Dear Nichole:

Your aunt’s company is harmful to you. I wish it wasn’t so, you wish it wasn’t so, but it is.

“But when I am down she sometimes helps to bring it up?”- when we are low enough down, when we are very desperate, anyone can bring us up, anyone will do. It is similar to this: when a person is starving, she will eat anything at all, even food that causes her to  feel sick later. For the moment, any food will  do.

The fear, the ongoing fear, it is better if you are able to manage it without prescribed drugs aka medication but if overwhelmed, got to do what you have to do.

These are ways to manage that anxiety, to lower it, regulate it: aerobic exercise, such as a fast walk every day for at least 20 minutes, maybe twice a day when and as needed, other aerobic exercise such as swimming, other exercise (all exercise mindfully, so not to overdo it), hot baths, hot tubs, saunas, hot herbal tea, music, some movies, light socializing with strangers/ people you don’t dislike, support groups you attend in person, taking notes about your feelings/ journaling, mindful yoga or tai chi (slow motion martial art form), reading. This is all that comes to my mind at the moment.

anita