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This is the opening paragraph of my song when the jet goes down.
It tells you about a man who’s been in the air force for 25 years and now he’s starting to wonder what it would be like on earth. He wonders if there ever was a time that he wasn’t soaring with his wings through blue skies, but all he can remember is being up high above, while everything else below him rumbles.
People say he’s the man who can fly and make it rain, but what happens when his wings don’t work? He just wants to know if there is a place on earth where he could land again.
This blog post will be about how anyone with anxiety feels like they’re in this airplane that has been going down for hours and now all of a sudden you’re crashing into an ocean because your mind won’t let up. You have no idea why but every time you try to relax it seems like the world around you is rushing back- right at you. And then nothing makes sense and there are too many things happening at once so everything becomes blurry, fast paced, confusing- even overwhelming. But I’ll tell you what I tell myself when this happens:
It’s not time to panic. It’s just your mind doing its job- making everything worse than it actually is because that’s how the system works. You can’t be a hero all of the time, but you CAN take care of yourself and remind yourself that life doesn’t need to feel like a rollercoaster ride every single day, okay? And even though sometimes we’re going down in an airplane or crashing into the ocean -sometimes it takes more guts than others- we’ll always find something on earth where we could land again.”
This blog post will be about how anyone with anxiety feels like they’re in this airplane that has been going down for hours and now they’re just circling the earth, trying to find a place they could land.
“But I’ll tell you what I tell myself when this happens: It’s not time to panic. It’s just your mind doing its job- making everything worse than it actually is because that’s how the system works.” People with anxiety often feel like their brain is working against them and telling them horrible things about themselves or others, even though these thoughts are completely unfounded in reality. Basically every person with any kind of mental illness has had moments where they’ve felt as if something bad was going on but then realized seconds later that nothing was happening at all – there were no noises outside, no lights flashing through windows etc., all of which would have been a cause for concern.
People with anxiety often feel like their brain is working against them and telling them horrible things about themselves or others, even though these thoughts are completely unfounded in reality. Basically every person with any kind of mental illness has had moments where they’ve felt as if something bad was going on but then realized seconds later that nothing was happening at all – there were no noises outside, no lights flashing through windows etc., all of which would have been a cause for concern. “It’s not time to panic.” This doesn’t mean it can’t be hard to get back into the mindset that everything will work out just fine- especially when your mind keeps doing its job and you’re feeling worse than ever before because this system makes it so much easier to feel one way or another.
Content: ive been feeling a lot more anxious recently – it’s not something I want, but like all mental illnesses, you just have little control over how your brain is going to work in any given moment. If my anxiety does spike the past couple days and weeks, there can be many reasons why- from outside factors (i’m obsessing about a person/situation) to internal ones (I’ve had an argument with someone close). And since these thoughts are so hard for me to ignore because they’re affecting my whole body and mind negatively, sometimes that means trying some coping mechanisms or other things that might help make them go away faster than normal. But really what helps is being able to talk about it.
I’m sure you won’t be surprised that I think talking therapy is a great option for people with anxiety, but depending on how much the person struggling knows themselves and their triggers/tendencies, sometimes they don’t need more than one session or aren’t ready to commit to going every week like some people want them too. That’s why self-care can also be an amazing option – whether it’s something as simple as taking a few minutes in your room alone before getting up for work in the morning, or practicing mindfulness activities at home during your lunch break each day (there are tons of apps out there!). And really any type of physical activity would count too if someone needs more “grounding” support.
So when I’m feeling anxious, sometimes the best thing for me is to get out of my routine and do something different that will be a grounding experience (hiking). And then it’s not so much about how long you’re doing it – but rather what kind of energy or mood you start with at the beginning because if your anxiety starts off low-intermediate on a scale of 0-50, let’s say, and you go out hiking in nature..you might end up feeling like “oh man this was pretty great! Hiking is really awesome!” So don’t force yourself into any activities where your anxiety would have started high level at 50+. If it feels too hard on day one, try again later.
The more days you’re in your routine, the harder it is to get out. So if I’m feeling anxious on Wednesday and I’ve been going hiking every time my anxiety has spiked for a week – then switching up that pattern might be great. But before doing this consistently, work with someone who can provide support because when we are in our routines all the time, they become hard-wired into us so breaking them off becomes difficult and there’s always residual emotions from what was formerly experienced as “normal” or “safe.” That said, don’t let fear of disruption keep you in an unhealthy rut!
People who have had trauma often know intuitively how to respond during panic attacks but not necessarily why these responses occur. For example, a person may have been sexually assaulted and then when they are feeling aroused by something or someone else later in life (without even being aware of it), their body automatically reacts as if they were going to be assaulted again. This is called “arousal transfer” because the arousal from one situation transfers over into another without full awareness. Arousal transfer can also occur during anxiety attacks where some people experience panic for seemingly no reason at all but when you ask them about the most recent thing that happened there’s usually an undercurrent of fear which has transferred over from another place in time – such as walking down a TV-less hallway on your own late at night. The sensations felt during these moments activate memories related to
