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Take a comforting breath with you
Also if you have some B-vitamins they help a lot with hang overs.

@zorro said:
That's what I used to do. "It's not real, it's just brain chemistry. You can ignore it."

It's just brain chemistry, because it means my brain is not producing or not processing chemicals like serotonin and dopamine correctly. You are still left with the physical sensations that anxiety brings with it, but you don't have to worry about it. Just let it be what it is.

This is interesting.. I bet anxiety attacks make good meditation objects.

@Shoshin1 said:

Letting go of games

Let go of self ...The five clinging aggregates...

Thanks Shoshin for the insight.

I’m still working on it, but it is beginning to look to me as if playing Dungeons and Dragons acts as a lens for what is going on in your mind. You get to explore all kinds of situations that in real life would never occur, and imagine your reaction to them. This means you can either get lost in it, or you can use the play as an opportunity for mindful observation.

Of course for a spiritual human being there is the question of being authentic and true to yourself. If you’re a dedicated pacifist in real life and even put spiders and wasps outside the house in a friendly manner, you might have difficulty with the idea of slaying a horde of goblins and taking their treasure. You might also find that role-playing coldly efficient killers is bad for your night’s rest.

I wanted to add two sutra’s to this thread, which I came across elsewhere. First the Buddha on games:

"Or he might say: "Whereas some honorable recluses and brahmins, while living on food offered by the faithful, indulge in the following games that are a basis for negligence:[1] aṭṭhapada (a game played on an eight-row chess-board); dasapada (a game played on a ten-row chess-board); ākāsa (a game of the same type played by imagining a board in the air); parihārapatha ("hopscotch," a diagram is drawn on the ground and one has to jump in the allowable spaces avoiding the lines); santika ("spellicans," assembling the pieces in a pile, removing and returning them without disturbing the pile); khalika (dice games); ghaṭika (hitting a short stick with a long stick); salākahattha (a game played by dipping the hand in paint or dye, striking the ground or a wall, and requiring the participants to show the figure of an elephant, a horse etc.); akkha (ball games); paṅgacīra (blowing through toy pipes made of leaves); vaṅkaka (ploughing with miniature ploughs); mokkhacika (turning somersaults); ciṅgulika (playing with paper windmills); pattāḷaka (playing with toy measures); rathaka (playing with toy chariots); dhanuka (playing with toy bows); akkharika (guessing at letters written in the air or on one's back); manesika (guessing others' thoughts); yathāvajja (games involving mimicry of deformities) — the recluse Gotama abstains from such games and recreations.”

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.01.0.bodh.html

And second the Buddha on theatre:

“Thus the actor — himself intoxicated & heedless, having made others intoxicated & heedless — with the breakup of the body, after death, is reborn in what is called the hell of laughter. But if he holds such a view as this: 'When an actor on the stage, in the midst of a festival, makes people laugh & gives them delight with his imitation of reality, then with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in the company of the laughing devas,' that is his wrong view. Now, there are two destinations for a person with wrong view, I tell you: either hell or the animal womb.”

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn42/sn42.002.than.html

Also what Thich Nhat Hanh mentioned in his Five Mindfulness Trainings:

“I am determined not to gamble, or to use alcohol, drugs, or any other products which contain toxins, such as certain websites, electronic games, TV programs, films, magazines, books, and conversations.”

https://plumvillage.org/mindfulness/the-5-mindfulness-trainings/

After watching a very good Youtube channel on anxiety, I have a new approach to it. I just try to allow everything - the anxiety, the intrusive thoughts, the sometimes a bit quirky behaviour. Often, this immediately alleviates it. If this does not help, then I label it: "this is just anxiety", "these are just intrusive thoughts"... "it's OK". Together, these two practices seem to help greatly and I am happy to have found them. Would such "allowing" be the same as "surrendering" as explained in spiritual circles? Seems so to me. I just want to note that this is very different to suppressing.

That's what I used to do. "It's not real, it's just brain chemistry. You can ignore it."

It's just brain chemistry, because it means my brain is not producing or not processing chemicals like serotonin and dopamine correctly. You are still left with the physical sensations that anxiety brings with it, but you don't have to worry about it. Just let it be what it is.

@Jeroen said:

That happens all the time, I find myself engrossed in differing emotions and thought patterns depending on where I'm working.

It sounds like rationality might well be a defense against something like that. Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were to abandon reason?

Not sure I'm getting your meaning. The first sentence sounds like you're arguing for rationality in this instance. The second sounds like your saying try not to use that defense.

In the past, before I understood the situation and before I became more intentionally rational, I found myself spun out in some far off and dangerous places. Some beliefs I held were really divorced from reality and more troubling I had a brief psychotic break where strange beliefs mixed with strong anxious emotions were able to run free.

After that is when I became more rational as a way to guard against loosing touch. I'm still very intuitive and open, but I now question what arises in my mind. Like my tag says, "don't believe everything you think"