Some of you guys know, most of you don't, but I have social and general anxiety. It hasn't been that much of a problem unless my routine or schedule is out of wack.
So one thing that I am super proud of overcoming is my anxiety of getting off of trains. I know I know, weirdest thing ever, but whenever I get off the train in the city, there are SO many people standing around waiting to get on. With me being 5'2" it really doesn't help, everyone towers over me.
I have this fear of when I get off, as there are so many tall people there, I will get trampled and squashed to death and no one will hear me scream as I'm so tiny. Realistically, this isn't going to happen. I'm not THAT short, and I think people will notice when they trip over me.
The other week (before I overcame my fear and anxiety of getting off of trains) my sister called my phone just as the doors opened for us to get off, she was furious about something, yelling at me over the phone. Mix this with getting off the train, well, it didn't end well. It was this incident that I realised "I seriously need to get over this instead of just putting up with it". With the help of my boyfriend we worked out some strategies for calming myself down when I get anxious and I overcame this part of my anxiety!
Here is our checklist of things to do when I get anxious:
1. Focus on your breathing - take half deep breaths (as deep ones aren't physically possible at this stage) and make sure its at a slightly slower pace than normal
2. Remove yourself from the situation - okay, so, this is hard if it's something like getting off a train, but getting out of there as quickly as possible speeds up the calming down process.
3. Go to your comfortable area - it could be something like your bathroom, your bedroom, under a tree. For me, it's being in the shade in the breeze.
4. Loosen up your muscles - particularly your shoulders and back, mine get incredibly tight when I'm stressed and stretching them afterwards feels really good.
5. Take your time to observe your surroundings - I get tunnel vision when I'm anxious so standing to the side and actively making myself scan my surroundings and name certain things like, "there's the ticket machine, the elevator, the green wall, the escalator, the other ticket machines, the underground exit, the above ground exit". Stuff like that.
So yeah! Doing those few things helped me overcome the irrational panic that would happen every. single. time. I got off the train.
If you guys have any tips or strategies, let me know!
Cate-Marie xxx
