How to Deal with Anxiety?
All my life, I, like many people, suffered from anxiety. I will not call it disorder because I can still control it, but I still have my difficult days. As you probably know, I like to understand the why's and investigate a little more about it. So I went to find the answer to the question: "How to deal with Anxiety."
But the first step is to understand what anxiety is.
Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or
severe. Everyone has feelings of anxiety at some point in their life.
Anxiety
Is a normal reaction to danger. It's triggered when you feel threatened, under pressure, or facing a challenging situation. In moderation, anxiety isn't necessarily a bad thing.
For example, I used to be a singer, and every time I had to take the stage, I would get anxious; This made me more focused and performed better.
Another example is the fear of failing an exam at school. Anxiety kicks in to make you alert and motivated to overcome the task.
And the last example: moving to a new home, how many of you experience that already, that we get nervous, excited, and talking to a friend we even say - I'm anxious for the day, I'm so happy.
So Normal anxiety
is always related to a specific situation or problem.
It lasts only as long as the situation or problem.
It's proportional to the situation or problem.
It is a natural response to a real problem or situation.
Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety can transform into something nasty and unpleasant when this feeling starts to appear every day and stays with us for long periods. When it becomes overwhelming or unmanageable, and it comes unexpectedly.
Now we are entering the anxiety disorders world, and this is a mental illness that can have a massive impact on your life. It can lead to depression, school dropout, losing your job, it can destroy relationships, and if not treated, can take to suicide. So don't be afraid and look for professional help.
Symptoms:
It comes from nowhere, unexpectedly and for no apparent reason.
When we start to overreact to a problem, we begin to suffer more than the situation requires.
When we begin to fear a situation that is unlikely to happen.
When we begin to avoid situations or things because we think they might trigger anxiety.
Anxiety becomes impossible to control or to manage.
Anxiety may last for a long time, even when the situation or problem has been resolved.
We fell restlessness, and a feeling of being "on-edge"
We feel increased irritability.
We have concentration difficulties.
Regularly experience sleep difficulties, such as problems in falling or staying asleep.
Tips to help deal with anxiety.
Every time you feel the anxiety symptoms arriving you can try these 4 steps to cope with your feelings of anxiety:
Stop and Bread
Here I'm not talking of pure meditation; it might be just a time out. When you start to experience anxiety, you need to try to regain control of the situation. So start by finding a comfortable place, sit down, and taking deep breaths. I want you to forget the world and control your air intake. When we get anxious, we lose control of our breathing, which makes us stress and panic. So by doing this exercise, you will gain control and balance again.
I like to meditate, and I noticed that this helped me control and have fewer anxiety moments in my life. Breathing exercises are powerful relaxation techniques.
Understand the why
Have you ever solved a problem without knowing what the problem is? No one can, so the first step is to find what is causing your anxiety so we can try to fix it. Why are you in this panic without being able to breathe, with huge chest pain? Now you need to work this a bit, stop and give some thought about what happened, and pinpoint what made you feel this way.
For me, what helps is to write it down in my paper diary. I need the paper and pen feel even today we have many apps to use with our phones. I write down what is bothering me, I put it out, which makes me feel better.
Focus on what you can change
My anxiety comes in the form of anticipatory anxiety
"where a person experiences increased levels of anxiety by thinking about an event or situation in the future. Rather than being a specific disorder in its own right, anticipatory anxiety is a symptom commonly found in several anxiety-related conditions, such as generalized anxiety."
I give you an example, launching this channel/blog. I immediately began to overthink everything and worry about things like: - what if people don't like it? And if my videos aren't good? And me in front of a camera? I don’t think so.
Even before choosing a name or deciding what I want to write or make videos about, I was already in panic with the final result.
So I saw, focus on what you can change. In this case, do the videos you want, the way you want, and don't think about what people may think. We don't control. We don't care.
Focus on something relaxing
Sometimes, the best way to stop that moment of anxiety is to stop doing or think about the thing that triggered the anxiety and do something else.
In these moments, you need to change the focus and make your brain think of something else. Here you have a list of things you can try:
Go for a walk
Call a friend and just chit chat
Listen to music
Meditate
Watch a funny movie or read a book
Conclusion
Many of us think that it is an act of weakness to show others that we suffer from anxiety when it's the exact opposite. Only a strong person can open up and talk about such a severe problem. So don't be ashamed of doing so. Sure, I'm not saying to go out with a t-shirt saying I suffer from anxiety, but yes, to talk to a close friend or partner and ask for help.
I also would like to leave a side note to the ones who don't suffer from it but are, at the other end, the ones we look at when we need help. Stop saying it's just nerves, and get over it. That kind of attitude doesn't help. It might even increase the problem.
To finish, I would like to share these statistics that show how serious this is:
"1 in 14 People around the world has an anxiety disorder. And costs 42 Billion Dollars per year to treat."
So, happy thoughts, and I hope I helped improve one person's life today.
Lot's of love