秋日的焦慮如何擺脫?

Even as I love the autumn season, it is full of anxiety for me.

儘管我熱愛秋天，但是對我來說，秋天仍然充滿焦慮。

I start to mourn the ending of summer when I hear the cicadas grow louder the last two weeks of August and when I feel the crispness in the air at that time, which brings less sunlight and longer nights. Then the back-to-school craze: buying shoes, supplies, backpacks, etc. and trying to catch up on the homework we didn’t do during June and July. By the time I make it to the parent-teacher conferences in early September, when I hear about all the things I’m supposed to be doing with the kids, I’m well into panic mode.

在八月最後的兩週內，蟬叫聲一浪高於一浪，我感受到空氣中清冽的味道，陽光變得稀薄，夜晚越來越長，我開始對夏末依依不捨。然後我開始了返校的瘋狂準備：買鞋子、日用品和揹包等，忙着完成六月和七月沒有完成的家務。直到九月初的家長會上，我瞭解了帶孩子應該做的事情，我幾乎崩潰了。

The other day, my theraPist and I talked about a few coping exercises to keep my anxiety from disabling me this time of year.

前幾天，我的心理醫生和我討論了應對秋季焦慮的一些方法。

1. Pick a sound or object to be your Xanax.

My therapist looks up to the clouds. They calm her down in traffic or whenever she feels anxious. For me it’s the water. I don’t now if it’s because I’m a Pisces (fish), but the water has always calmed me down in the same way as Xanax, and since I don’t take the latter (as a recovering alcoholic, I try to stay away from sedatives), I need to rely on the former. So I just downloaded some “ocean waves” that I can listen to on my iPod when I feel that familiar knot in my stomach.

1. 選擇一個聲音或者物品作爲你的鎮定藥

我的心理醫生喜歡擡頭看雲，這樣使她在繁忙的交通或者焦慮的時候心平氣和。對我來說，水能夠起到這樣的效果。不知道是不是因爲我是雙魚座（和魚有關），水像鎮定劑一樣讓我平靜下來，因爲我從不服用鎮定劑（作爲一名改過自新的酗酒者，我要遠離鎮定劑。），所以我要完全依賴水。於是我在IPod中下載了一些“海洋的聲音”，當我開始焦慮的時候就拿出來聽聽。

2. Repeat: “I am good enough.”

My therapist reminded me this morning that even if I don’t meet other people’s standards or my own, I am good enough for God. And that’s all that really matters. So whenever I feel the pinch of anxiety when I don’t have time to call back a friend or send a response to an email or write the blog post that I said I’d write, I should remind myself that I am good enough in the eyes of God.

2. 重複：“我已經足夠好了。”

今天早上我的心理醫生提醒我，即使我沒有滿足別人甚至自己的要求，對上帝來說，我已經足夠好了。而且這纔是最有意義的。所以在我沒有給朋友回電話、回郵件或者沒有按照原計劃寫博客的時候，當焦慮襲上心頭，我會提醒自己在上帝的眼中我已經足夠好了。

3. Take it one minute at a time.

One cognitive adjustment that helps relieve anxiety is reminding myself that I don’t have to think about 2:45 pm when I pick up the kids from school and how I will be able to cope with the noise and chaos when I’m feeling this way, or about the boundary issue I have with a friend–whether or not I’m strong enough to continue putting myself first in that relationship. All I have to worry about is the very second before me. If I am successful at breaking my time down that way, I usually discover that everything is fine for the moment.

3. 活在當下

一個心理調整以緩解焦慮的方法，是告訴自己不必考慮下午兩點四十五分，當我把孩子從學校接回家後如何處理那些喧譁和混亂，或者處理和朋友的關係問題——我是否該把自己放在這段關係的首要位置。所以我最應該擔心的是眼下的事情。如果我能夠成功地將時間分解，我通常發現當下的一切都很好。

4. Pay attention to your breath.

Another easy exercise to ground yourself in the moment and manage anxiety is to concentrate on your breath–and move it ever so gradually from your chest to your diaphragm–because the extra oxygen will send a message to your prefrontal cortex that every thing is just fine even though the fear center of the brain (the amygdala) doesn’t think so at all.

4. 注意你的呼吸

另一個集中精力活在當下和控制焦慮的簡單方法注意你的呼吸——使空氣慢慢從你的胸部向你的隔膜流動——因爲額外的空氣會給你的前額皮層發送信息，一切良好，儘管大腦恐懼的信息中心（扁桃體）並不這樣認爲。

5. Learn from it.

Anxiety doesn’t have to be triggered by an event, but it certainly can motion some adjustment that you need to make in your life. My anxiety says that I am doing too much, once again. Over the summer I forgot about my fragile chemistry and attempted to work full time and take care of the kids full time until, in August, I was going on fumes. What adjustments do I need to make? Bite off less professionally and invest more energy into finding good help for the kids and housework. Because I can’t do it all.

5. 從焦慮中學習

焦慮並不一定是由某一事件引發的，但是它的確預示了你需要對你的生活進行一些調整。我的焦慮使我體會到我做得太多了。整個夏天，我開動馬力，全身投入工作，照顧孩子，直到8月，我筋疲力盡。我需要做怎樣的調整？減少工作量，投入更多的精力爲孩子提供幫助和做家務。因爲我不能面面俱到。