple years ago I used to go to spinning class and then run on treadmill and on cross trainer afterwards, so basically I was doing 2-2,5 hours of cardio every day. And I always felt cranky and unhappy. What’s even stranger was that I didn’t lose any weight even though I was consuming ~1100-1200 kcal a day. Well, it turns out calories in-calories out theory was not true. The constant overexercising led to my adrenals being exhausted, yet still trying to secret epinephrine, cortisol and not able to rest. My body was getting a signal of awful stress and clinging to every last piece of fat it had “just in case”. So now I don’t favour cardio that leaves me out of breath and tired.
Anyway, good luck with quitting sugar and coffee. I am sure it will improve your well-being :)
It’s not silly – I’m the same way! At the end of the day yesterday I was just being so sad that I couldn’t have a sweet coffee to make myself happy! But it is a huge trigger for anxiety so it’s out!
Thanks for sharing your story. I’m aiming for 30 minutes of cardio a day which is enough that I get the benefits but not too much to overtax my system. Exercise is a stress on the body and since I already have stress in the form of anxiety I don’t want to do too much. I’ll definitely keep this in mind and protect my adrenals!
I have a history of anxiety — and caffeine is definitely a trigger for me. I didn’t really think its relationship to sugar though. When I gave both up, I just did it cold turkey. It worked for me (switched to green tea and dates/fruit when I had a sugar craving).
Keeping a diary where I was brutally honest with myself was also really helpful. I would just write and write and write. I wouldn’t reread what I had written for several days, even weeks. It was just about getting it on paper and out of my system. Later when I felt more secure, I’d read what I had written and try to pinpoint the source of my anxiety and come up with strategies to handle it.
Ironically, cardio increased my anxiety as getting on a treadmill or cross-trainer and zoning out gave me a chance to dwell on too many thoughts. Lifting weights, however, helped me a lot more. Plus watching my improvements in physical strength somehow led to emotional strength too.
Long comment, I know :/ Hope something in it helps :)
Long comments are awesome and yours was really helpful! I’ll definitely try some of those things as well. I haven’t been lifting weights as much as I used to so I might get back to that. Thanks for commenting! :)