I am a really bad procrastinator. On everything.  To the point that I've been offered anti-anxiety and depression meds by therapists before but never followed through on it because even getting the prescription and taking it to the pharmacist was like... too much. So I just sort of lived with it... sometimes it was better, sometimes it was worse, etc. While I was pregnant, it started to get really bad. I was having panic attacks all the time, couldn't sleep, etc.Â
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I finally dealt with my anxiety by procrastinating... First time in my life I saw the positives of being a procrastinator. Every time I'd start to get trapped in a vicious circle of anxiety, I would tell myself, "Okay, I am going to stop thinking about this right now. No matter what it is, I can't do anything now. But if I really need to, I can just think about it after the baby is born. Right now, I have to think good things." Some nights when I would lie awake worrying... I'd go sew. I sewed like a fiend. And slowly I started redirecting my thoughts - to think of good things. I started small and would look at my cat, or think of a perfect piece of fruit, or a flower. And gradually worked up to more sophisticated "good things." And I would also try to keep myself as busy with handwork as possible. For some reason, having to think about that helped me not to think of things that made me anxious.
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By the time DD was born I felt more free than I have ever felt in my life. Since then, it's been more work to reach an equilibrium, but overall, I think I've really improved, to the point that I can actually live my life. Seeing a counselor to address my root causes helps, so does (intense) physical activity, handwork (like sewing, embroidery, knitting or crochet, small machine repair, painting, clay, etc - basically anything that uses my hands), working with plants, and being outdoors. To some extent I've begun to accept the idea that I may not be able to do "head" work and that I may be more suited to doing hand or physical work... and that has helped a ton.
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Finally, when I am dealing with a somewhat unlikely or irrational fear, instead of telling myself, "this is stupid, you're stupid, what if what if what if" I make up an equally fantastic story to solve the problem. I'm talking, like, my dog is a superhero, fairies come help me, or I find a magical flower. I basically turn it into a folktale. And I don't know why this works but for me, but it really defuses the anxiety. Not because I actually believe in fairies... but because I don't.  Maybe because it puts me in control of the narrative? Don't know. Hmm, now I am remembering all this stuff, I wonder if it would work for everyday anxieties too - start with the premise and then find some way to give it a happy ending, no matter how unlikely or unrealistic.
