Anxiety: 11 coping methods to managing your anxiety symptoms
By Gail-Elaine Tinker, M.S., LPC Psychotherapist
Do you or someone you love to suffer regularly from anxiety? Do you feel helpless when trying to manage your symptoms or when encouraging your loved one to cope properly?
Anxiety is defined as an overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by physical signs (such as tension, sweating, increased pulse rate, shallow breathing, and sometimes stomach upset), by having doubt concerning the reality of the threat, and by self-doubt about one’s capacity to cope with it. There is generalized anxiety of a chronic nature and there are sometimes attacks of extreme panic; both are due to clinical anxiety.
Everyone experiences anxiety occasionally – like test anxiety, the ‘butterflies’ of having to give a presentation at work, or when telling someone bad news. If you are experiencing the sensations of anxiety more than several times per day for more than several weeks; it is time to have yourself checked out.
First visit your regular doctor (PCP) and have the basic physical exam. Sometimes a flare up of a medical condition can cause anxiety. Some doctors offer medication to help with the uncomfortable symptoms; this medication must be taken exactly as instructed. It is only a brief stopgap to finding what triggers anxiety and how to eliminate this… with a helping professional.
Next stop is a qualified mental health provider to have your anxiety scaled and modulated. You will need to tell the therapist about your anxiety, when and where it occurs, and what you are doing to cope. Think about your anxiety on a scale of 1 to 10.
So, what does one do when anxiety is a regular, episodic, or chronic nature? How does one cope enough to do the tasks of the day? How do you cope in-between therapy appointments?
- Question your thinking; when you feel anxious, stop and ask yourself if your concerns are valid. For instance, if you worry that when your child goes out to play, he’ll be hurt… how real is this fear? If you are anxious over future events, remind yourself that you can handle them when ‘the future’ becomes ‘the present.’ Worry in the present is wasted energy.
- Give reassurances; if you are anxious, be sure to tell yourself “it will be OK” and “this is only temporary.”
Sometimes it is OK to remind yourself that the physical symptoms of anxiety are your mind/body ‘playing tricks’ on you… as the body is ramping up into fight/fight for a minor reason.
- Accept the anxiety; if you deny that the anxiety is real, this is YOU playing tricks on your own body! Admit, “I feel anxious right now’ and try to use some coping tools to stay balanced.
Coping with the symptoms: symptoms are distressing, difficult and uncomfortable. It is often difficult to get a hold of oneself during such discomfort and near panic. But you CAN control them, to an extent, utilizing these mind/body techniques.
- Distraction: this helps you to focus less on the object of your anxiety and the uncomfortable physical symptoms. Look out a window, turn on the TV or music, grab a magazine or book, play the guitar, play a video game, grab a deck of cards for solitaire, chop vegetables, walk around, make light chit-chat with a friend, rock in a rocking chair, drum on a table… there are many ways to distract.
- Self-soothing: is like distraction but more personal. When you find a distraction, which helps make it your own. Perhaps you feel anxious, even at a specific time, and practicing your instrument, prayer/meditation, walking, coloring in a coloring book, or chopping vegetables can help you calm down. Those are self-soothing activities which you can do regularly. No professional required.
- Deep breathing: we all tend to breath shallowly from the top of our lungs. A deep breath comes from the bottom of your lungs and expands your stomach area. Place your hand there to feel it expanding and releasing. Doing these breaths, about 3 times, with some self-soothing can really help anxiety by reducing the adrenaline which comes from fight/flight sequence. You can also add a splash of cool water to face, inside wrists, and a cool towel on the back of your neck.
- Visualization: is the technique of imagining yourself in your favorite place for a few minutes. Sort of daydream yourself at the beach, in the mountains, flying with the birds, or resting in a hammock by a pond. See yourself successful, calm and confident in your life. This can be used with full-on mediation techniques of lowering heart pace and expanding breathing.
- Tapping: there is a technique you could research called EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique, and there are YouTube videos on how to do it. I will mention the most important place on your chest, in-between your breasts, is a tender spot. You may gently tap or rub this spots for a kind of instant release of calm-down chemicals into your bloodstream.
- Positive self-talk: is the action of when you are speaking to yourself inside your head or muttering, to be nice to yourself. This means no name calling, trying to be as verbally supportive with yourself, as you would be in encouraging your child or best friend.
- Communicate with supports: refers to talking things out with a trusted friend, clergy, or your therapist about anxiety episodes. Perhaps an objective ear can help to sort-out the causes for anxiety and eliminate them. Keep anxiety a secret can prolong your suffering.
- Lastly, NO SELF HARM: there are some who would do harmful or addictive activities to quell the symptoms of anxiety. It may seem like magic when taking a drink, drug, or eating fattening food removes your anxiety. That is called self-medicating and it can lead to addiction. If you become addicted to a substance, you’ll have more than anxiety to deal with when it comes to dealing with the life destruction which addiction brings. Nip it now. Ditto to cutting, picking, hair pulling, and self-injury. Even using prescribed anti-anxiety medication too often can be a serious problem in getting well. These 7 healthy coping techniques work!
Anxiety is the most common self-diagnosed complaint. There is often an anxiety/depression cycle that many people experience. This does not mean you are bipolar, but perhaps a medication should be considered. Ask your physician if she can help or if you need to see a psychiatrist.
Helping someone with Anxiety: requires a great deal of patience. Sometimes anxiety can be debilitating. Reminding the sufferer of the techniques and offering to DO them too, can be very helpful. Look at your own patterns of anxiety to see if you can reduce anxiety in your life, as an example and to make a more harmonious situation.
Sometimes anxiety develops over time and connects to the distant past. Were there conditions as a child or young adult where you felt especially helpless? So, when you encounter stress in the present, it is amplified by the distress from the past. Therapy can heal these past hurts to free you to be calm in your current situation, if you are presently safe in life.
Psychotherapy, Hypnosis, Medical Massage, Acupuncture, Narrative, Art & Music Therapy, Reiki, Yoga, Dance, caring for an Animal, and spending time in Nature are all means to attend to your issues of anxiety. They teach you techniques and allow you to feel yourself in complete relaxation – so you can return there. You do not have to accept chronic anxiety as your fate. You rewrite your pain by doing healthy things and observing your stress.
Gail-Elaine Tinker is a licensed Psychotherapist in private practice in Bethlehem, PA. She specialized in chronic pain, trauma, anxiety, and grief issues. Her work is informed by mind/body practices and utilizing Hypnotherapy and Reiki with her clients. The goal is empowerment. She can be reached at 610-216-4319 or at www.tinkerpsychotherapy.com
