Anxiety can be a debilitating disease and if you don’t get it under control, it can take over your life. Fortunately, there are a number of things that you can do to reduce your anxiety symptoms. The advice in this article will help you to make anxiety a thing of the past.
In the throes of an anxiety attack, practice diaphramatic breathing to help you calm down. Place one hand on your stomach and inhale deeply, pushing your hand outward. Hold that breath for several seconds, and exhale slowly. This keeps you from hyperventilating and gives you something besides your panic to focus on.
To help you reduce your anxiety symptoms, keep a journal of all of the events or issues that make you anxious throughout the day. Refer back to these events and see how they actually transpired. You will realize that you are often imagining a worst case scenario which does not transpire.
When you are suffering from an anxiety attack, you may be tempted to self-medicate yourself with prescription drugs or alcohol. This is the last thing you should do. It may seem to work well for a while, but it can cause long-term problems with drug addiction and alcoholism.
To help manage your anxiety, consider meeting with a therapist who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy. This kind of therapy can help you attack specific fears or worries by identifying and changing distorted patterns in your thinking. By looking at the full picture of how your worries affect you, you can hopefully decrease your overall anxiety when those thinking patterns are eliminated.
If you frequently suffer from attacks of anxiety, don’t suffer in silence. See a doctor or therapist who can help you to overcome the anxiety before it turns into other problems, such as panic attacks or generalized anxiety disorder. There are therapies and medications that will help you to overcome anxiety problems.
Use goals to help manage anxiety. If you set a goal for each day of the week, you will have something to work toward. Doing this will keep your mind off of anxiety and worry, reducing the amount of anxiety that you feel each day. Life can be as good as you want it to be.
Think about the positive things in your life. Write them down each day before going to bed and when you wake up to begin the day. The positive thoughts will help keep the negative thoughts out of your mind, alleviating some of the negative emotions that feed your anxiety.
Sometimes when people are experiencing high levels of anxiety, they will have increased cravings for salt. This is your body’s way of informing you that it requires more sodium. The best salt to consume is that which is unprocessed and raw. It’s easier for the body to digest, along with having more minerals that your body needs.
When you start feeling anxious in public, find ways to distract yourself. When in line at the store, start looking at the items hanging near you or the products in your basket. Observe the ceiling, count the number of checkstands, and do anything else you can to preoccupy your mind and keep it from dwelling on anxious thoughts.
Begin recording your thoughts in a diary. Many sufferers find that there is no place to release the building of anxious thoughts that they feel. By using a journal or diary to release these thoughts, your brain can focus on the here and now.
To help control your anxiety, try to find the things or people that make you laugh the most. This could include watching a comedy movie, reading a funny book, or simply telling jokes with friends. You will find your anxiety to be much more controlled when you feel more joyful.
Try to set a goal and work harder to get there. Doing this will give you something to focus on each day, which helps to eliminate those negative and anxious feelings you may have. You should think about constructive things and not negatives.
Make a habitual practice of staying present in the moment. Many people keep relieving the past or fretting over the future. This will only serve to overwhelm you, causing even more worry, which will eventually turn into an anxiety attack. Minimize anxiety by only focusing on the present, and don’t allow your thought to wander elsewhere.
Speak with a trustworthy friends about the anxiety you feel. Voicing your negative thoughts can help you minimize the effect they have on you and diminish their power. It’s even better if you find a support system, as they can give you tips on how you can deal with anxiety.
After being diagnosed with anxiety disorder, many people worry about the cost associated with needed medical intervention. Most insurance plans will cover needed medicines and treatments for this disorder. If you currently do not have health insurance, contact your county government’s Health and Human Services division. In many instances, they offer mental health care at a nearby public health facility. Charges at these facilities are pro-rated on a person’s ability to pay.
Exercise. Get into doing some sort of daily exercise routine. Go for a walk or a run, join the gym, or buy a workout DVD that you do each day. This extra activity releases dopamine and seratonin into your body, boosts your mood and your oxygen levels. All of these things work together to keep you healthier, happier and less stressed.
Write two letters directed at the thing that is making you anxious. One should be completely positive; only write down good things. Vent in the other letter; discuss how you want to get past your fear and talk about your anger related to the situation. Getting all your thoughts and emotions out will help you feel better.
After reading the advice in this article, you should now be aware that you aren’t sentenced to a life of anxiety. Use the tips and techniques that you learned, and you will soon be able to put the symptoms of anxiety behind you. Just remember that this isn’t an overnight fix. It might take a while, but in time, your anxiety will be a thing of the past.