Ten Tips for Managing Anxiety
Hello Everyone, I hope you’re all doing well in the midst of our ongoing challenges caused by the pandemic. Today’s post is a compilation of the 10 best tips I have for managing anxiety. I hope you find them helpful. My favorite (and I believe the most important tip) is #7 - willingness. In most cases to overcome your anxiety, you must face whatever is causing your anxiety and when you do that, you will inevitably experience more anxiety, especially at first. Unless you’re willing to experience some anxiety (often quite a lot of anxiety), you probably won’t get to the other side and experience less anxiety. It really is a paradox. To have less anxiety, you must accept having more anxiety!!
Ten Tips for Managing Anxiety
1. Learn about your anxiety
Anxiety can come in different flavors and so it’s often useful to better understand exactly what flavor of anxiety you’re struggling with. While exposure is a common element across most useful treatments for anxiety, how the exposure is designed and what the targets are will vary based upon what kind of anxiety you have. Too often, I think, people focus on how to get rid of their anxiety, when often a better resolution will evolve as you better understand what’s causing the anxiety and address that.
2. Add movement to your day
The more physically fit you are and the more active you are throughout the day, the less likely your anxiety will bother you. While exercise may not be a direct mainstream treatment for anxiety, I think it should be. In my clinical work, I’ve had numerous people benefit rather dramatically from a regular exercise program.
3. Improve your sleep
In addition to being more active, the better rested you are the less likely you are to be troubled by your anxiety. In a general sense the healthier you are and the more resilient you are in the face of life’s challenges the less likely you are to experience anxiety.
4. Don’t let your anxiety decide how you’re going to live your life
Avoidance makes anxiety worse and exposure to anxiety triggers (coupled with willingness and openness to experience anxiety) can, if done regularly, make a big difference in how much anxiety you experience. If you decide to face your fears, you may in the short run experience a bit more anxiety, but in the long run, you will likely experience less anxiety. But even if your anxiety doesn’t change, you’ll be living your life the way you want and not just the way your anxiety allows you to live.
5. Mindfulness
I have become a fan of mindfulness meditation as a useful tool to both better understand and to manage anxiety. The goal of mindfulness meditation is not to relax (this is a very common misconception), but is to become better at noticing what your mind is telling you so you can then decide if you are going to believe what your mind tells you. As you practice mindfulness you can get better at stepping out of your usual anxious thought stream, and allow these thoughts to come and go without being overly influenced by them.
6. Learn some form of relaxation technique
Many times it is the physical side of anxiety that troubles people the most and includes experiences such as feeling short of breath, racing heart, trembling, etc. Practicing some form of relaxation such as progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing, yoga or virtually any other method that helps you be more aware of and loosen the tension in your body can be helpful in managing anxiety. The trick here is to not use relaxation as an avoidance technique, because as already mentioned, avoidance makes anxiety worse. The relaxation method is to be used as a tool to help you face your anxiety as opposed to a tool to avoid anxiety.
7. Willingness
This is one of the more important and at the same time one of the more elusive tips I’m going to suggest. Your willingness to experience anxiety in the short run is one of the best predictors of your long-term success in your efforts to better manage your anxiety. As I just mentioned, exposure is a key element in most successful treatments for anxiety and so as you start doing exposure to your fears, you will inevitably experience more anxiety at first. You must expect and accept that as a necessary part of the process in the long-term management of your anxiety.
8. Focus on having a purpose in life
Why should you bother facing your fears? Why go to all the trouble and stress of experiencing all that anxiety? It only makes sense to face your fears if that helps you move toward what is important to you. If your fear of public speaking prevents you from speaking at your daughter’s wedding or from moving up the ladder at work - i.e. interferes with an important goal - then it makes sense to tackle it. Having a purpose in your life and pursuing that gives you a reason to manage anxiety and usually results in a more fulfilled life.
9. Find and work with a therapist
I put this one near the end not because it’s not important, but because I think there’s a lot you can do on your own before consulting a therapist. And if you do decide to see a therapist, being aware of all of these tips should help you choose an appropriate person to work with and make the work you do with them more effective.
10. Consult a prescriber
Once again, I put this one at the end of the 10 tips list not because it’s less important, but I think that people often make the mistake of believing that medication is the most effective and best option, and while I’m not at all against medication as an option because for many people it’s quite effective, I think is not the best place to start. Current protocols for managing anxiety recommend doing cognitive behavioral therapy first (which is what the above tips are all about) and if that’s not effective consult with a prescriber about medication options. Notice I’m saying a “prescriber” as opposed to a physician/psychiatrist. While a psychiatrist is, of course, an excellent choice, it’s helpful to be aware that there are psychiatric nurse practitioners who often are equally qualified and often more available than a psychiatrist might be for appointments.
As always, let me know if you have any questions. Stay well and I intend to start posting more regularly again.
Best,
Dr Bob
