So today would be the final day of the first experiment to take deep breaths when you feel anxious. After today I will be starting my next experiment on the Monday so I have some time to write up the rest of my results.
Today I was visiting my friend in Exeter University so I had to take a long train journey down to the South of England. Public transport has always made me feel very anxious especially as I have social anxiety and you're often surrounded by large amounts of people.
I guess it was my luck to have somebody sit next to me before the train even left the station even though there we're lots of seats left on the train - because I found that odd it made me feel more anxious to why she sat next to me.
I was lucky that I'd only be on the train for an hour and then I'd have to change to another train but it was still a stressful hour.
I like to think of people with anxiety as coke cans that are constantly being shaken. You are constantly effected by pressures in the past, present and thinking about potential ones in the future so if you ever open up it's like when a coke can fizzes everywhere and explodes. To me that's like having a panic attack or when you hit your peak of anxiety so anything extra to add to the stress no matter how minor the issue is adding to that large build up of pressure inside.
The first train I got on had a stench of strong coffee and a dentist (and the dentist makes me feel anxious anyway). There was a child that felt the need scream whenever we went under a bride and the odd person who made the decision to sit next to me kept coughing everywhere and feeling her arms.
Although you'd think these things would be irrelevant to my day they built up on that pressure I was feeling because all those things made me feel uncomfortable and therefore anxious. I guess I was just fortunate enough to have a front facing seat because I get travel sick going backwards.
I took lots of deep breaths and the girl next to me seemed oblivious to it so I felt like I could carry on. I wasn't going to have a panic attack but I felt as if I was going to hit the peak of my anxiety any minute but taking deep breaths definitely helped with this.
Once I had gotten off the train I felt much better but I continued to take deep breaths to try get myself as calm as possible before getting on to the next train which lucky for me was a much more pleasant train journey.
I didn't feel that anxious for the rest of the day apart from the usual things I would feel anxious about but there wasn't anything to add to that feeling.
Overall I feel that the first experiment was a big success and it makes a difference in the majority of cases. Sometimes I feel the technique would be more effective for stress relief but part of anxiety can be feelings of stress so that may possibly be the reason why it works so well.
If anyone is suffering with anxiety I would definitely suggest this method as it has made a huge difference to me this week the only downside it that I can't use this technique until I've finished my other experiments!
Thank you for reading and I hope this has been helpful!
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