2. Exercise daily. Movement is how the body puts the stress hormones to work.
3. Eat well. The gut-brain connection drives how we feel as we digest.
Does anyone have any help or tips here?
Tried all of the regular remedies: diet, exercise, reading, prayer, habit changes. My doctor prescribed a medicine to help me calm down at night. That was the first thing that actually helped.
That kept going until I left a very stressful job and landed in a healthy environment with a different employer. I was able to stop the medicine after a couple of months.
All that to say, there are many methods that work for different people and situations. Don't discount speaking with a doctor or therapist, and don't continue through life with bad sleep. It's a really rough way to go.
If you can identify the thing(s) keeping you up at night, and if they're things in your control, consider making changes. Living without good sleep sucks. Do whatever it takes to get good sleep, even if it means big changes.
Yes. when you go to sleep don't put any pressure on yourself that you need to sleep X number of hrs or whatever. Just go to bed on regular schedule and be thankful for the amount of sleep you get, actual amount is irrelevant.
When Covid hit, 4 kids home/remote job/divorce all hit at once. I have to do something hard enough that my brain can shut off worrying about the thing. Lizard brain has to be active enough to think threat is gone and shut off.
The hardest days for me are intentional rest days/weeks where I have to be mindful of not having that same release.
Even during the most stressful of times, that evening workout helped reset my mood.
Reading in bed helps immensely as well.
What helps me is reading a book. Sometimes have to switch to a more boring book.
In recent years started using Kindle with a very low light setting, going lower every few minutes, even having to enlarge font at the end, to make it readable with such low light.
I've cut coffee out of my diet after noon lunchtime, and I think it's helping ... tough to be sure but as long as I believe it, it's pretty good
However, I was referring to the direct effects of caffeine on your stress and anxiety levels. I would go so far as to say that if you are taking steps to reduce your stress and anxiety levels, quitting caffiene should be on the list of some of the first things you try. (Alongside the usual advice of good sleep, exercise, meditation and diet)
Some reading for those who are interested:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4668773/
"After adjusting for additional dietary, demographic, and lifestyle covariates, positive associations between total weekly caffeine intake and anxiety and depression remained significant"
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34871964/
"Caffeine also increases anxiety in PD patients as well as among healthy adults at these doses although the exact relationship between caffeine-induced anxiety and panic attacks remains uncertain. The results suggest that caffeine targets important mechanisms related to the pathophysiology of PD."
https://web.archive.org/web/20200130090750/https://www.psych...
"Regular consumption of high levels of caffeine can lead to a condition known as 'caffeinitis'" which is characterized by chronic subjective anxiety"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine-induced_anxiety_disor...
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/anxiety-and-caffei...
My Garmin watch tracks it, and when I actively try to manage stress and anxiety during the day, it goes from red (for weeks) to immediately recovering into the green that night.
I like a good dataset and the correlation with my stress (backed up by papers on causation) is at least a really strong thing for me.
If I try something new, I can measure the impact on my HRV very clearly.
When I feel I'm burning out, my HRV over the previous few weeks tells the tale.
1. Doing CBT by David F Tolin
It also affects the way we think, and make decisions.
When we are in "action mode," our thinking becomes fairly "binary," and extreme (eg. "Good|Bad", "Fight|Flight", "Hate|Love").
It also focuses on short-term results, and is biased towards assured results, as opposed to "possible" ones.
That's why I find I need to back away from the computer, when I find myself in a stressball. I make bad decisions.
Managers, politicians, and demagogues of all stripes, have used this for centuries, to get people to support their agendas.
> It also focuses on short-term results, and is biased towards assured results, as opposed to "possible" ones.
What's interesting to me is that this type of thinking also overlaps with, or is found in, a variety of circumstances/ways of being, like:
- Unskilled (despite experience level)
- Beginner
- Under-trained
- Unsupported or under-supported role or assignment
- Self-centered (egoic-hero model)
- Little-picture Thinker
- Fearful attitude
... It's helpful to be able to refer to these other lenses in turn, as a way of finding helpful solutions.
eg., “stressed.”
Sort of like the classic “Lucy and the Chocolate Factory” routine[0].
I’d also suggest a management deficit, if those cases are too severe.
For me this is really true. I'm more of an introvert, and I don't usually reach out to others very often. It can be in the form of talk therapy in a formal setting with an actual psychologist. It can also just be catching up with a friend, or chatting with a neighbor about something totally unrelated. Anything that can get me outside of my own mind helps. Looking for opportunities to help or become involved in someone else's life is really helpful.
Has helped me in forming deep friendships, make new friends, and overcoming my shyness.
Recommend 10/10
Here is a short essay I wrote recently. Will probably write a blog post soon too.
To successfully do all the recommended steps and have them be fulfilling and not just another task, you need to be honest with yourself.
The fact that this is an unpopular option may be why so many people are stuck in their anxiety loops.
Lately I find myself asking, is the article “better” than what AI could produce?
In this case, the article intuitively seems a grade above similar GPT 3.5 output.
But why so? Is it just my opinion it’s better?
How should “better” be defined? Readability, persuasion, effectiveness as a call to action? Truthfulness seems like it’s own can of worms.
Are there any objective measures of AI vs human output quality to date? Which human? Yikes a new can of worms…
Subjectively, it sometimes seems like the more I read known AI content the more I get a feel for its style. Oops - forgot we’re dealing with a master style chameleon. I think it’s more likely this perception is wrong and it’s easy to overestimate one’s ability to discern generated content.
Apologies for the tangent. I hope it doesn’t detract too much from the more important point that the post is good and I’ve found some of the techniques very helpful.
I was hesitating in posting it to HN but now I am glad I did.
This one amazes me; taking deep breaths to calm myself just makes me feel weird and sometimes even more anxious, but taking deep breaths and imagining releasing a cloud of (deep purple) smoke on the exhale noticeably relaxes me. I wonder if it's the imagination component that makes it better, i.e. giving the mind something to focus on? Or maybe the timing of the exhale changes with the visualization. Either way, a great hack imo.
Thanks for noticing. Now I have to go check my notes to find the link
Recent Huberman study showed that structured breath work has measurable positive effects - https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-37... . See more discussion on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34480039
While all four groups showed significant daily improvement in positive affect and reduction in state anxiety and negative affect, there were significant differences between mindfulness meditation and breathwork in positive affect
Specifically, the cyclic sighing group showed more increase in positive affect toward the end of the study in a way that was significantly different than that for those randomized to mindfulness meditation, who had the least increase in positive affect
First step - inhale slowly until the lungs are expanded.
Second step - inhale again once more to maximally fill the lungs.
Third step - slowly and fully exhale until lungs are empty.
Repeat this pattern of breathing for 5 min. Ideally, both inhales are performed via nose and the exhale would be performed via mouth, but, if preferred, the breathing activity can be performed entirely through the nose. It is normal for the second inhale to be briefer than the first.
Breath is important, it does help! I have enjoyed the Lungy app recently launched by an HNer.
By focusing on relaxing my stomach I've found it nearly as effective as cyclic breathing or other techniques. I'm sure the two are related but most people talk about the breathing (rightfully so), while I've found actual tension in the abs/stomach manifests a lot of this.
It emphasizes accepting and allowing feelings of anxiety instead of actively resisting them, breaking the cycle in which worry about worsening anxiety only leads to its intensification.
souce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z25f6qy361Y&ab_channel=MEDsp...
The other is getting rid of stress when you already have it.
Personally, I find that leaning into the "fight or flight" response by going for a run or a workout as soon as possible and as intensely as possible works almost every time.
https://clickhole.com/might-as-well-give-it-a-shot-6-things-...
People who experience stress and anxiety from financial or health issues should probably just journal more, go for a run, and avoid social media.
I saw a comment about being honest with ones' self.
The best thing for me?
Gin. Lots of it.
And then lots of dancing around the flat to whatever music I have on shuffle.