While nervousness is a normal feeling that all of us get in situations like delivering a presentation or performing in front of a crowd, it can at times get out of our control. When nervousness becomes irrational, overpowering and preventing you from participating in mundane activities, it turns into anxiety.
The most common symptoms of anxiety include restlessness, increased heart rate, rapid breathing, trouble concentrating, sleeping problems and uncontrollable worry. Often, anxiety is also coupled with excessive sweating, trembling and gastrointestinal problems.
The most common mental illness in the US, anxiety disorders affect approximately 40 million American people aged 18 years or older. While anxiety disorders are easily treatable, less than four in 10 people suffering from it receive any kind of professional help for their problem.
A complex set of risk factors lead to the development of anxiety disorders, including brain chemistry, life events, personality as well as genetics. It can occur in the form of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which affects 6.8 million adults in the US; panic disorder, which has about 6 million patients; social anxiety disorder (SAD), affecting 15 million adults; obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with 2.2 million patients and many more.
Did you know that people suffering from anxiety disorders are up to five times more likely to go to the medical practitioner and about six times more likely to be admitted to a hospital for psychiatric issues than people not suffering from it!
Life can be incredibly difficult with anxiety; hence, it is important to look for ways to handle it properly. That is why we are here today with some amazing tips that will help you control your anxiety and its other symptoms in an instant. Check these out below.
#1.Take Deep Breaths
Perhaps the easiest way to control your anxiety is by taking some deep breaths. Situations that make us nervous alter our heart rate as well as our breathing patterns and instead of breathing slowly through our lower lungs, we begin to inhale and exhale rapidly through the upper lungs. This can lead to a phenomenon called hyperventilation, which comes with symptoms like dizziness, nausea, lump in the throat and shortness of breath. However, these symptoms can conveniently be reversed by changing the breathing patterns. If you feel yourself going into an anxiety attack, then monitor your breathing and start to take long breaths. Inhale, wait a few seconds and then exhale. Since breathing exercises work become more effective with practice, we suggest you try them before you actually need them.
#2. Admit Your Anxiety
Before you start dealing with your anxiety, it is important for you to admit that you are anxious. Like any other feeling, it is just an emotion that has taken you over in a situation, and it will pass. Acceptance is of paramount importance as trying to get over it without understanding first often makes it worse, perpetuating the notion that your anxiety is intolerable. Accepting your anxiety does not mean that you should start liking it or decline to a miserable existence. But it just so starts accepting the reality, whatever or however bad it may be. Just remember that being anxious may not be an ideal situation for you, but it is not anything that you cannot handle.
#3.Talk To A Friend
Controlling anxiety and its symptoms are mostly about distracting your mind away from the situation or event that makes you nervous. And what better way to do it than talking to a friend or someone else that you love. Since your mind or perhaps you are your worst enemy , it works to divert your attention from the negatives in life. Whenever you feel nervous in a situation or feel the other symptoms of anxiety taking over your senses, get in touch with someone that you love and trust and talk to them about how you feel at the moment. Talking to supportive parents or friends not only helps control panic attacks but can also boost your confidence to face the situation.
#4.Indulge In An Aerobic Activity
Fits of anxiety fill your body with adrenaline, the fight or flight hormone,often making us react irrationally in a stressful situation. An easy way to avoid responding negatively is by using that adrenaline in some aerobic activity. Exercising can burn away adrenaline that creates anxiety symptoms and also releases endorphins that will help improve your overall mood. In addition to that, it also forces healthy breathing, distraction, and tires the muscles, reducing tension and excess energy. Jogging, brisk walking and other such basic exercises are known to be highly effective in reducing the severity of your anxiety.
#5.Do Something That Relaxes You
As we said above, dealing anxiety is all about distracting your mind, and another good way to keep your mind from overthinking about negative circumstances is doing something relaxing. There must be things in your life that you enjoy like reading, tub bath, watching television, going for a walk in the park, getting a massage or something else. These can help you get over your anxiety in an instant. Also, do not waste time in indulging in them. For instance, if a shower delights you and improves your mood, then hop into it right away and wash off all your anxious thoughts, before they start to overwhelm you.
#6.Question Your Thoughts
Anxiety is a result of our own thoughts. Coming across an old flame, making a presentation or confronting someone may not actually go as bad as we think. When we are anxious, our mind starts to come up with outlandish ideas that are highly unlikely to occur in reality, and these unrealistic thoughts worsen the already anxious state of an individual. When stuck in a situation that makes you anxious, question yourself and yourself about what is the worse that could happen and what are the chances of that happening. Remember that in all likeliness, no one will even remember what may be about to happen. Questions like is the worry realistic, what are your options, what are the worst possible outcomes and how you may handle those can help you overcome your anxiety.
#7.Listen To Music
Music is a powerful force and listening to your favorite songs can improve your mood in an instant. An important thing to note at this point is to listen to the kind of music that represents how you want to feel rather than how you feel at present. Therefore, happy or relaxing music is what we suggest you to play when you are anxious. Listening to angry music when you are angry or sad music when dark clouds of sadness shadow you will only push you more towards the negative feelings instead of changing your mood.
Wondering what other amazingeffects music has on us? Find out here.
#8. Vent It All Out
Anxiety gets worse when you try
to fight it, so an interesting idea to deal with it would be to embrace it and vent
it all out. Whenever you feel the symptoms of anxiety taking hold of your senses, finding a solitary place and let it all
out. Yell, scream or punch a pillow,
having fun and letting your emotions out at the same time. This is a great way to accept the situation and
your feelings. We urge you to make sure that no one is around when you go crazy, and you do not break anything important
that you might regret later. If you are looking for a peaceful way to vent your
feelings out, then we recommend you to journalize. Maintaining a journal evokes
mindfulness, improves emotional intelligence and boost memory and
comprehension.
#9.Use Positive Self-Talk
Since anxiety is just your mind coming up with all the ways things can go wrong, what better way to deal with it than some positive self-talk? It can help you bring out the positive from the negative, do better and just keep moving forward. This process allows us to discover hope and joy even in negative situations. Use affirmations that you will get to your desired goals. Repeating them over and over again can build new connections in your subconscious mind, opening it up for fresh thoughts.
So, these are some things you can do to get rid of your anxiety in an instant. In case you or somebody in your family or friend circle has been suffering from anxiety for a long-term, then we suggest you get in touch with a therapist or counselor as soon as possible. Do not wait till the problem deepens its claws in their psyche because then it might be too late to get them over their fear. Mental issues are just like physical disorders that need professional help. So, do not let psychiatric illnesses keep you or someone you love from enjoying their life to the fullest.
If you have some other tips that you think can help in controlling anxiety, then share those with us through the comment section below. We love it when you write to us.
Well i liked it very much!
but still if nothing helps, you can ask your doctor to recommend you an anti-anxiety med for instant control over it!
you can buy xanax online or anyother med recommended by your doctor, as things are made pretty easy in this meodern era!
I have a close friend who has suffered from anxiety for a major part of his life and continues to do so
since he believes that it is not big a deal that he needs to visit a shrink. He gets anxious whenever he has
to face a social setting or a group of people. Due to a minor past event, he is also scared of getting
embarrassed on social media that he hasn’t made an account on any of the portals. He may or may not
realize it, but I know for a fact that he has been missing out on a lot of fun and adventure just because of
this minor problem that he has.
If you are suffering from anxiety as well, then I suggest you to talk to a professional soon. If you too are
not willing to make an appointment, then maybe the following tips can help you take care of it by
yourself.
Did you know that your eating habits may be the culprit behind your anxious behavior! Yes, believe it or
not, it’s true. So, the easiest way to tackle your anxiety is by keeping a check on what you consume.
Coffee is believed by many to be one of the leading causes of the mental problem. You can either stop
consuming tea or coffee altogether or switch to decaffeinated tea. Also, you may consider sugary or
starchy foods as stress-reducing food items but these only provide a temporary comfort and cause
emotional stress and strain in the long run.
When you are eliminating mood-spoiling food from your diet, then why not add things that improve your
mood to it? Food items that are rich in antioxidants like blueberries reduce hormones that are
responsible for stress and make us feel better in an instant. Foods that are rich in vitamins B, D and E like
salmon, eggs and almond are other things you can try. GABA is a neurotransmitter which improves sleep
and relaxes our body and mind. Consuming foods that are rich in GABA on a regular basis can help you
deal with your anxiety.
Another common culprit behind anxiety is lack of sleep. Sleeplessness can leave anybody worn out and
when it is coupled with anxiety, it makes things worse. Therefore, make sure that you get at least seven
to nine hours of sleep every day. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time on a daily basis as that
will help you build a proper sleep cycle. Those who find it difficult to fall asleep should make it a point to
not use phone, computer of television before heading to the bed. These gadgets prevent the production
of melatonin, a hormone which helps us fall asleep.
Lastly, I would suggest you to start practicing sciences that improve mind control like yoga and
meditation. These two have proven to be quite effective in lowering anxiety levels.
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