3 Ways to Manage Anxiety
Anxiety has become part of everyday life. It is considered to be a normal emotional response. When the anxiety becomes debilitating to handle and interferes with your daily function, it is considered to be an anxiety disorder. In an anxiety disorder, the anxiety is much more intense, lasts longer, and may be present in different people, places, and/or situations. One of the goals to managing anxiety is to understand what is your reaction to anxiety provoking situations - identify what is concerning to you and learn to “let it go.” Easier said than done, right? You may need a therapist to learn skills useful for managing and eliminating anxiety disorder symptoms, and that’s okay! We are here to help. As with almost everything you want to be different, then you need to be willing to do things differently. Commitment and consistency is necessary in following through with using strategies that will help you manage the distress of anxiety disorder symptoms. Anxiety does not look the same for the everyone. Some people may only experience anxiety in specific situations (public transportation or public speaking), whereas others experience a certain level of anxiety all the time. When you want to manage your anxiety effectively, you want to be aware of your symptoms, circumstances related to the onset of symptoms, in other words, what are your triggers, and any efforts you have used in the past to cope with the distress of anxiety.
Here are 3 ways you can manage symptoms of anxiety:
Keep a journal.
Journaling is useful for venting your feelings, clarifying what the problem is, and problem solving the situation. When you problem solve the situation you are writing about, ask yourself if this is something you can control. If the answer is yes, then consider your options. Consider the pros and cons - followed by any consequences or expected outcomes. Be prepared to write out alternatives if your first attempt does not work out. If you answer no, then “let it go.” Learning to accept the things you cannot control or change will relieve anxiety. This of course takes time, however, the high energy, freedom, and relief that you will experience are all worth it.
While journaling, you may become aware of your own internal self talk. Journaling allows you to become more aware of your thoughts and feelings. Thoughts affect feelings and feelings affect actions/reactions/behaviors (concept behind CPT - another blog post for another day). As I am sure you have already hear or read before, when you choose to think more positively about a situation you will feel better and subsequently have better outcomes. On the contrary, if you worry excessively, expect the worst to happen, or when you are self-critical, then you can expect to feel bad. Now that we are on same page about beliefs affecting emotion and behavior, it will be beneficial to pay more attention to your own beliefs about situations as you journal.
Develop realistic expectations & limitations.
When you change the belief that your worth is solely based on what you accomplish and achieve you focus more on what feels right to you and not on what others think of you (based on those accomplishments and achievements). You can exhaust yourself with self-criticism or you can develop realistic goals that will give you the time you need to dedicate to other personal necessities - like doing things that bring you joy with people that that matter to you.
Recognize that everything does not need to be neat or predictable.
Learning to accept things as they are and being more patient allows you to be more comfortable with things that are not predictable. This entails that you trust that most situations or problems eventually work out. You will either find a solution to the problem that is best for you or you will see that that it cannot be changed and hence “let it go.” If the situation or problem cannot be changed then you find a way to accept it or make another decision based on the impact it has on your life. Overall, things become clearer and coping gets easier.
Those who experience chronic symptoms of anxiety tend to ignore their body’s physical response to stress. This means you may also be ignoring physical symptoms of anxiety. When this happens, you may feel like you are pushing yourself beyond your limits without slowing down to take care of yourself. One consequence of pushing yourself is a high level of stress that may turn into panic attacks. I picture a panic attach being a warning sign. A warning sign that is not easy to ignore. If you experience a panic attach, you have more than likely ignored taking good care of yourself for some time and your irrational thinking/beliefs are playing out. As mentioned above, it is important to identify your own symptoms of stress in order to learn to manage your stress effectively. Once you gain this level of awareness then you can do things to relieve your stress and anxiety - that will in turn make you feel better. You are responsible for your own physical and emotional health.
*Disclaimer - it is important to note that it is not uncommon for someone who is experiencing symptoms of anxiety to also be experiencing symptoms of depression. Additionally, a panic attack may also be considered to be a trauma response and not solely a result of experiencing symptoms of anxiety. More on these topics to come, stay tuned!
