I've never been diagnosed with anxiety by any medical professional. I know people do not appreciate when others self diagnose themselves with anxiety, depression, and such because i feel the same way surprisingly.
One day i was at work and i was so overwhelmed. People demanding things from me when i was already preoccupied, i was sick which had me stressed to begin with, and i already knew i had too much on my plate.
While i was trying to work i had what im pretty sure was a panic attack. My body felt numb, i knew what i was doing but at the same time i didn't know what i was doing. i had a complete out of body experience. my heart was racing and i felt like i wanted to start crying. i also felt like any second i was going to die or that something was going to happen to end my life because what i was feeling couldn't have been real. i had to push through it at work because nobody was able to take my spot while i took a break to collect myself back together.
long story short, during my panic attack i started to hum to myself. a song that had been stuck in my head for days. i started to sing to myself to remind myself that there are things out there that can bring me back to reality. since listening to music really brings me joy and relaxes me it started to help. i started to realize that this was in my head and that my mind is still there helping me control my body and do what i was doing. after about 7 minutes i was back to normal. my numbness went away i was able to function normally while i was singing to myself and talking to myself about things that make me happy and things that im looking forward to knowing that once this episode is over ill be okay.
It's a good idea to start a play list on your iPod or phone of music that makes you happy, relaxes you, or has things going on on the background that makes you really focus on the beats, the highs, the lows, and vocals, or instruments. It has really helped me when i start to get that feeling. Sound canceling headphones really help too so you can really focus on your music. I actually named my playlist "anxiety" because now i don't have to search for it for a long time on my phone to find the right one. there's an endless amount of music on it so if one song doesn't do the trick i know i can flip though 100 on them and there will still be more music.
I hope this helps! i know its a life saver for me when im swamped at work and i cant get away from all my stressors!!
I know there's probably other threads about this kind of trick but im not sure if you'd have to do a little digging for them.