Dear IAMBACK:

Your plan to connect with friends and with your parents reads like a good plan (as long as the people you connect with are good to you and for you), as well as your plan to place time-limits in the relationship with your girlfriend, once the relationship resumes. You can discuss the limits with her and agree on specific limits, like number of texts per hour or day.

To regulate/ lessen your anxiety you can look up emotion regulation skills. Taking a long walk every day, for example, is an emotion regulation skill, or practice, and so is listening to/ watching to a Mindfulness guided meditation audio, or video, and other Mindfulness practices.

anita