Anxiety?

"Does anyone in your family suffer from depression or anxiety?" the doctor asked me.

I wondered why he would ask something like that. I hadn't mentioned stress. I had went to see the doctor because I was experiencing chest and neck pain, and had heard about women having heart conditions that were often misdiagnosed by doctors. When I checked it out on a website about cardiac conditions in women, showing early sign of cardiac disease, I decided it would be better to see the doctor and figure out what was going on. My throat felt like I was about to have a mild asthma attack, only I could hear myself breathing fine. So strange. My neck felt like I had been hit by freezing cold high pressure winds. And I was having a perfectly normal day, nothing out of the ordinary. The more I thought about what could be wrong with me, the more worried I became. I wrote down the list for the doctor to read, and explained that I was feeling a little distracted.

After talking for a while, the doctor tells me that he will run a blood test to rule out other possibilities, but says it's most likely that I have anxiety. I said, "but I'm not under stress. I like my job." and explained there was nothing stressful going on. I lied to myself, I suppose. Just the day before we had met with our mortgage broker to refinance our house, but everything went fine so it didn't count - right? Looking back at my track record, I don't often realize that I'm stressed or burnt out until someone else tells me.

So that was a bit of a surprise to me, that stress would manifest itself in breaking me down. I've handled stress before, why would this be any different? The doctor ORDERED me to go home and relax, take something to help me sleep (I've been not getting enough sleep for several nights), and try to wind down better.

After speaking with a few friends about this, the main surprise to me was they weren't surprised by this diagnosis of me!
Not that they were labeling me as "stressed", but that I have a high energy level all day at my job, which is fine, but I don't seem to wind down after work. My children are full of beans, as well. They play all day and all evening, right till bedtime. So I guess even though I don't consider my work to be 'stressful', I have to admit that I don't sign-off at the end of my work day and slow down.

So I have to moderate my life now to include mandatory relaxing, pampering, and calming activities. Not a bad remedy. The cool thing is, knitting and crocheting are considered to be a therapeutic activity to reduce stress. My husband hasn't been that crazy about my playing with yarn, but now that I have a medical reason for it, I don't have to put aside my needles anymore! Woo hoo!

So today I've been observing my activities and habits, making note of what things I can do to modify my anxiety. My boys have decided to help with a few more tasks in the evening, and then by 7:00pm it will now be our wind down time. The boys may play, but in a more quiet tone. They were so sweet, they read a book together and played so nice and quiet.

Curious what other people do for their anxiety?