How to Deal with Anxiety?

Anxiety is a feeling of nervousness, fear, or uneasiness that affects people from time to time. In more severe cases, people may experience feelings of nausea, hyperventilation, etc.  It can also impact the way we perceive things around us. Anxiety can make us believe that the world is a frightening place fraught with danger, and can negatively impact our way of dealing with daily-life situations.

Anxiety can have far-reaching impacts on our behavior as well. People who are anxious may stop going out to certain places, meeting people, start staying up late because they are anxious about completing their tasks, keep checking their emails worrying that they might have missed something important, etc.

We worry about a lot of things – our work, finances, family, and many more. However, if you are experiencing anxiety and worries that have been irrational, excessive and beyond your control for quite some time, it may be due to generalised anxiety disorder or GAD. Here’s some information about what is anxiety and how you can deal with it.

What Is Generalised Anxiety Disorder?

Generalised anxiety disorder is a type of anxiety disorder that is characterized by persistent and uncontrollable worrying about day-to-day events and activities. People with GAD often blow things out of proportion and they worry about things most of the time. Consequently, this affects their sleep, psychological well-being, work performance, and personal relationships.

Some of the signs of generalised anxiety disorder are:

1.         Having trouble controlling worrying thoughts
2.         Need to stay in control of things
3.         Excessive planning
4.         Difficulty focusing
5.         Difficulty falling or staying asleep
6.         Feeling restless
7.         Fatigue
8.         Nausea
9.         Tension in the muscles
10.         Irritability

Dealing with Generalised Anxiety Disorder

Psychoeducation, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), and certain medications are known to be effective treatment methods for dealing with anxiety disorders.

Psychoeducation

With psychoeducation, individuals can have a clear idea about what factors trigger their anxiety and what keeps it going. Having this knowledge is important as it gives the person a higher level of control over their anxiety. As a result, they can reduce their feelings of helplessness when they are feeling anxious and learn how to deal with anxiety.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is an excellent treatment for coping with anxiety, which involves learning the skills to manage negative thoughts, emotions of fear and guilt, and re-engage in activities that were once enjoyable. To deal with anxiety better, cognitive behavioral therapy may also be given along with medications.

Medication

Antidepressant medications may be recommended in cases where the person is experiencing intense worry. These medications may work differently for individuals, so you may have to try out a few medications to find what works best for you, based on your doctor’s recommendations. During the early stages of medications, you need to keep in touch with your doctors so that any side effects that may arise can be easily dealt with.

Anxiety is quite common in people and it is not a sign of weakness. The treatment for anxiety disorders are many and are highly effective as well.

Tips to Deal with Anxiety

Sometimes you just cannot get the worry out of your head. You try to solve it but it just doesn’t seem to go away. Worry hits the best of us, and we’ve all been there. So, how can you beat back anxiety and learn to deal with it?

Here are some ways to help you deal with anxiety.

Beware of Your Body’s False Alarms

Your body produces an array of symptomatic concerns like increased heart rate, tightness or fluttering in the stomach, sweating, etc, due to anxiety. With the help of a therapist or a counsellor, understand that these symptoms need not necessarily occur when facing harmful situations. Work on differentiating between the symptoms and the cause. Focus on reducing the discomfort caused by the symptoms by practising grounding techniques. Try not to self-treat as they may have adverse effects instead.

Nourish Your Body

By getting enough sleep, food, and exercise, your body will be at peace with your mind. Give your body the rest it deserves by sleeping for 7-8 hours. respect your body and  eat healthy. Make it a habit to exercise regularly. It helps to send an increased amount of oxygen into your system i.e. your brain and body to help you keep anxiety at bay.

Breathe

Sometimes all it takes to fight anxiety is to breathe. Breathe deeply from your stomach and release it all out from your lungs. By deep breathing, you take in more oxygen which helps you calm your nerves, keep anxiety at bay, unlike those shallow breaths you take when panic hits you, which obstructs oxygen and increases carbon dioxide in your system. Concentrate only on breathing, the in and out of breath.

Make Time for Worry

Instead of being consumed by worry at all times, set aside some time to deal with it. Suppose a thought pops into your head at 9 AM, tell yourself that at 3 PM for 20 minutes, I will address the worries of the day. Make a note of it, and address it only at the set time. This allows you to stop thinking about it constantly, and hence, helps you to manage the day better without any anxiety taking up your time.

Strengthen Your Social Support

When you surround yourself with your friends and family, you become more secured to deal with your problems head-on. Spending quality time with family and friends helps deepen those bonds, making us feel supported and happy. This stops negative thoughts  and worries from consuming us. Besides, sharing our worries with them will help us look at things differently and in a much better light. When you feel worried about something, talk about it to someone, this will help you cope better. This will make you realise that you are not alone.

Don’t let your worries stop you from living your life. Overcome anxiety by addressing the symptoms in the right way. Learn more about the treatment options or seek professional help from the best psychologists in Bangalore, call Cadabams Hospitals on +919741476476.