What I’ve Learned as a Mom Living With Anxiety

As a mom living with high functioning anxiety, I’ve learned to treat it as an invisible illness. People don’t always see what’s going on behind closed doors.

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With it being National Mental Health Awareness Month, there’s no better time than now to be digging deep into my experiences with anxiety as a mom, a wife, and a human being. We all wear so many different hats each day and navigating through them bearing the weight of a mental illness is an everyday challenge we are always learning how to take the reigns on. 

Earlier this month, I shared a few daily struggles you might be dealing with that are actually anxiety but might look and feel like something else. I hope that helped you identify some things as you move forward in your journey. Today, I want to do a very candid, deep dive into things I’ve learned as a mom wading through anxiety each day in partnership with my friends at LifeSeasons. 

What I’ve Learned as a Mom Living With Anxiety

First and foremost, living as a mom with anxiety looks a lot like the above picture. High functioning anxiety, which is what I have, has me looking like your average run-of-the-mill mama on most days. I can make it to places on time because I stress about it, I can apply makeup a few times a week, because I make myself do it, I play with my kids and take them to activities because I make it a priority. The list goes on and on.

However, there’s a lot that happens behind closed doors that no one will ever see. So here’s what I’ve learned so far:

You have to have coping strategies. 

To me, those coping strategies boil down to the different plans that I have in place for getting through moments of overwhelm. The thing about anxiety is that it’s always kind of there, but there are certain moments where it flairs up, and others where it is just there, hanging out below the surface. 

Personally, I take medication every morning to help combat my anxiety, but as the years have gone by, I’ve needed a little something more. This is where my favorite supplement, LifeSeason’s Anxie-T, comes into my life. As with any supplement, make sure you consult with your healthcare provider before you add something new to your routine. 

The LifeSeason’s brand as a whole offers the most wonderful supplements made with evidence-based ingredients and has over 150 years of experience under their belts. Their goal is to help their customers live their life to the fullest and I have personally adopted many of their supplements into my everyday routine with much success. 

I’m specifically highlighting the LifeSeason’s Anxie-T and encouraging you to check out how their formulation can help you feel more calm and relaxed, mentally and physically. Nourishing the nervous system, taking this daily will help you to experience relief of common symptoms of stress, including nervousness and nervous exhaustion, stress-related muscle tension, anxious fearfulness, and stress-related sleep problems.

You have to ask for help when needed. 

Over the years I have found that this is one of the hardest things on this list to do. Everything else that I mention really, truly depends on you and your ability to make your mental health a priority, but sometimes it can get to be too much for just you. Whether it is asking for help with the kids so that you can take a break, ordering dinner instead of stressing about a big meal, having a family member drive you to an appointment so you don’t have to focus on driving, it’s important to take those necessary steps. They will save your sanity. 

You have to set boundaries. 

With friends. With family. With yourself. Boundaries are a necessary part of living with anxiety. I also think that this one goes hand in hand with knowing when you need to say no and when to put up those figurative walls that protect your sanity and mental health as a whole. 

Routine is everything. 

When it comes to navigating my anxiety, I find the best way is to eliminate the unexpected – as much as possible. We know that as busy parents how each day is different and I get that, but when it comes to the big things, routine makes everything move much more smoothly. I used to think this was so important to me because I was a “creature of habit,” but as I’ve gotten older I’ve found that it’s more due to the fact that knowing what to expect takes the guesswork out of the day. Knowing what to expect helps keep my anxiety at bay. 

You also have to find different things that work with your routine, every single day, that will help balance you out and bring calm into your life regularly. For me, taking my daily dose of Life Season’s Anxie-T is a huge part of that. 

Your family needs to learn your triggers. 

As annoying as it might seem to them all, your family has to learn what set’s off your anxiety so they can help you through any tough moments. I’m currently working with Blake so she can understand that whenever I’m having some quiet time she can’t bombard me with questions and needs. For example, if I’m sitting on the couch watching a 40-minute show, she will come downstairs and ask me so many questions that it stretches to an hour and a half due to the use of the pause button. It’s overwhelming and is overstimulation during what is intended to be a quiet time that sets me off. 

I’m learning to do my best to navigate through those types of moments, but after years (almost 13) of being a mom dealing with anxiety, it helps if everyone is on the same page. Communication is everything!

Are you struggling with anxiety? What have you learned throughout your journey? If you are looking for a way to add some extra calm to your daily routine, I hope that you give Life Season’s Anxie-T a try!

XOXO,

Allison