Managing Anxiety
- Lisa Clarabut
- Apr 12, 2024
- 3 min read
Everyone experiences anxiety sometimes; it is a normal and at times, can be motivating. For example, if you have to do a presentation, anxiety can motivate you to show up prepared. Or if you are crossing the street and a car comes rushing around the corner, anxiety will help you be alert and jump out of the way. Where anxiety becomes a problem is when it starts to impact your daily functioning in a negative way.
People can experience anxiety for a variety of reasons. Including stressful life events (such as loss or change), overuse of caffeine or other substances, lack of self-care habits, traumatic events, personality or temperament, genetics, or environment.
It can be helpful to know that anxiety can show up in different ways for different people, some examples include:
feelings of anger, irritability, or overwhelm
physical symptoms like headaches, stomach aches, racing heart, muscle pains
overwhelming thoughts such as all or nothing thinking, predicting the future, worst case scenario, or negative self-perception
behavior changes, like crying or emotional reactivity, isolation and avoidance, lack of self-care habits or perfectionism
fears, phobias, or panic attacks
Although we can never completely get rid of anxious feelings, there are strategies for managing these feelings. My favorites are tools from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). CBT encourages you to try exploring when you are having the anxious thoughts by noticing thought patterns. ACT promotes the idea of not becoming fused and over identifying with the anxiety. ACT skills incorporate noticing that the feeling is present and not trying to push it away, but rather letting it pass through you. This helps to promote increased psychological flexibility.
I love this ACT based video about our busy minds:
Here are some self-help tips:
You can try asking yourself is there a situation that is triggering these thoughts? Or what do you notice about your feelings and behaviours when you are having these thoughts?
Does your thinking tend to be more on the negative side? Can you try reframing these thoughts, for example turning the thought “what if I make a mistake?” into “everyone makes mistakes sometimes”.
It can also be helpful to put the negative thoughts on trial, for example imagine you are thinking that your coworkers don’t like you. Ask yourself where is the evidence for this? How do you know, can you read their minds? Sometimes, just stopping to look for the evidence can help you gain perspective.
Make friends with the anxiety. Imagine that the anxiety is an annoying character that is always with you, sometimes it’s voice gets loud and sometimes you have to tell it to be quiet. You could say to yourself, “oh, there’s that voice again, I hear that you are trying to keep me safe, but I’ve got this”.
Find small actionable ways to push yourself out of your of comfort zone. For example, I really dislike being the center of attention and public speaking (that’s why I write!) – but over the years I have intentionally put myself in situations where I have had to speak in front of a group to help myself get more comfortable with it.
Practice relaxation skills such as deep breathing, journaling, guided meditation, yoga, time in nature and grounding exercises (like noticing your 5 senses). Making this a routine are feeling calm will help to lower your stress levels and make it easier to do when you are feeling anxious in the moment.
Work on creating healthy self-care habits regarding diet, exercise, social time, and sleep. Research shows that there is a direct link between managing anxiety symptoms and participating in regular exercise.
Use distraction for short term relief (watch something funny, listen to music, or do something creative). I often hear clients say that distraction is the easiest way to deal with anxiety. This is true for the short term, and in the moment when anxious feelings are high.
Practice self-compassion. I always like to remind myself and people I work with that everyone gets anxious sometimes and there is nothing wrong with you. Remember to be kind and patient with yourself.
Seek support from a healthcare professional. Talk to your doctor or counsellor about options and support for anxiety management (regular counselling, medication, workbooks).
Helpful self-help resources:
As always, reach out if you'd like to connect,
Lisa
Comments