What Really Helps Anxiety?

Last night my husband asked me: "What really helps your anxiety?" It was interesting because true to form, I automatically thought of everything that doesn't help. If you go online and seek out advice, such advice may include the following five tidbits (along with my commentary from a realistic anxiety-prone person's point of few): 1. Take a few deep breaths (Yea, I already can't breathe...so if I try to take deep breaths and I can't, it will remind me even more so that I can't breathe...thanks!) 2. Imagine yourself at a relaxing place i.e. beach (Killer waves! Hurricanes! Typhoons!) 3. Write it down (I don't want to!) 4. Join a support group (I already feel crazy- so you want me to show up to a GROUP so I am officially labeled crazy?! I will be very embarrassed walking in and out, remember...mental health has a stigma) 5. Exercise (Really? You expect me to leave the house? I'm DYING, remember?!) and it would be totally embarrassing to die in public. Number four reminded me- one of the BIGGEST issues I see with treatment is referring to everything as a mental ILLNESS. So, off the bat, you are a SICK person. Personally, I have decided to eliminate the word ILLNESS from my vocabulary. Instead, I will refer to what I fight as my stride toward mental HEALTH. Focusing on positivity above all else. So, what really helps me? Sorry researchers, but none of the above. What helps me is reality. Accepting that I am, in fact, having a panic attack. And, if I were actually dying, the people around me would do the best they could to save me. Trying to let go and put my faith back into God and humanity. That's what helps me.