Chronic anxiety can be extremely distressing and disruptive of one's life. It can also be managed.

Your doctor ought to be able to prescribe a med for this. I, as you, find no favour with drugs. However, after a long period of trying non-medication ways to deal with the problem .... I gave in. I now take Alprazolam daily and it is a great help but it may or may not suit you. I'm not a medical practitioner so I mention it only as an example of how it has helped me and in very low doses.

If you really don't want to go that way ... these are other activities/experiences that help to settle me:

* writing [You're on a winner there!]

* walking in nature - even in a built up area it can usually be found

* watching and photographing birds

* being with my best friend, my Groenendael

* actively helping others

* avoiding crowds, shopping malls & such and buying online and having things delievered

* accepting that it is o.k. for me to walk away from things that bother or upset me

* accepting that my anxiety disorder does not make me less of a person

* meditating

* listening to music

* deliberately avoiding the news, junk tv and abusive online forums

* rewarding myself each time I get though a normally difficult experience with less trauma than I expect

Some of those ideas may work for you - some may not.

Thank you for posting and sharing because it is always a help (at least for me) to know that I am not a unique misfit of some sort but just a person who becomes stressed by some situations which most others appear not to find disturbing.

Heh, we're all unique, for all our similarities and the universal notions and concepts to which we subscribe. You know, it's cliche but "I'm ok. You're ok.

Take care. Stay safe. :-)