Anxiety in Menopause

Identify your triggers!

• Try to keep a record of when your anxiety is peaking. This isn’t just about the when it’s the why.
• Be specific: Activity – What were you doing? Cognition  – What were you thinking? Feelings – How did that feel?

Example: I was making breakfast before school run, I was worried we didn’t have anything healthy to eat, it made me feel really guilty.

Challenge your thoughts!

• This may seem difficult but the more you do it the better you get at it.
• Check in with your body: Pause for a moment, stand or sit still, close your eyes if that helps focus. Think about what you’re feeling in your body, is your head feeling tense? Your chest tight? Are you feeling butterflies in your tummy?
• Next: Can you find a cause for this feeling? Think about what you were just thinking or doing.
• Don’t be hard on yourself! If you can’t think of the reason, then remind yourself that your body is going through changes and sometimes you may feel more anxious than usual.
• If you can think of the reason, then challenge it. Is this thought true? Is it realistic or have you gone for a worse case scenario in your mind? How can you reframe the thought?

Once you have taken the steps above its time to reframe. This will get much quicker with practice!

• Take the thought and dismantle it. Is it real, is it accurate, what would happen if that came true?

Example: I am such a terrible mother, there’s nothing healthy to eat in the house, I should have gone shopping, my kids are being neglected, everyone is going to think I’m a failure.

Reframe: I know I am a good mother; this breakfast is one meal on one day, my kids are fed and happy, I am caring, loving and I am doing my best. Everyone has days where they are rushed/busy its normal.

• If you can’t find the cause/thought process behind the anxiety, then it’s time to give yourself some kind inner talk.
• Remind yourself: You are capable, you are able, you are safe, your body is changing and it’s affecting your thoughts/feelings, you are not alone, and this will pass.
• Affirmations can be helpful for times when we have these moments of unexplained anxiety.

Example: This will pass, I am safe. These feelings are normal they do not control me. I am capable, I need to give myself a break.

Right brain/Left brain – At times when we are feeling traumatised or in extreme anxiety our left brain (logical part) can shut down. This means we cannot always put into words what we are thinking. Alternatively at times the left brain logic becomes out of sync with reality, becoming focussed on unreal scenarios or misjudging them.

In these situations of feeling frozen or overwhelmed right brain activities can really help. You have probably already heard of these but may not have realised why they work. Right brain activities help us to unfreeze and process traumatic feelings. This works by taking the focus away from the frozen or misfiring left brain.

Example: Drawing, baking, sewing, dancing, singing and physical activities. All work to get
us using our creative parts of our minds.

Right brain/left brain integration – When our left brain is overworking and not frozen we can try to bring it back online with activities which integrate the left/right brain. This can be as simple as passing something between your left and right hand. You will be focussing on the feeling of the object in your hand (right brain) and the planning of coordinating the change between your hands (left brain).

Examples: Passing a ball hand to hand, playing catch with someone or against the wall, mindfulness involving touch, taste, smell, writing a journal.

Please remember, you are not on this journey alone and help is out there!  Amy x