You know that feeling, where your heart starts to pound and your breathing quickens in response to a stressful or worrying situation? Or maybe you’re familiar with the feeling of having sweaty, clammy palms when you have an overwhelming or stressful situation to deal with? These feelings are both anxiety, which is the body’s response to feelings of stress and being overwhelmed.
Having a little anxiety on a semi-regular basis is fairly normal. However, it’s when anxiety begins to take over your life that there can be a problem, and it is something that is worth looking further into. While realising that you have anxiety can be stressful, don’t panic – there are plenty of ways that you can make managing living with anxiety easier.
It’s important to remember when it comes to anxiety that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to anxiety management; what works for one person may not work for another. The key to successfully being able to manage anxiety is making sure that you find the right approach for you and your needs. This could mean talking with a therapist or trying an inpatient program at Honey Lake Clinic or one of your local facilities.
Bearing that in mind, below is a guide to a selection of anxiety coping and management strategies that you might find helpful. Have a read, take note, and determine which options work best for you:
Identify your triggers:
One of the most important steps that you can take when it comes to managing anxiety is identifying what triggers it in the first place. For some people, anxiety is triggered by experiences like starting a new job, meeting a partner’s family or friends, having to give a presentation at work, or attending a health appointment. For others, anxiety isn’t about experiences, it’s simply linked to stress and overthinking different things.
The fact is, that everyone has their own anxiety triggers; what triggers a friend with anxiety to become anxious may not trigger you, and vice versa. Often, anxiety is linked to a previous experience or situation, and things that are linked to those situations and experiences can, therefore, cause anxiety.
For example, say you got stuck in a lift and it took a while to be rescued. This may result in anxiety around using lifts or of being in confined spaces. Or, perhaps you had a loved one pass away in traumatic circumstances, you may find that you start to become anxious about other loved ones and the traumatic circumstance that caused the death, such as being involved in a road traffic accident.
By identifying what your triggers are, you can help make managing your anxiety a little easier. Because once you know what causes you to become anxious, you can begin to work out strategies for dealing with those feelings. If you go to therapy for your anxiety or offshoots of it, this will be something you’ll work on a lot during your treatment program for OCD or anxiety.
Decide the best strategies for coping:
When it comes to living with anxiety, it is no easy task. For some people, anxiety can be a minor annoyance and for others, anxiety can be completely and utterly debilitating. But by putting coping strategies in place, you can make managing your anxiety simpler and easier. The key here is to decide what the best coping strategies are for you and your anxiety.
Focused deep breathing is one anxiety management strategy that a lot of people find helpful. If you feel that you are becoming overly anxious, you might find that focused, deep breathing could help. You can either try and utilize this technique on your own or you can opt to use an app like the Calm app to help you manage the process of deep breathing to calm your anxiety.
Some people find that getting out and about helps them feel less stressed out. Sometimes, simply taking the time to get out of the house and go for a walk can be all it takes to relieve some of the stresses and strains that you might be struggling with.
Other anxiety sufferers find that sourcing certain treatments, such as Neurofeedback anxiety support can help them to make managing their anxiety and its associated symptoms a little easier to navigate. CBD products are also something that can help with the tension and stress of anxiety. Blessed CBD offers capsules, oils, gummies, and creams that could help take the edge off from particularly triggering events or situations. As always, do your research before you begin a CBD regimen to determine what is best for you.
Keeping a journal of your thoughts and feelings can also be helpful when it comes to managing anxiety. Writing down what is making you feel anxious helps to get that concern out of your head and can make dealing with it less daunting and stressful.
Talking is another useful way to help make living with anxiety easier too. When you talk and share how you are feeling, you start to feel less pressure and less stress as a result. Whether you find talking with a friend or family member, speaking to a therapist, or talking to other anxiety sufferers helpful, talking can be a fantastic tool for reducing feelings of anxiety.
You may also want to consider joining some anxiety support groups, as it’s often helpful to have other people to talk to who understand what it is that you are going through and are able to offer support by sharing their own experiences.
Managing anxiety is no simple or straightforward task but the ideas above can help minimize those feelings and get you moving in the right direction.
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