All posts tagged: Living with Anxiety

10 Ways to Calm Your Internal Mama Bear

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The other night I got mad. Real mad. I came across something online, something someone said about a person I know, and the mama bear in me raged. I wanted to act. I wanted to chase someone up a tree. I had my response and was ready to throw it like a pine cone. Anger is an emotion we all have and we constantly are learning to navigate. I grew up around several individuals who had tempers and therefore I associate anger and being upset as “bad” emotions. I’m still learning how to be better at being mad. It is natural for things to upset us. It is okay for things to upset us. It’s how we handle them that makes the difference. Anxiety is particularly good at stirring up our anger. We are prone to negative thought patterns, obsessive worry, and increased irritability. If you struggle with anxiety odds are you also find yourself struggling with angry emotions from time to time. But there are ways to help yourself through these moments… 1. Acknowledge …

When Your Body Answers the Question “How are you?” For You

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All my life I have found myself feeling betrayed by my body. Often this betrayal comes in the form of a serious bowel issue coming up at a seriously inopportune time. However, other times it rears its ugly head in poorly timed crying, aggressive gas in public places, or massive cystic pimples on my chin right before my cousin’s wedding. All of these things can be traced back to my lifelong relationship with stress and anxiety. Last week I had another startling reminder that my body often knows more about my emotional state than my brain does. I found a sizable bald patch on my head. Like, my body is jettisoning hair from my head like I’m Apollo 11 releasing my Saturn V rockets. I am not the best at coping with uncertainty and stress. And my body KNOWS it and often forces me to face the truth even if my brain is like “whatever I GOT this.” I’m the emotional equivalent of those marathon runners you see who are running along, shouting I’m doing it, I’m …

What Hattie Cooper's at knows about anxiety and depression and mental health

What My Cat Knows About Overcoming Anxiety & Depression

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I adopted my cat Scout in 2008. Since then he has moved with me from college in San Luis Obispo, CA to Sacramento, to Spokane, and finally to Seattle. He’s been around for a lot of emotional turmoil, a lot of Hattie-feels-lost-right-now moments, and a lot of different crushes and heartbreak. Scout stared at me when I waited by my phone for that musician with the lazy eye to call in college. He sat next to me as I emailed my crush who lived two states away who eventually would reflect on our time together by saying “you have nice boobs.” He warily met Jared and eventually grew to love him more than he loves me (or so I fear). And Scout was even featured as a small cartoon drawing on the back of our Save the Dates. All these moments have given me anxiety and spiraled me into phases of darkness and he’s been present for every one of them. He’s handled it all with both affection and apathetic distance. His general attitude has always been, “whatever, I love …

How to be smart and act smart even if have anxiety

Look Smart, Act Smart, Feel Smart, Be Smart

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In Junior High a friend of mine bought a new pair of glasses. The glasses had black frames, were chic, and they were 100% fake. The lenses were straight-up plastic. And I envied her like other girl’s my age envied the choker-clad models in dELiA*s catalogs (RIP). I’ve always loved the look of glasses. This friend came to school with her new, not-even-close-to-being-necessary glasses and started jokingly saying the phrase “Look smart, act smart, feel smart, be smart” and by God that saying has stuck with me for over fifteen years. It’s one of my favorite sayings along with “THE SWEET CREAM RISES TO THE TOP” (*said with a shaking fist*). I struggle with self-confidence. Due to my superhuman power of being as sensitive as a peach with no skin rolling down the hill into a rock quarry, I am easily bruised. My confidence is shaken in a light breeze. Since I’ve spent a fair amount of time during both my childhood and adult life in a state of worry (aka ALL the time) I’ve …

What are your habits when it comes to being anxious

I’m Learning to Recognize My Anxiety Patterns

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I spent this past weekend with my partner’s family. His brother was visiting from Chicago and it was the first time, in a long time, that the entire family was together. I’ve known and loved his family for a few years now, but I’ve only recently become fully comfortable with them. Like truly comfortable. Like, can joke about my colon kind of comfortable. But then something happened that disrupted that sense of comfort. Our routine changed tracks. When we spend weekends with his family, I usually know what to expect. We usually eat dinner around 7 or 8pm. It usually includes some kind of salmon or steak or pasta variety with a side of salad and bread. There will be an option for dessert at the end. Except this past weekend something new occurred. We went out to eat. And for some reason, this triggered my anxiety. At first I had a difficult time understanding where my anxiety was coming from. I go out to eat all the time. I have eaten in restaurants with his …