I’m curious to hear what people are doing to deal with their version of anxiety. What has worked for you and what hasn’t? Did something work for you early on and stopped working? Anything that worked partially on a certain type of anxiety? Anything you’d recommend everyone try?

I’ll start with my findings, in order of I stumbled upon them:

1. Flat out denial worked, until it didn’t. I could function in my little world, but as soon as my illusion of control was shattered it was immediately down the drain again. It’s like I built nothing in terms of progress in those years.
2. Medication didn’t work. I tried beta-blockers to address the physical symptoms of my situation-based anxiety. This didn’t do much for me as my thoughts were still making it a lot harder than it needed to be.
3. Quitting alcohol worked. It took about a year for me to notice my thoughts turned much more positive.
4. Self-introspection worked. I tried some coaching sessions that focused me on observing my thoughts, feelings and behaviors. I resisted this for many, many years, but in the end it was eye-opening for me.