Hiding doesn't always work
Politics and news is something I've been actively avoiding for the past four years now. It seemed impossible for my country's media to not talk about the things that make me the most anxious. Just an hour ago I accidentaly clicked on a video that I thought was going to be about education and polititians talking about the budget for it. Instead the only thing they were talking about was the huge budget to "prepare for war". My country is very small and we would never stand a chance if that ever happened...
Feeling safe and secure is something I've been lacking for a while now and anything related to war or just the thought of something that leaves me completely helpless is absolutely paralysing. I haven't felt like this in a while... And it's scary to think how I would be completely stuck in here. It's like my mind is trying to come up for every solution for every single problem it can imagine. It's tiring and it leads to nowhere. I mostly try not to think about it but maybe it only makes it worse since I keep it all in. So I guess I wanted to share...
@H0ps I'm sure it is exhausting to have all those thoughts racing around your head all the time. It's frustrating when you feel like you need to solve the world's problems in order to have peace within your own headspace (especially since we can't solve the world's problems on our own inside our heads). I admit that my anxiety doesn't stem from fears as large as yours have been (I don't think that I think about war as much as you do) but I am familar with racing thoughts and struggling to slow them. My counselor suggested meditation and althought I didn't notice a difference right away, it has helped. Meditation is meant to refocus the mind by clearing it. If you can practice this and learn how to do it, hopefully you can clear your mind of these fears (at least temporarily) so you may focus on other aspects of your life instead.
I have also found that journaing helps. When my mind races, I try to write it all down. It isn't always coherent because I might be thinking about multiple things. The way I visualize it (or describe it to someone who doesn't have this problem) is to imagine in your head there are all these floating thoughting that are rapidly bouncing around the walls of your head. They are moving too fast to be read and each one is contibuting so much noise inside my head I can't think about anything until I find a way to take care of the horde of thoughts. But how do you take care of them if they just sound like one big mess? I sit down and I pay attention. The first thought I can hear clearly is quickly written down and placed on paper. then the next one.. and the next one.. Each time a thought is written down, it's like it was removed from my mind and transfered. It suddenly gets easier and easier to distinguish what's left until finally it's quiet enough to focus on something else.
I hope one of these methods help. I know how difficult it is to live your life when anxiety is taking over. I hope you are doing better.
