Coping with anxiety. One of the things I pride myself in is being a 'lived and learned' practitioner. For me this means that I have and continue to experience first hand what is feels like to live with mental health difficulties as well as neurodivergence.

Recently, I had a routine blood test appointment. I have hated all things needles and blood since my childhood. The difficulties from this still continue to remain with me. At some point I will dedicate myself to working through these in therapy, however for now it is about managing these.

Before any blood test I start with coping thoughts: I have done this before, it is quick, I can choose not to look, it is never as bad as I think it is

During the appointment I use coping strategies: belly breathing- in for 3 seconds, out for 6 seconds to keep me calm, and I take someone I trust to the appointment with me and we play the categories game- we go from A-Z naming things related to the category. e.g. if it is animals- Antelope, Bear, Crocodile, Deer. To make it even more challenging and therefore distracting to my mind we alliterate. e.g. Amazing Antelope, Brave Bear, Cackling Crocodile. I find the more silly the better.

I have found these simple hacks work really well for calming down my anxiety and helping me get through tricky appointments.