Encouragement during Stressful times

So I haven’t posted on here in a while, but I wanted to post an update over the last month my anxiety had increased a lot. I was on a med for it for a year that I didn’t feel really helped much and the only time I realized it was doing something was when I stopped taking it and my OCD increased a lot. I would be upset and had no idea why, I would cry and feel Irritable, I have great friends and family who talked me through those nights where I was just panicking. After thinking a while I realized that every time this happened it would go away and I thought I would be good then but then it just comes back so I finally talked to my doctor and got put on a new med that’s been really helping my anxiety and I’m starting therapy soon to come up with coping strategies for it today. The reason I’m posting this is cause right now is a really stressful time for everyone with the COVID-19 and everyone having to self-isolate and everyone is posting about anxiety and their panic attacks with this happening around. I can’t say I share the same panic because as I’m taking the precautions and staying home as most of us are being told to so this can calm down I know that worrying about this isn’t going to do any good. 

But..All of us with anxiety know that no matter how many times someone tells us not to worry we tend to worry anyway, so what can we do? In order to keep my anxiety at rest lately i’ve Been making sure I keep my mind busy because we all know that probably is hard when we have to stay home, so for example: I’ll dance a little bit, I’ll play guitar, I’ll watch a funny movie, be with my family there are tons of positive things that we can do to keep ourselves busy while we are at home so we don’t have to keep worrying about stuff that we can’t control. My advice to people who are having a tough time with anxiety as it is a struggle, is to find something that helps keep your mind occupied and use this down time as a time to spend time with your family. 

I hope everyone is doing ok and hope this message helped a little bit. have a good day!