Life Tip Tuesday

My anxiety began within a year of putting down my childhood dog. I didn’t know it at the time, but she had been my emotional support animal. The anxiety would hit always at the most inconvenient times, and, coming from a Christian family, there was a lot of tension involved in having that struggle. Particularly unpleasant, was that these anxiety attacks usually involved me vomiting because of the stress.

For years, my parents (I was a teenager at the time) and I chose to believe it was because of some physical cause. None of us wanted to admit that there could be a deeper root cause because that would mean that we would have to face our own emotions and beliefs. All the problems we ignored to keep the peace. For me, there was also the fear that the cause being something more than physical would mean my faith was weak.

My anxiety appeared to respond well enough to my efforts. I started cutting gluten out of my diet, eating protein-heavy breakfasts, taking antacids, and intermittent fasting. I visited a school counselor who gave me the advice to think of anxiety as just a feeling, not an experience or event. Anxiety became manageable at that point, but it never left. It impacted me and made it hard to live my life and do the things I wanted to do, like travel.

I did many things in spite of my anxiety, even knowing that some of the things I did would trigger it. This continued for 5 years. I had come to expect this was just something I would have to live with, until 2020.

Takeaways for Today

• Although most cases of anxiety have a deep root cause, it’s worth taking note of the physical factors as well.

• Foods that irritate your body can make mental health issues worse, so take note of how you feel after eating different foods.

• Although not a cure, exercising regularly (even just walking half a mile) and getting the right amount of sleep can make it easier to deal with.

• Never forget that anxiety is just a feeling. However unpleasant it is, it will pass, just like all emotions.

Make sure to check your inbox the next few Tuesdays to see how I finally started making progress on curing my anxiety!

-Faith Smith