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Sick and Anxiety

Hi everyone,

Does anyone else here have an increase in anxiety when they get sick from the flu or a bug etc? I had Covid recently which wasn’t any fun but the anxiety was worse with that by far with the “unknown” with having it for the first time. I am now fighting a stomach bug right now and dealing with anxiety and truly not knowing what is from what (does my stomach hurt from anxiety or from the bug?) I wish I could slow my mind down to concentrate on getting better rather than thinking of what is causing me to feel bad. Add in missing some work and it makes for a bad combo and it saps my energy by far. If anyone has any advice please shoot it my way. Thank you everyone.
Best Answer
973741 tn?1342342773
Did you have anxiety when you had covid because it was covid? I sure did. I was so nervous about it going bad because of so many horror stories when it has. The unpredictability and uncertainty with covid make it a very anxious illness. Is that what you are talking about?

Anxiety is a true beast. I've suffered it and have a son that is plagued by it. It can feel so awful. If only we had a switch in our heads that turned it off, right?

My son does therapy and it is CBT and DBT therapy. DBT is great for distress tolerance. All sorts of things you can do. First. you can use breathing. It will calm your amygdala, the part of your brain that gets activated with fight or flight and narrows our ability to reason and think clearly. Breath in for 4, hold 4, breath out for 4, hold 4, repeat. It is scientifically proven to calm you. Second, when in the throws of an anxiety attack, you can jar your system back. Reset it, if you will. Ice does this. Space ice on your face or very cold water. Take a cold shower. Hold ice in your hand. Put ice on forehead gently. It's a well known trick to calm us. Second, exercise. Do 10 quick jumping jacks, run in place, pretend jump rope, lift weights, do push ups. Whatever you can think of, just vigorous exercise for a few minutes. This also will calm the nervous system.

Mindfulness is something else that helps. Feel your feet on the ground in front of you. Really focus on the hard surface below your feet. It just kind of helps bring you back.

Talk back to the anxiety. Distract yourself if you need to. Hopefully it has gone away by now.  

But yes, many get more anxious when sick and if you have sensory issues, they are worse when ill.
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Thank you very much for your suggestions. I am better now but they helped : )
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