Anxiety during menopause is like an uglier, nastier cousin to mood swings, and from what I’ve read it’s also caused mostly by the same processes. As usual, the main culprit is hormonal imbalance, but the constant fear of weight gain, abrupt incontinence, and the return to middle school acne do little to help. I’ve never been classified as a particularly frail person, but menopause has already cost me many a night of proper sleep and too many mornings of worry.
How to Halt Anxiety – Before It Becomes Panic
I’ve been practicing something known as deep breathing or abdominal breathing whenever I feel my worries getting out of hand. The logic is simple: worrying makes you breathe all wrong, quick and shallow, which then increases your heart rate and just makes you even more anxious. It’s an awful, vicious cycle that can even bring on a panic attack, so it’s important to apply these steps as soon as you find things are getting scary for no reason:
1. Find somewhere quiet, where you won’t be disturbed. It can be your car, an empty room, even a bathroom stall – bonus points for bringing some soothing tunes.
2. Sit down and put one of your hands in your chest, so you can focus on how it rises and goes back down while you breathe. It’s important to breathe slowly and through the nose – mouth breathing may cause some awkward gas later.
3. After 3 or 4 minutes of just focusing on how you breathe, try breathing slower and very deeply, and then holding it for 5 to 10 seconds. (If it’s the first time, don’t overdo this. The ability to hold it in gets better with practice.)
4. As you breathe out, imagine the tension and worries are slipping out along with the air.
Usually, this whole ordeal takes between 10 – 15 minutes until I feel collected again, but it’s best if you take an extra two minutes afterwards before going back to face the world. Also, I’ve found that doing this right before bedtime (accompanied by some singing whales) lets me sleep better, night sweat and nightmare free.
Worth a try!
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