Recovered & Rambling: We Tried All the Anxiety Hacks So You Don't Have To (Part 1)

We Tried All the Anxiety Hacks So You Don't Have To (Part 1)

When you're in the thick of anxiety and panic, you will try anything. The $60 device. The gummies. The oils. The ice pack. The breathing app. If somebody on Instagram promises it will stop a panic attack in its tracks, you are clicking add to cart before you even finish reading the caption.

Brittany and I have both been there. And in this episode we sat down to do something we've been wanting to do for a while — rate the most popular anxiety tools from our own recoveries. What actually helped, what was a total waste of money, and what the wellness industry really needs to stop selling to desperate people.

Here's our honest breakdown.

Breathing Exercises — 7/10

Breathing exercises get a bad reputation, and honestly? It's deserved, but only when they're used the wrong way.

If you're in the middle of a panic attack and someone tells you to just breathe, you are well within your rights to be annoyed. Your nervous system is working at full capacity just to get you through the moment. It cannot also learn a new skill right now.

But here's where breathing exercises actually shine: outside of anxious moments. When you practice them regularly — not desperately in a crisis — your body starts to build a real relationship with them. That's when they become genuinely useful. We'd both rate them a solid 7 out of 10 with that caveat attached.

And the Calmigo? The breathing device that's all over Instagram promising to stop panic attacks immediately? It's a breathing exercise in a tube. A very expensive, very beautifully marketed breathing exercise in a tube. If it reminds you to breathe outside of anxious moments, great. But please do not spend that kind of money expecting it to be the thing that fixes everything.

Quick Fixes — 1/10

Sour candy. Essential oils. Ice packs. Cold showers. Altoids strong enough to reset your entire nervous system.

We get it. We've both been there. When you're panicking, you will reach for anything that offers even a moment of relief. These things work by pulling your brain's attention somewhere else — stimulating the vagus nerve, creating a distraction — and yes, they can take the edge off in the moment.

But here's the problem. They don't heal your relationship with anxiety. They just offer a temporary escape from it. And over time, you end up carrying a bigger and bigger bag full of things you're convinced you can't leave the house without. The bag becomes its own kind of anxiety.

A 1 out of 10 from us, not because they're evil, but because they're being sold as solutions when they're really just a pause button.

Thought Challenging — 2/10

This one is going to be controversial because thought challenging is a staple of CBT therapy and it's recommended constantly. But we have to be honest: trying to logic your way out of anxiety usually doesn't work.

Anxiety is future-based. It's your brain trying to protect you from something that hasn't happened yet. So when a therapist asks you to challenge your fear of, say, having a panic attack in public by pointing out that it hasn't happened before — your brain is not going to be like, oh great, we're fine then. It's going to say exactly. It hasn't happened yet.

You cannot argue with a brain that is convinced danger is coming. The logic just doesn't land.

Thought Reframing — 9/10

This is a completely different thing, and it's one I teach throughout all of my work for good reason. Instead of trying to fight or disprove your anxious thoughts, reframing is about allowing yourself to have the thought and then gently shifting the perspective.

Instead of that's not going to happen, you're fine — it's even if that did happen, I would handle it. I would be there for myself. I would get through it. That shift from fighting the thought to trusting yourself with the outcome is where the real magic is. It takes the power out of the what-ifs without pretending they don't exist.

9 out of 10. Woven into basically everything we know about anxiety recovery for a reason.

Journaling — 5/10

Both of us are writers. Both of us have struggled to journal consistently. Make that make sense.

Here's what we've figured out though: sitting down and free-writing about your anxiety is probably not going to be helpful. You'll either avoid it entirely or end up spiraling on paper. But journaling with prompts — something that gives you direction and helps you actually process emotions rather than just dump them — can be genuinely useful.

A 5 out of 10 with a strong caveat: find a format that works for you, or skip it entirely. There's no rule that says journaling has to be part of your recovery.

Distraction — 6/10

Here's the unpopular truth: distraction is actually fine sometimes. We all need it. Life is hard, anxiety is hard, and sitting with your feelings 24/7 is not a realistic or healthy expectation.

The problem is when distraction becomes the only tool. When the phone becomes a compulsion, when you're doom scrolling every time you feel a flicker of anxiety, when you literally cannot be alone with your thoughts for five minutes — that's when distraction has crossed a line.

A 6 out of 10. Use it. Just don't rely on it.

Grounding and Somatic Practices — 8/10

Getting into your body, using your senses, feeling the ground beneath you — this stuff genuinely works for a lot of people. Brittany is a self-described floor person to this day. Shannon's version is movement and shaking it out. The common thread is the same: giving your nervous system something physical and present to anchor to.

The important caveat here, same as everything else, is that these practices work best outside of peak anxiety moments. If you're already at a ten and you're desperately trying to ground yourself, it's going to feel impossible. Build the practice in the calm moments so your body actually knows what to do when things get hard.

Also worth noting: for people who feel very disconnected from their bodies or find body-based practices triggering, this stuff can backfire. Know yourself. What works for one person won't work for everyone.

Safety Behaviors — use with awareness

Carrying your safe items. Staying close to exits. Having your person on speed dial. Googling your symptoms at 2am. These are all safety behaviors and pretty much everyone who has struggled with anxiety has a whole collection of them.

I will not be the one to tell you who's going to tell you to rip them all away immediately. Safety behaviors are coping mechanisms. They made sense at some point. They probably helped you do things you wouldn't have done otherwise.

But they do keep you stuck. Every time you rely on the bag of tools instead of yourself, you're quietly reinforcing the belief that you can't handle things without them. The goal isn't to eliminate them overnight — it's to slowly build enough self-trust that you stop needing them. And that happens naturally as you heal. Brittany realized she'd been walking around for weeks without her Xanax before she even noticed it was gone.

Medication — 8/10

Not a cop out. Not cheating. For a lot of people, medication is what turns the volume down just enough to actually do the work. It doesn't heal anxiety on its own, but it can create the space needed to take the steps that do.

It wasn't the right fit for Shannon. It has been genuinely helpful for Brittany. Both are valid. If it's something you're considering, it's worth exploring with a professional — and if it helps, let it help without judgment.

Acceptance and Self-Compassion — 10/10

The least sexy tools on the list. The ones nobody's trying to sell you. The ones that actually work.

Acceptance doesn't mean giving up or deciding you're fine with feeling anxious forever. It means stopping the war with your feelings. It means letting the anxiety be there without adding a layer of I shouldn't feel this way or what is wrong with me on top of it. Brittany's version of this was learning to say okay, I'm panicking right now, and that's okay, instead of you're fine, stop it, calm down.

That shift — from fighting yourself to being there for yourself — is where healing actually begins.

Self-compassion goes hand in hand with it. Talk to yourself the way you'd talk to a child who was scared. Be there for yourself the way you would be for someone you love. It sounds simple. It changes everything.

Mindfulness and Meditation — 9/10

Both of us would have rated this a 1 out of 10 when we were in the thick of it. Sitting in stillness felt pointless, annoying, and honestly kind of unsafe when you're someone who has spent years running from your own thoughts.

But mindfulness isn't just sitting cross-legged in silence. It's walking without your earbuds in. It's the Headspace series on Netflix that eased Brittany in without it feeling like a big deal. It's any practice that slows you down and puts you in the present moment, done consistently outside of anxious times.

You can't heal your relationship with anxiety without some version of this. A 9 out of 10 — just find the form that actually fits you.

The Bottom Line

There is no magic tool. There is no device, supplement, or hack that is going to fix this. What heals anxiety is building a real relationship with it — learning to be with it instead of fighting it, trusting yourself through it instead of outsourcing that trust to a bag of stuff you carry everywhere.

Use the tools that help you move toward that. Let go of the ones that are just helping you avoid it. And give yourself a lot of grace in figuring out the difference.

Part 2 is coming. We have more tools to rate and more things to say.

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