May 1, 2024: The “Wave of Anxiety”

Yesterday at the group support meeting, we talked about the “wave of anxiety.”

Our anxiety peer group support leader talked about his experience in traffic. The frustration being delayed getting to an important meeting was his trigger. The longer the delay the greater the anxiety. The physical symptoms of the anxiety become intense. Now he realizes he is able to call in ahead of the appointment and explain his situation, and this brings relief. The group shared experiences navigating traffic and about ways that they try to feel a sense of control in a situation that they cannot directly control. Some of us use a rapid breathing method to feel ourselves, and by feeling ourselves we can often feel some sense of control. I turn on or turn up the radio, and I might jump channels to control what I am listening to. Other folks suggested other ways of calming ourselves.

A Diagram of a Wave of Anxiety

The group expanded the traffic situation to awkward social situations in a public mall, or to the broad feeling of being stranded in life when things don’t feel like they are moving forward as we deeply hope. These larger challenges call for different ways of calming ourselves. The group seemed to agree that sometimes we cannot calm ourselves and need to be sharing experiences with others to find a sense of peace. One approach that really made sense to me is that when we feel stuck in life going on a long walk helps. When we feel ourselves moving, we can get a feeling that we are becoming unstuck … we may not have a specific destination clearly in mind, but feeling ourselves walking does feel like a measure of progress. Many, many ideas and individual experiences came to the surface. The group agreed that they were glad that they had a place where they could talk about these things without intensifying feelings of being stuck and being alone.

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