Updated April 2013

Feeling anxious? You’re not alone. This guide offers four practical strategies to help you manage your anxiety and regain control of your thoughts and emotions.

While it’s true that everyone gets anxious to some degree or another, many people have developed a method of overcoming their feelings of anxiety so it doesn’t adversely affect them or their activities.

In this article, we address people with a mild degree of anxiety that may not require medical treatment BUT prevents them from being happy or feeling they are fulfilling their set goals.

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a condition that challenges your mental and emotional makeup.

In severe stages, it can affect your physical health as well.

Anxiety happens when you are exposed to a degree of stress that takes you out of your comfort zone.

However, some stress in our lives can be necessary to allow us to challenge a particular mindset or comfort zone.

By responding and overcoming the stress, we may be lifted to a better place in our life journey – which may not have happened without the stressful event!!

Anxiety can be general in which case there is a worry or agitation in the mind about any number of things in an excessive way.

In other cases, it is specific to a social situation (social anxiety), or phobia for places or certain objects, or after a particularly traumatic experience (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD).

Four Methods for Coping with Feelings of Anxiety

Drugs or Alcohol Do NOT Help

First, it’s important to have a mindset that is Optimistic.

Being able to consider an ‘up-side’ when things do not appear to be going well.

This allows the mind to open up to possible solutions that may directly or indirectly impact a problem.

Giving up or resorting to recreational (illicit) drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism never improves the situation.

There is the belief that alcohol or drugs may help ‘calm’ you down.

They may suppress agitation in the short term, but the long-term effects are a big problem.

This is because they can worsen anxiety. They also cause effects like confusion, disorientation and low moods.

Some can lead to other mental health problems like psychosis, where people start to have an alternative perception of reality.

In addition:

Positive Thinking.

Look for optimistic people, listen to them, and read about them and the challenges they face.

Consider inspirational quotes/people; think about them.

Looking at how people have overcome their challenging circumstances could motivate and encourage you.

While new situations, challenges, problems, difficulties and uncertainties affect each of us in different and personal ways, it is the opportunities that they present to us that we should identify to focus on and take advantage of.

Don’t Isolate.

Social support is always a great stress buster.

Many people with anxiety try to be strong and deal with it by themselves, bottling up stress and not allowing the benefits of opening up to someone else to reveal a solution they may have overlooked or just share the burden.

Sometimes the support needed to help with the problem may just be sitting by you.

Even if you don’t have a large social circle – have one or two people you can relax and just be ‘you’ with.

You don’t have to be the party butterfly, but you can certainly be on someone’s phone list.

Help somebody else.

It’s very easy to get caught up in your experience only (and all of us have experiences worth sharing).

Taking your mind off your issues to do something for someone else is rewarding and gives you a sense of contribution to someone else’s success.

No matter how trite it may be, even small favours will help someone else feel better.

That also counts a great deal when your help put smiles on the face of other people in spite of the challenges that you may be facing.

As the saying goes: there is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.

Conclusion

Anyone who is anxious to the point that they cannot function at home or work or are deeply unhappy with their life should seek medical advice.

Counselling can be of significant value, and treatment may require a re-orientation of thinking or other approaches to managing different types of anxiety – including medication.

For any comments or further inquiries about this article, please write us.

More Reading:

• Illness Anxiety – “Why am I ALWAYS ‘worrying’ About My Health?”
• Anxiety Rash: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment Options
• The Intersection of Mental Health and Women’s Sexual Wellbeing
• Effects of Stress and Six Proven Ways To Overcome Them
• Revealing Common Causes of Indigestion & How to Prevent It

Editing by AskAwayHealth Team

Disclaimer

All AskAwayHealth articles are written by practising  Medical Practitioners on a wide range of health care conditions to provide evidence-based guidance and to help promote quality health care. 

The advice in our material is not meant to replace the management of your specific condition by a qualified health care practitioner.
To discuss your condition, please contact a health practitioner or reach us directly