My husband suffers from extreme anxiety due to the way he was treated by his parents as a kid.
One thing he finds that works is something I told him long ago.
I told him every time an idea pops in your head that is giving you doubt in yourself or making you feel unsafe even though you know you are safe or worse it is telling you to run away or hurt yourself treat that idea as if it was a different person. Treat your anxiety as a grade school bully. And stand up to it and tell it to fuck off because you are not going to let this bully win.
He started doing it and though some times yes his bully wins but the number of times he defeats the bully have increased greatly.
One thing he finds that works is something I told him long ago.
I told him every time an idea pops in your head that is giving you doubt in yourself or making you feel unsafe even though you know you are safe or worse it is telling you to run away or hurt yourself treat that idea as if it was a different person. Treat your anxiety as a grade school bully. And stand up to it and tell it to fuck off because you are not going to let this bully win.
He started doing it and though some times yes his bully wins but the number of times he defeats the bully have increased greatly.