There's normal anxiety...the kind you have when going on a first date, a job interview, or are waiting from news from the biopsy, or during a very real traumatic event (or a military deployment). Then there is chronic anxiety, which is experienced even though there is nothing happening that should be making you anxious. I've had both.
For some reason, I was born with the tendency to get stuck in anxiety following a normal anxiety inducing event. There have been about a dozen times in my 50+ years in which I've gotten stuck in chronic anxiety. I was able to work my way out each time into a relaxed way of life, though I really didn't understand how until later in life. But now realize what happens and just how to end it.
How I get rid of chronic anxiety is to stop giving it any power, focus or energy. I figured an area of my brain was stuck in some subconscious loop, and was convinced there was danger in the immediate environment, thus the constant adrenaline. Perhaps one of those MRI brain scans would show growth in that region of the brain.
About 6 years ago, something traumatic happened, and I found myself in a period of ongoing anxiety, even though the event was over. It went on for months. One day, a friend asked me to write a screenplay for her production company. I hadn't written or been creative for a long time, so I thought I'd take her up on the opportunity. So, I immersed myself in the project. I realized that while writing there were moments when I didn't feel anxious. No anxious thoughts or adrenaline. So, I started to write in all my free time. I also stopped talking about my anxiety. I had been always yacking about it to my SO (when I was younger, I never talked about it). When I wasn't writing I began to do Japanese number puzzles like Sudoku.
If I found I was feeling anxious, I'd refocus quickly on writing, or doing puzzles. Within a month, the anxiety I had been feeling for so long finally was gone. It was if my brain reset itself subconsciously. The anxiety loop was no longer playing.
Three years later, a very real anxiety-inducing and traumatic event that went on for months, put me back in another loop that kept going after the trauma was over. This was much worse than before in its effects on my life. I began another creative writing project, number puzzles and combined them with marathon training (starting on a treadmill because the thought of running outside made me anxious). Again, I made no mention of it to anyone. Just immersed myself in the creative and puzzle-solving areas of my brain, and again within about a month, the anxiety was gone.
I never took any medications. I've never taken any for this ever.
If anyone is considering this, remember that I spent all my spare time focusing on creativity and puzzle-solving. 6-10 hours a day. I spent all day not talking about it. It's worked several times for me. It takes commitment, but I believe if I can reset my brain, then anyone can. Just remember:
1) anxiety is just a sensation that we give more power than it deserves. Just adrenaline. Even though you might be feeling anxious, you can still do anything you could do when you didn't feel that way. You might not believe you can't, but you can.
2) Stop talking about it. It just gives it power.
3) Spend all your time refocusing your brain onto creative and puzzle-solving tasks. At work, if your brain is going off into anxiety what-if thinking, refocus on your environment and work. Tell yourself that what you were thinking isn't real, just a thought, and that anxiety is just adrenaline, just a sensation. Then refocus.
4) Exercise. Long walks are helpful. LONG walks. Get yourself tired. Ever watch Dog Whisperer and see how he gets the anxious dogs exercising? Works for humans.
I guess one could whittle this all down to this: you get what you focus on. Focus on anxiety, and you get more of it.