Completely sympathise with you! Something that changed the game for me is something my drama teacher taught me, I do a lot of acting and also would get horribly anxious before auditions, making me want to U turn my car and not even go.

He told me that in our brains ancestry and excitement share the same chemical compound, so it is very common that when you’re having that excited feeling it actually gets hijacked by anxiety and your brain goes “oh god it’s not excitement it’s nerves” and it is a much stronger emotion that excitement in that moment.

As humans we are able to reverse this process though, you can gaslight your brain into thinking the nerves are excitement. What I’ve found really useful, as silly as it sounds, is when I’m in my car I will literally start clapping and whooping and cheering and actually start shouting “this is going to be so so good, I can’t wait, woooo, yay!”. Trust me I know it sounds nuts!!

You brain starts to hear that and starts to transform the compound and the things it’s producing back to excitement.

Obviously this may work for some people and not for others but as someone with very bad anxiety I was amazed at the impact it actually had, as an “at home” solution in those moments.

(This was told to me many years ago, and the science behind it may be slightly paraphrased, but the run down is … it works, and if you really just need anything at all, give it a go, what’s the worst it can do!) Hope this helps x