How to stop anxiety thoughts

It’s tough to recognize the signs and react right away. I thrive on doing too much and being a hero.

But I’ve been anxious my entire life. Only now in my 40s am I learning my signs and how to let go for the sake of letting my anxiety go.

Fellow anxious types should know that letting self-care backslide increases exhaustion and sorrow may follow.

When I find that I’m feeling like a hamster and spending most of my waking time thinking about others, I’m not experiencing life on my terms.

There’s always help available through prevention and treatment.

And at the end of the day, it’s nice to let that hamster rest a bit.

Mary Ladd’s writing has appeared in Playboy, Time Magazine’s Extra Crispy, KQED, and San Francisco Weekly. She’s a member of the SF Writers’ Grotto and a co-author of “The Wig Report,” a graphic novel on catastrophic illness.