Guest Post: Creative Ways to Deal With Anxiety

While I no longer blog at The Geeky Nutcase (due to personal reasons), I still write in some sort of way. Journaling is not writing, per se, but it allows me to place every single thought and worry down on paper. I normally journal once before bed, and then sometime later that evening. Of course, my bedtime is usually after midnight, so it’s about twice a day when I write. I tell people that they can write how many times in a day that they want to. Anxiety doesn't have a routine, so journaling doesn't either. My current journal has some short and long entries, and that’s okay. I have written down things that seem trivial and possibly childish, but at that moment, it needed to go on paper. Here is how my current journal entries begin:

DATE
DAY
ANXIETY RATING: (Usually in the upper right hand corner of the paper

And it continues with that. Anxiety always goes first for several reasons, the biggest being: If I didn't write it down, it would continue to plague me.

Before I forget, I have doodle breaks in between some of the entries to break up the depression when re-reading some of them. I've really come to like patterns, and that is mostly what I "draw." Drawing being in quotation marks because I really don't have the best drawing skills.

Loop-de-loops of wonder! 

PATTERNS GALORE!

 Sort of Tim Burton-ish. 

For the past few months, I've started rating my anxiety every time I start an entry. The rating is from 1-10, and the occasionally exaggerated “20.” That is when I believe it’s up that high, when it is probably around 8 or so. If you took a look at my journal now, you’d probably see quite a few 20s and very little 1s. It’s mostly been 5 and up simply because that is normal for me. Having this rating is good for me. It allows me to see what caused that anxiety to rise that day, or if it was a good day, what was different. As with any anxiety disorder, some days are good and some days are really bad. Those bad days definitely get written down with a big “BAD ANXIETY DAY” written somewhere near that. When the rating has been at 5, there’s a “YAY!” pointed to the rating. I’m always happy to see it dip below 20.

 So how is my anxiety doing? I've started calling it a “pogo stick” as of lately. It’s up and down on a constant basis. While it’s mentally and spiritually exhausting, I’m learning to embrace and be grateful for those good days.

ABOUT AMANDA K.
Amanda is the twin sister of Edge of Insanity owner, Angela. Amanda used to blog at The Geeky Nutcase, where you can still view previous posts about anything geeky and anxiety. While she now longer blogs at The Geeky Nutcase, she is still an advocate for General Anxiety Disorder.