632: How to recover from exhaustion after a bout with anxiety
This week on the Anxiety Slayer podcast, we’re responding to a question from our private Facebook Group about feeling tired and low after high anxiety.
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Notes from this week’s episode:
Q: Is there such a thing as an anxiety hangover? It seems anytime I have a high anxiety event, it's followed by days of feeling tired and my mood is really low. I just wondered if this is a me thing or if this is common.
When we experience heightened anxiety the body and mind area under intense strain, we experience physical symptoms along with all kinds of fears and scenarios racing through our mind. When there’s a break in the anxiety, and the stress hormones drop, we crash and feel exhausted.
Anxiety is a huge energetic event in the body, it causes a rush of stress hormones that can leave you feeling drained and tired for some time after an anxiety episode.
When you consider everything that’s going on in the body and mind, it’s not surprising that we feel tired and low in the following days.
What helps
Rest as much as you can, but while keeping your mind gently supported.
Eat simple nourishing meals that are easy to digest avoid caffeine and sugar.
Take gentle walks to feel grounded and release tension from your body.
Be kind to yourself, expectations and disappointment only add to the strain and fatigue.
Start doing something daily that rests and supports your nervous system - both for recovery after heightened anxiety and for supporting general long-term anxiety.
Protect your mind and nervous system from the news, drama, noise and violence. Ayurveda teaches that our nervous system responds to everything our senses bring in to the mind. Have calming sounds, scents and colours around you and practice relaxing with them. Guided support can be helpful here.
Curl up - child’s pose, gentle restorative yoga.
Get support - consider taking with a professional who can support you through understanding anxiety and making changes to support your mental health.
Child's pose is grounding, and calms both the body and mind.
Opportunities in exhaustion
Sometimes exhaustion brings us to a calm in the eye of the storm. A place where we have the opportunity to reflect and gain some understanding, and make self-supporting changes.
Reflections we can sit with:
Am I taking good care of myself?
Am I eating well?
Can I improve the quality of my rest?
Am I contributing to my anxiety in some way?
Is there something I can work on or improve?
RESOURCES FOR RECOVERING AFTER AN ANXIETY EPISODE
Get our guided relaxations for sadness and low energy from our Emotional Peace album elaxations, Tapping sessions and teachings for calming anxiety on our Patreon at patreon.com/anxietyslayer