Overcoming anxiety can be difficult, especially if this condition is caused not by any specific events, but drags on for a long time and for any reason. In especially neglected cases, you cannot do without the qualified assistance of a psychologist or psychotherapist.
However, there are a number of rules to help you cope with both situational and chronic anxiety. It’s important to learn to switch thoughts, lead a healthy lifestyle, and apply certain techniques when the situation gets out of control.
The Concept of Anxiety
Anxiety is an unstable psychological state of a person, where they are constantly worried about something, tormented by bad premonitions.
In psychology, there are two types of anxiety:
- Temporary (situational), coming in some circumstances. That is, a person is worried for some reason, and then returns to normal, and in his or her future life isn’t affected.
- Permanent, which has already become a character trait. Accompanied by regular tension and exacerbated reactions to any life events. At first, it can be just anxiety, but over time it turns into a psychological disorder that adversely affects the quality of life. Sometimes people don’t even dare to leave the house or go about their favorite activities.
Situational anxiety is when a person becomes anxious because of certain specific events. For example, they lost their job, moved to live in another city, things aren’t going smoothly in their family, etc.
Constant anxiety can be provoked by problems of a physiological nature. For example, stress, depression, other mental disorders, or it appears against an unstable hormonal background.
The cause of anxiety may be some childhood experiences, if, for example, parents were excessively worried about even the most minor issues, like escalating the situation, greatly exaggerating the problems. Such a pattern of behavior is often passed on to the child.
Children living in troubled families are at risk of developing anxiety, which they cannot overcome. The child becomes tearful, begins to sleep poorly, learns poorly at school, and has difficulty communicating with peers.
Anxiety can be expressed in the following ways:
- Along with anxiety, irritability, inability to concentrate, a feeling of “lump in the throat” occurs. There may be an increase in heart rate.
- Someone begins to sweat too much, feels the urge to nausea, a constant itching of the skin.
- At first there is some discomfort, and gradually the condition becomes panic.
When You Need to See a Doctor
When anxiety manifests itself only in short episodes, it isn’t critical. But prolonged anxiety can greatly impair the quality of life. A person often has high blood pressure, increased sweating, and heart rate. And then without recourse to a therapist, it will be difficult to overcome anxiety.
Anxiety disorders are divided into these types:
- Panic attack. Sudden, intense anxiety accompanied by tachycardia, labored breathing, dizziness, nausea. Person has a feeling they are about to die.
- Specific phobias. Irrational fear of anything (heights, water, enclosed spaces, spiders, etc.). The person experiences constant tension and anxiety from the fact that his phobia can arise at any moment.
- Generalized disorder. Constant acute tension, arising even for trifles, and every day. Associated conditions include trembling, cold sweat, and a feeling of tightness in the chest.
- Anxiety for a state of health. It’s characteristic of people suffering from chronic diseases. In such cases, a person is afraid of losing medication (for example, insulin, which is necessary for diabetics) or fears that a device important for life will break down (an inhaler, which an asthmatic cannot do without).
Ways to Overcome Anxiety
Learn to Think Differently
To overcome anxiety and fear, try to think in a positive way. Determine what it is that worries you and puts you in an anxious state, discuss it with your loved ones. Learn to relax, meditate.
Change Your Lifestyle
Negative habits such as smoking, drinking alcohol, drugs, and some medications, weaken the nervous system. Therefore, try to get rid of them. Eat and sleep well, get your house in order (this will also add positive emotions), add some fun activities, like playing at a casino online Canada, working out, spending time with friends. This way you will strengthen your willpower and improve your health. It helps change or renew the environment, the interior (you can make repairs, decorate the house in some special way, etc.).
Add Physical Activity
Any kind of physical or mental relaxation is great for movement, exercise, simple walks like with the dog and so on. Exercise is a good way to overcome anxiety, but it should be done regularly. And afterwards, have some tea with mint, chamomile, or thyme.
Find out What Has Caused the Anxiety
It happens that it’s already known, but the person doesn’t want to admit it. It’s necessary to figure out what exactly is causing the state of anxiety, at what moment it began.
Shift Your Attention
Another way to overcome anxiety is to switch, to distract yourself. Call someone and chat on the phone, admire the view from the window, and in general act on the principle of “I’ll think about it tomorrow. Put aside unpleasant thoughts. You can start studying a foreign language. So you train your memory, and less will think about your worries.
Start a New Hobby
Let it be painting, singing, sports, yoga, whatever you’ve always had the desire, but could not start.
Don’t Get Used to Being Restless
People often get used to the state of anxiety and do not imagine a life in which nothing needs to be worried. Therefore, and do not hurry to part with his anxiety. How to overcome it? Ask yourself: What is the likelihood that the imagined troubling events will happen in reality? What could happen beyond all of this? Could everything be too far-fetched? Could events develop for the better, and how?
Exercises and Techniques to Overcome Anxiety
Breathing Practices
When it’s necessary to overcome anxiety and panic attacks, try breathing with the diaphragm: on 2 counts – a deep breath, on 4 counts – a deep exhalation. Include your abdomen in the process, stick it out on the inhale and draw it in on the exhale. If you put your palm on your stomach, it will be easier to control the process.
Exercises for Muscle Relaxation
In a state of anxiety, muscles are overstretched, which brings an even greater feeling of discomfort. And here muscle relaxation will help. Try for 7-10 seconds then to tense, then to relax different muscles (abs, hips, hands, mouth, forehead, nose).
Analyze Your Emotions
Keep a special diary, in which each day, write everything that you feel, what you’re experiencing, especially pay attention to negative emotions. When anxiety strikes, read your notes, review the dates. Your fears are probably the same every time. Such a diary will help you see how often you have recurring attacks and what causes them.
A “Blacklist” of Anxieties
Write down each of them in the form of separate phrases, and then think up (again for each) some contrary positive statements taken from your own life. A simple example: “This is a difficult task, I won’t be able to do it and it will end in dismissal” – “I’ve done even more difficult tasks before, so I can do it this time too.” While writing down this kind of motivation, try to remember how confident you felt last time, fill yourself with this state anew.
Expressing Feelings
Often people cannot cope with their anxieties because of existing emotional blocks. Many since childhood are taught that one cannot expose their feelings, and as a result, these unexpressed emotions accumulate and give a strong internal tension. Therefore, it’s necessary to express all that “has boiled over”.
Even if not to the concrete interlocutor, “pour out your soul” to your dog, or even invent your own interlocutor. Settle down in a quiet place and start talking out loud about your anxieties (about work, school, the day’s events, etc.). And listen to your bodily sensations at this time and describe them verbally, too.
