Axing Anxiety - Easy to Use Skills To Help Manage Anxiety
If you yourself don't struggle with anxiety, you are a rarity and one of the lucky ones! The truth of the matter is that anxiety affects ⅓ of adults in the US, and this number could realistically be A LOT higher as many suffer in silence without diagnosis, help, or treatment.
Anxiety treatment involves therapy and often in combination with medication. Unfortunately, anxiety can strike in the worst and most random times. But this is not an article to explain exactly what anxiety is, if you've found your way here, you probably already know that you or someone you know has anxiety and wants some support to better manage it.
As a therapist who specializes in anxiety management, it is an essential part of the treatment process to develop a set of coping skills that work for you to manage anxiety on your own in those difficult times when anxiety rears its ugly head. Unfortunately, everyone’s anxiety symptoms are unique and it's not a one size fits all disorder. Luckily, there are a lot of skills that can be used to cope with anxiety that we all can use and practice to ax that pesky anxiety.
Below are a few skills to help you better manage anxiety:
Take a Deep Breath:
Deep breathing is one of the number one recommended coping skills for anxiety. There are many ways to practice deep breathing, you can google or Youtube a few and pick one you may like, but the focus is on deep prolonged breath with control. This will calm your heart rate down, and when the body relaxes the mind can follow. My favorite deep breathing skill to use and teach is what I call “Battery Breathing”.
Here's How To Do It: Think of your body like an empty battery that needs recharging. Breathe all of your breath out and focus on your core. Slowly breathe in through your nose and fill your stomach up with air. Next, instead of letting your breath out, think of your chest as the next part of your battery, and continue to breathe in, filling up your lungs. Lastly, before releasing all your breath, fill up the rest of your battery all the way up your chest and throat. Then slowly release your breath with your mouth. It is most effective if you repeat at a slow pace at least 3 times. The best part about deep breathing for anxiety is you can use it anywhere/any time.
Get Grounded:
When we are anxious our mind is often racing about the past, the future, fears, and other irrational thinking. Grounding techniques aim to bring you back to the present where you feel in control and “grounded” in your current state. My favorite grounding technique doubles as thought distraction to help stimulate your senses and redirect your thoughts to the here and now, things you can control. It's called the 5,4,3,2,1 technique and it's simple.
Here's How To Do It: Get comfortable in a sitting position with your feet placed on the ground. Begin by acknowledging 5 things in your vicinity that you can see. Next, 4 things you can touch. 3 things you can hear. Moving on to 2 things you can smell. And finally, 1 thing you can taste. Take your time with it, focus, and get grounded.
Control Your Environment:
This is more effective than you may think. Your environment has a huge impact on your mind and body, sometimes creating anxiety and a stress response. Whether it is removing yourself from a crowded place, taking a walk outside, getting fresh air, controlling the temperature, or putting on a comforting movie. Changing the current environment you are in that is giving you anxiety can be a quick and easy skill to reduce the current anxious spike you may be feeling.
Challenge Thoughts:
Anxiety can come from stressful thinking patterns rooted in irrational thoughts. These irrational thinking patterns are super stressful and can often have us believing our thoughts to be true, when they are in fact not. The quickest way to deal with this problem before it spirals out of control is to identify these thinking patterns and begin challenging these thoughts.
Here’s How To Do It: Identify the irrational thought you are having and challenge it with a fact or the opposite of the irrational thought happening. For example, if you are at an event and anxious that everyone is looking at or judging you, challenge that thought with the opposite such as “there are a lot of people here there is no reason anyone would be looking at just me”. The most important thing to remember is as real as they may feel, your anxious thoughts are NOT facts. It is even useful to repeat this mantra to yourself during these times. “My thoughts are not facts”.
Activate Your Vagus Nerve:
The vagus nerve is an essential nerve connecting the brain to various organs and parts of our body. So it is no surprise that the vagus nerve is very important to mental health regulation. It can work for you or against you, so learning how to activate the vagus nerve to support your anxiety is a quick way to feel better and respond more effectively to emotional and anxious moments.
Here’s How To Do It: There are many ways to stimulate your vagus nerve to help you effectively manage anxiety. Cold exposure such as a cold shower, ice bath, or putting your face in cold water for at least 30 seconds is an excellent way to stimulate the nerve. It reduces the fight or flight response which is often an anxiety trigger. Humming or singing is also effective. Exercise and body massages also are helpful in stimulating the nerve. Lastly, laughing! Laughing is a great way to reduce your stress hormones and activate the vagus nerve. Put on your favorite comedy or get together with your friends.
Additional Quick Tips to Manage Anxiety:
Avoid your triggers when possible (a trigger is something specific you know gives/gave you anxiety in the past)
Avoid alcohol and drugs
Avoid nicotine and tobacco
Keep a healthy diet
Get enough sleep
Keep a good support system
Do some research, find and try as many coping strategies as you can!
As a disclaimer, these coping skills are not GUARANTEED to work for everyone, as I stated everyone's anxiety is unique. With this list, I am aiming to help people find QUICK and useful coping skills for moments when they are needing some support. If you are struggling to manage your anxiety symptoms by practicing these more generic coping skills, it may be time to seek out therapy with an anxiety expert so you can dig deeper in your own anxiety and develop a more tailored and specific treatment plan for you.
With anxiety being so prominent in the lives of so many, help is readily available.
If you or someone you know may need some support managing their anxiety, please don't hesitate to contact Bayview Therapy today at 954-391-5305 for a complimentary phone consultation to discuss your therapy needs and ask to speak with Jamie Ratowski, LMFT.
I offer counseling for adults and couples at our beautiful office located in Plantation, Florida.
I also accommodate most online therapy requests through a secure telehealth platform.
