Anxiety is a tremendously debilitating condition that affects millions of people. Though you may not find yourself to be overly anxious, you can find yourself succumbing to extreme anxiety from various sources. The key is to keep yourself informed about how anxiety can affect your life, and how you can find the help you need. Read on for ideas to cope with, and solve, your anxiety issues.
Find a visual or aural anchor that makes you feel calm or relaxed. Try to choose something abundant and ever-present, such as clouds or water. When you feel anxious, look to the sky or play a soothing track of flowing water on an mp3 player. These anchors can give you a focal point when you feel anxious and head off a full-blown panic attack.
Keep tabs on or eliminate your consumption of caffeine, nicotine and other stimulants. These substances increase your heart rate and can make you feel more jittery and anxious than you already do. If you cannot make it through the day without several cups of java, look at the reasons why and find ways to make your day less hectic.
If anxiety has taken over your life, get professional help. Nobody should have to suffer silently through the fear, or be forced to live a limited life due to anxiety. There is help available, so talk to a professional, or look online for a forum where you can discuss common issues with others. Doing nothing is condemning yourself to a miserable existence.
When you are on anxiety medication, never stop taking it without talking to your doctor. Even if you feel like you are better, you still cannot just stop. Some of these medications can make you very ill and can even be deadly if you just stop all of a sudden.
Don’t forget to play. With the hustle and bustle of your busy life, taking the time to play a sport, a game or an instrument might seem frivolous. Taking an hour to let your hair down and have fun can do wonders for your stress and anxiety levels, though.
Keep yourself busy. With inactivity, your mind resorts to dwelling on negative issues or worries you may have. Do simple chores, such as cleaning your car or general house cleaning. You will find the distraction beneficial.
Avoid watching TV programs that cause you anxiety. For some people, watching the news can bring on an anxiety attack. Simply because there are many negative things the news covers. If it causes you stress, then turn it off, and watch something else that makes you happy, and anxiety free.
Try to keep moving throughout the day. Remember to take regular breaks for some light exercise or walking around. Simply standing up throughout the day is beneficial as well. When at home, keep yourself active with walks or jogging and reduce the amount of TV watching or inactive sitting. While some rest and relaxation is necessary, in excess it can cause the opposite effect and lead to heightened levels of anxiety.
If anxiety and concern seems to overwhelm every waking moment, consider setting aside a specific time in which you allow yourself to think about the things that worry you the most. By restricting your worrying time to this period only, you will be able to free-up the rest of your day to focus on positive, productive aspects of life.
If you do not have someone you trust to talk to, stress levels can build up and become crippling. You need supportive people in your life when you suffer from anxiety. Talking about what is causing your stress can help your chronic anxiety, compared to keeping it inside.
Try to minimize the amount of negative words that you are using or negative comments that you are making. The more negative talk you do, the more negative thoughts and anxiety that can come creeping into your head, causing you unneeded health issues that will affect your life in some very bad ways.
Visualize positive outcomes in whatever situation you are dealing with. You can then take the time to feel better about what is happening to you. Also you can take the time to find out how you make those visualizations a reality by setting goals for how they can happen.
Have you been screened for depression? Many people who have anxiety disorders or just high levels of anxiety in general, are also depressed. This depression could be causing your anxiety, or could be caused by it, but either way, treating your depression will help you to feel better and manage your symptoms better.
A great way to help you deal with your anxiety is to identify the things that bring it on. When you determine what causes your anxiety, you can better prepare yourself to deal with those situations should they arise in the future. This way, you can see what specific things you need to work on.
If you suffer from anxiety frequently, try exercising. Regularly exercising helps to keep your mind and body fit. As a result, your anxieties can be kept at bay. Try walking, swimming, aerobics or some other type of sport. You will be surprised by how much exercising can help minimize your anxiety.
One way to cope with anxiety is to just breathe! By focusing on your breathing and taking slow, even breaths is one of the easiest ways to relax. Start by counting to five as you inhale, then exhale for the same amount of time. You’ll start to feel calmer, and you’ll buy yourself some time to deal with a difficult situation.
Make sure you get plenty of sleep every night. If you do not get enough sleep, you will feel even more anxious and not be able to deal with anything rationally. Besides that, anxiety could cause physical discomfort if you do not have enough sleep. Work to get roughly 7 to 9 hours of solid sleep each night.
Now that you can see some great ways to move forward in dealing with anxiety, it is time for you to get a medical opinion to see if there is more that needs to be done, or if the advice, you have gained here can make the needed impact in getting you to a more stable frame of mind.