Anxiety is causing me to panic

@placidStrings1935

So, these tips won't mean a whole lot. I still have problems with stress and anxiety too. I hope that I'm not the only person who answers your question. I will try my best

For in the moment

• If you can, take your eyes off your work for as long as you need to calm down. This will help in not re-triggering yourself

• Bring something you like to hug or wrap yourself in. If I'm getting stressed out in my dorm room, then I can wrap myself in a blanket. If not, there's this fluffy coat that I like to wear just slightly too tight so I can feel it press against my skin. It makes me feel cuddled

• Set an alarm to come back to it, and do something else if it's not too stressful for you. It always depends on the situation, AKA the deadline.

Trying to address the bigger issue

• If you can, avoid anything that rates your work.

Because I'm a college student, this most obviously means that I can't look at my grades. When I look at my grades, I feel the same way that you do but for my class. This paralyzes me and I can't do my work. So one thing I did was to stop looking at grades. This is hard, as teachers really want you to look at them. But this was for mental health reasons. If I look at grades, I could really hurt my mental health because I will attribute it to me being a failure. And if I call myself a failure all the time, I can't feel happy. And if I can't feel happy, then I go down very dark places. I don't know if this is even happening for you, but this is what the source of what made me feel like a failure. It might be helpful to figure out your source, if you feel like this is your particular problem. My point is, when you can try to avoid things that rate you.

• Split up your work into chunks you know you can manage

Something that makes it easier for me to do homework, especially if it's daunting, is to split up the work. You may have heard this method before. But you may have not taken this part to heart. Some things that are on those checklist chunks, are just turning on the computer. The next step is to open a Google document. Etc. This is something that I know I can manage that I will still do. If after you do one step and you don't want to continue, give yourself a break and then proceed.

• Work ahead if applicable

I never do this, but if you can. Do work ahead. The chucks method should work, but clearly that's not the case for me. This is so you have leeway when it comes to brakes. You can spend 10 minutes or 30 minutes, or even a day. This is so that you can manage breaks better when doing your work.

• If you don't work ahead, that's not a failure

I get my work done on time. That's what matters.

• When it happens, make sure to give your credit to yourself when you do good

If I was struggling with turning stuff in on time. One day, I overcame it and turned it once in on time. The knee jerk reaction is to chastise myself for not being able to keep up, and only being able to do this once. Why wasn't I able to do this already? This, hopefully, it's just a change of perspective. Do give yourself an award for meeting your own personal best. It might not be others' personal best, but for you it was. therefore it’s not a failure, that's a success. These little successes add up, so make sure that you recognize them.

I hope my 1:15 a.m. suggestions are helpful.