If you or someone you know deals with anxiety on a daily basis, you’re likely familiar with some tactics and coping mechanisms that are often recommended by professionals that intend to alleviate the severity of anxiety when it presents itself. Some common examples of suggested coping mechanisms to calm anxiety include breathing exercises like diaphragmatic breathing, muscle tensing, sensory exercises and some others. For a lot of people, coping mechanisms are game changers for combating their own anxieties.
For other folks, though, coping mechanisms only work to a certain extent, and if your anxiety happens to have gone full rogue on a given day, there is a probability that any tactics, regardless of their recognized effectiveness, will prove to be ineffective. I’ve experienced this unfortunate happening more times than I prefer, but anxiety can be a real unpredictable bitch regarding how intense it will be at any random time; it doesn’t always require a tangible trigger to unleash its wrath.
I am someone who gets frustrated with myself easily and often, and I’m also a perfectionist, so the combination is rather self-destructive at times. My stubbornness and determination to succeed at something mean that I will try my utmost to overcome my anxiety which, with mounting anger, achieves nothing aside from incredible frustration and even more anxiety. This relentless and vicious cycle has encouraged me to acknowledge that there are limits with my anxiety, and once I’ve crossed a certain point with my own tolerance and wits, there’s no going back or winning. I despise the concept of quitting, but I do believe there are situations in which after we have exhausted all options, walking away is the remaining one, no matter how unappealing.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I know I have limitations in the context of my own anxiety and the ways I can address it.
ontheedgeofeverything 
