Dealing with Anxiety, the Loaf of Bread way.

Staring at two loaves of bread on a counselling blog may give you the impression I've been over-doing things. But stay with me and all will become clear.

Problem solving, especially when people live with heightened states of anxiety, can be fraught with issues. 

Knowing how, when and where to get started for most of us is a fairly simple process. But when that process goes awry then a singular problem can become all consuming and potentially dangerous.

So, imagine you are looking to travel from Birmingham to Edinburgh by train.  The WHOLE loaf becomes the train trip and all the ensuing worries, anxieties etc etc. So, now look at the sliced loaf below and I will explain how one method I devised may be able to help you.

If we break the problem down into bite-size, manageable pieces, levels of anxiety will be reduced and you will regain control. You will also learn more about how to plan for such events in future and invariably learn quite a lot about yourself and hopefully, the real SOURCE of your anxiety.

So, on the left of this loaf is the idea of travelling from Birmingham to Edinburgh by train.  Important to note: the left hand slice is often NOT the first part of your intended task.

Write down your worries about getting to Birmingham station and then in as many slices as you want or need, all the other concerns you have.The anxieties might be times of train, connecting services, the number of people around you, cost etc etc. Each individual slice is ONE anxiety and until that individual problem has been resolved to your satisfaction, try not to even think about the next slice at all as that will only increase your worries.

In this instance, the easiest way to look at this will start with the time you need to reach Edinburgh.  You must remember to build in some safety time to allow for delays etc, but having the timetable to hand means you can work backwards and establish the time you need to leave Birmingham.

Now the planning really starts and dealing with each slice one at a time, will allow you to be in control, stay focused and plan effectively.

The process may work something like this.  As it takes 4.25 hours by train, you may wish to avoid the rush hour (slice one). By looking at the timetable, you will see the times outside of the rush hour (slice one dealt with). It takes you, for example, an hour to get to Birmingham, so you now factor in slice two - the time you leave home. That's slice two dealt with. Slice three might be what platform do I go to?  Slice three is sorted when you decide it's best to give yourself half an hour between arriving at Birmingham and leaving for Edinburgh.  Slice four; you decide to buy your ticket on-line some days in advance so there is no queueing at Birmingham (because you don't like queues).  And on it goes.

Can you see how much more control you have?

Let me know if this helps you as it's certainly helped many people in the past.

All the best.