How do you deal with anxiety?

[Insertnamehere]

I have to echo the "not very well part".

Depends on what kind of anxiety we're talking about.

Normal, everyday anxiety, work-related, family drama, things like that, I just tank through it without even thinking about it. At best I have to concentrate on breathing while on the spot and then lash out in some form when I'm alone at home. Usually cleaning and working out work wonders.

In the few times I've had financial troubles, there was a hell of a lot of budgeting and insane planning. Planning things makes it all good for me, makes me feel in control of things.

Anxiety related with emotionally disruptive situations I'm living at any given moment and any kind of problem that I can't openly talk about with someone else tend to attack my sleeping patterns first.

My brain seems to relish in making me go through the situations in my head over and over at nights and I get really poor sleep accordingly (I bet a lot of people can relate to this bit).

Most of my ways of handling that is not dealing with the anxiety directly but forcing myself to sleep. That is done via alcohol, first generation antihistamins (I need those most of the time anyway) and working out furiously enough so that my body says "no more". All those, except for exercise are probably not very healthy , but I only keep them going for as long as I'm dealing with that particular kind of anxiety. Once I start getting better sleep, it tends to go away and I think less about it.

Finally, social-induced anxiety. This is by far the worse kind for me. At one point I've ended up on the corner of a supermarket aisle curled up and crying cause I just couldn't handle the amount of people flocking in every direction. Crowds kill me. But over the years I've grown to control that very well. I zig zag, walk fast, avoid people, I make a mini plan on the spot calculating what is the most direct route towards my destination while avoiding the most people, what is the nearest and least used exit out of a mall, what is the less transited street. Planning, again, makes me feel pretty damn good.

Other ways in which this anxiety shows up would be your typical social events and how much people tend to give you shit because you're supposed to go and you don't and this and that and how can you NOT?

I spent years in both guilt about my reticence to go to any such event and being uncomfortably forced to do them anyway.

Right now, I say "no" and don't give to thirds of a semi-floating fuck about what people think about that. I don't feel comfortable joining a group of people on a concert, club, bar, party, wedding, etc, so I won't do it unless it's really mandatory to do it or too ill-seen for me not to do it. (I wish I had just said no to my coercive mother about prom. I still regret going). Saying "no" and not giving a fuck, especially about what people will say, just cuts away any anxiety on the spot.

Instead, any random trip to the beach with some snacks, a gathering with a few peeps at home, prepping some food, that's all good. I can and will go out with anyone that makes me feel comfortable doing so. I can count that kind of people in one hand, but they exist and I do leave the safety of my room and face the ugly outside world with no problems with them. Be it going out to eat, just exploring around the city, seeing places you've never been to, etc. Doing all that even makes me forget how anxious I've been over other uncomfortable social events!