3. Anxiety management

The three fuels

• Uncertainty — the mind fills gaps with catastrophe because that once kept us alive.
• Body-scanning — constant checking makes normal sensations feel like symptoms.
• Avoidance — not opening letters, not asking questions, not going to appointments. Relief now, more fear later.

Counter-moves

1. 1Set worry time — 15 minutes daily, written, seated, then closed.
2. 2Cap checking. If you scan your body or search symptoms, allow yourself set times and record the urge rather than acting on it.
3. 3Approach in small steps. Open the letter with someone present. Ask the question you have been avoiding.
4. 4Use grounding when the fear is not solvable — senses, cold water, feet on the floor.
5. 5Prepare for known triggers: scans, results, anniversaries of diagnosis.

Panic attacks

A panic attack peaks within about ten minutes and cannot physically harm you, even though it feels exactly like it can. The aim is not to stop it but to stop fighting it.

Sit down. Breathe out longer than in. Say to yourself: this is panic, it peaks and passes, I have felt it before. Let it move through rather than bracing against it.

If chest pain is new, different, or comes with sweating and arm or jaw pain, treat it as cardiac until a clinician says otherwise.