Hello guys! I hope that you're having a nice day! Anyway, today I want to tell you guys my story about how I beat my anxiety that happened in the pandemic! There is always hope guys! I feel that I owe you guys this one as this community helped me immensely during my crisis.

Everything started at mid november when there was a 2 week holiday from my college classes. Before that I studied for 8 hours a day during 8 months straight without any pauses (not stopping even for weekends!). Anyway, when I stopped I have a sort of mental breakdown and I couldn't eat (bad because I'm almost underweight) or do anything at all (not even look at my phone!). During this time I started having anxiety attacks that would last hours. I saw a bunch of doctors and they said that I was completely fine, but I didn't feel that way. Well after two weeks in bed I decided that I couldn't continue living that way or my mental state would certainly get worse and worse. 

During this recovery time, I started to try using the computer (something that I always loved to do) and reading, but even this would make my anxiety levels go up a lot. So I took a step back and tried to change my lifestyle. So what I did?

- Started practicing yoga. I'm not a guy that exercises. Everyday I'd do yoga for 20-30 minutes in the app Dow dog (it's free in the beginning!) and it would DROP my anxiety level through the day.

-Started to take a stroll in the street. I didn't leave my house during the pandemic and maybe I had a crisis because of that. It was very hard in the beginning as I live in a big city and there is a lot of stimuli. But I'm getting used to it. 

-Started eating well again. I stopped eating processed foods and my diet consisted in fruits, nuts and grains mostly.

-started taking some supplements. As I'm vegetarian I almost never eat omega 3, so I started eating that (after this my anxiety levels dropped significantly... But it may be a coincidence) and started taking vitamin d, as I was deficient in it.

-everyday I'd try to do a new thing! I understand that anxiety is really debilitating (I just started studying again after 2 months) but you can't let it control your life! Everyday I'd try to talk to someone at discord or use my computer etc...

-started destressing. The main problem that caused my anxiety was obviously stress. But there was one main problem: anxiety Is a huge source of stress. So this two feelings feed on each other. I did a enormous effort to try to break this cycle and you should try to. Try to lower your stress, not your anxiety.

-last but not least, I started doing therapy. It's nice to have someone to help you manage your feelings and drop your emotional load. 

Keep in mind that I'm still recovering from my anxiety but now I'm highly functional! I still have bad day but now they are much rarer and they're not as overwhelming, now my anxiety is not completely debilitating. I feel that sometimes it's a healthy anxiety almost.

Now I'm struggling a bit with some health anxiety (I'm seeing some floaters and flashes for some weeks now but I didn't have the willpower to do something about it and they're much less prevalent now), but I think that it's not a bad kind of anxiety. It's normal.

I hope you guys may learn a thing or two from my experience! It's possible to overcome depression and anxiety! One day at a time!