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.
Have a trusted resource to call on, whenever you may be subject to an attack. Be it a relative or friend, you should have someone who is aware of your condition and can help talk you through an attack. Having to face one alone is very overwhelming, and you will work through them quicker if you have someone to help.
Keep yourself busy. Many times anxiety occurs because of having too much time to think about things. Keep busy with exercise or other types of hobbies to give you less time to think about negative thoughts. If you have less time to think negative thoughts, you will lessen your chances of experiencing anxiety.
A great way to address anxiety is to master the art of diaphragmatic breathing. When you have the ability to focus on this type of deep breathing from the stomach, it is possible to achieve a sense of calm and contentedness that can calm even the most stressful of situations.
Try creating your own anxious worrying period. Choose a single or two 10 minute spots each day where you can worry and just feel anxious. During this worry period, try focusing only on the anxious, negative thoughts without trying to correct them. The rest of the day should remain anxiety-free.
Know your limits if you suffer from anxiety. If you have had a stressful day, cancel anything that may have been on the schedule for the rest of the night. Pop a frozen pizza in the oven for dinner and allow yourself to recuperate from the stress, otherwise you may be inviting anxiety to take over.
Always make it a point to focus on the positive things that are happening in your life, no matter how big or small it may be. Positive thoughts drown out the negative ones and the more positive thoughts you have, the smaller the problems in your life, will seem to you.
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.
Anxieties are unavoidable, but when you are faced with a situation that makes you anxious, remember to take deep breaths. Breathe in like you are smelling a flower, and breathe out like you are trying to blow out a candle. This will give you more oxygen, slow your heartbeat and calm you down.
Don’t sit still when anxiety is coming on. When you sit and brood about issues, your anxiety can spike quickly and leave you unable to function. At the onset of any anxious feelings, get up and get moving. Walk, run or exercise in some way. You will take your mind off the negative issues and allow your mind to reset.
No one wants to admit that they have an issue with anxiety. It can be embarrassing to be sweaty, nervous, clammy, and jittery in front of other people. You can avoid this somewhat by knowing what things make you so anxious and either working on facing your fears or avoiding situations that will bring them about.
Avoid things that could raise your blood pressure. This includes high levels of salt and sodium, caffeine and even alcohol. These substances can raise your heart rate and your blood pressure, making your anxiety symptoms worse. While avoiding these items might not eliminate your anxiety, it will keep it from feeling so out of control.
Laughter really is the best medicine. Laughter has long had a reputation for being good for the mind. If you have ever seen contagious laughter in action, you know this to be true. The next time you feel anxiety and worry building up, put on your favorite funny movie or album of stand-up comedy. Even if you don’t feel like it when it starts, you will quickly find yourself in a better mood by the end.
Staying away from alcohol, foods and drinks that contain caffeine, may be wise if you suffer from anxiety. Both of these items contain ingredients that can set off and make anxiety much worse. Try drinking more water, instead and try out decaffeinated versions of your favorite beverages, such as, coffee.
Use deep breathing techniques to calm anxiety. Try to breathe in for six counts and then out for six counts, through the nose. This will relax the central nervous system and calm anxious feelings. Since breathing can be done anywhere, this is a great on-the-spot treatment for anxiety.
Have a mantra to repeat when you are feeling some anxiety. When you start to feel anxious, repeat this mantra until you begin to calm down. This will help you deal with those feelings before they get on top of you and you have a full blown anxiety attack.
Try not to self-medicate with alcohol. When you suffer from anxiety, it can be easy to consume alcohol, in order to reduce your symptoms. Using alcohol to control your anxiety levels, however, is a very bad idea. You will build up a tolerance to the alcohol, and you will have to keep increasing your intake.
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.