Dealing with anxiety
Anxiety is caused by how we perceive stress. It is characterised by excessive, uncontrollable worry and physical symptoms like headaches, dizziness, churning stomach, pins and needles, faster breathing or panic attacks. It is possible to learn effective ways of responding to stress to prevent anxiety from becoming a problem. However, if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, you may need further support.
Ask yourself, “what then?”
Often our worries are hypothetical, e.g. “what if I lose my job”. It’s common to get stuck in the worst part of the scenario without thinking about what would happen next or what we would do, e.g. “I’ll use the feedback to go for the next job” , “I’ll look for another job”. Facing the worry with what you would do and how you would cope can remove some of the anxiety associated with it. You may realise you could cope better than initially expected.
When you face a worry with a plan for how you would cope, it loses much of its power
Worry time
Worry can feel hard to control. Rather than trying to stop it all together, one technique is to schedule “worry time” where you can dedicate time to think about your worries. Anytime a worry comes to mind, write it down. During your “worry time” sort these thoughts into things you can and can’t do something about. For those you can do something about, make a brief plan or schedule a time to deal with them effectively. Whilst this technique doesn’t necessarily ‘solve’ worries, it does limit the time you spend thinking about them and make them less overwhelming.
Prioritise the present
Sometimes, we can get stuck worrying about things in the past or future. Mindfulness can be used to achieve conscious attention control to disengage with anxious thoughts. The Thrive app has a variety of techniques like calm breathing, deep muscle relaxation and applied relaxation. All of these focus on mind-body connection, as sometimes when we can’t control our mind it can be easier to gain control of the sensations in our body first.
Credit: This article was written by our partner, Thrive Mental Wellbeing. They are a trusted mental health support service that offers accessible, evidence-based tools through their app and professional therapy services.
