[Quiet Man Cometh]

Originally Posted by Espy

Eugh, I keep having cold/hot flashes.

This makes me think of the "stress sweats" that I get. If I get cold, getting warm usually fixes that issue, but if I get hot for no reason it usually has to do with some manner of stress. Sometimes it's lack of food or sleep, oftentimes it's just some manner of anxiety and the best way to get rid of it is to stop everything I am doing (even if what I'm doing is probably not causing me stress) and just sit and try to zone out and let things sort of reboot. Music can help.

[Malik Ishtal]

This thread is super useful, thank you for sharing your tricks, guys!

I've found that for me, ranting to someone via text rather than out loud is the best way. It calms me down out of my crying (if I'm crying, which sometimes happens) and the clacking of the keyboard is rhythmic and soothing after a while. It's nice to see what I want to say appear on the screen before I send it to someone, because that's always something that makes me spiral worse; saying things wrong is one of my biggest stressors.

Otherwise, finding something mindless with accomplishments attached to distract myself with helps. If I have my 3DS handy, out comes the Pokemon game.

I do a lot of unhelpful nervous things like pluck out hair on my arms and legs, which helps distract but totally consumes my focus, and isn't very good. I don't recommend it to anyone who needs hyperfocus to distract from their brains freaking out. I end up just losing minutes to doing nothing.

I'll second recommendations of doing things with your hands, too. Dishes calm me down when I'm in the right mindset.

[Demonskid]

I didn't read through everyone's responses, mainly because Coda does what I do.

When I start having an anxiety attack I try to calm myself by first
I start the Count Breathing then as I feel steady enough (I get shakey during my attacks) I put my headphones on and listen to my music.

Which sucked when I was working at the warren family mission, they refused to allow me to have my headphones turned on. as long as they stayed turned off i could have them around my neck which made me feel comfortable.

When ever I started having an attack there, I'd find a corner at the back of the building, curl into a ball with my headphones on my ears (turned off) and just breath and think of lyrics to songs, silently singing to the ones that pop into my head.

[Den]

I almost forgot. I knit. It's repetitive and very soothing for me, as long as I'm not having to concentrate on a chart or do a lot of lacework...