Anxiety is a sense of fear, uneasiness, and dread. Someone with an anxiety disorder may experience both physical and mental symptoms. It’s also normal to respond to stressful situations with anxiety on occasion. When you have a disorder, on the other hand, your anxiety doesn’t go away, and it interferes with your daily life. Learning how to deal with anxiety in these situations is important to improve your quality of life.
Understanding Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are conditions where the symptoms don’t go away without treatment and often worsen. When someone has an anxiety disorder, it can negatively interfere with their schoolwork, job, or relationships.
The types of anxiety disorders can be broken down into three broad categories.
- There is generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). With a generalized anxiety disorder, you might worry about various situations, such as money, health, and family. You have excessive worries every day or nearly every day for at least six months to be diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.
- Panic disorders include panic attacks. A panic attack is a sudden period of intense fear, despite no actual danger. Panic attacks come on quickly, last for a few minutes or more, and include physical symptoms like shortness of breath, chest pain, and increased heart rate.
- Phobias are also a type of anxiety disorder. Someone with a phobia has an intense fear of something that doesn’t pose a real danger to them. Social phobia or social anxiety disorder is an example.
Treatments for anxiety disorders include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). When someone works with a therapist, they learn how to change and use different ways of thinking and behaving. You can learn how to react to the things causing fear and anxiety. CBT for anxiety may also include exposure therapy.
Medicines for the treatment of anxiety disorders include anti-anxiety medicines and anti-depressants.
5 Ways to Learn How to Deal with Anxiety
The following goes more specifically into five ways you can learn how to deal with the symptoms of anxiety.
1. Breathing Exercises
Breathing exercises can work well for feelings of anxiety. Some of the simple ways you can explore how to deal with anxiety through breathing include:
- Lengthen your exhales. Inhaling deeply isn’t always calming. Taking deep breaths is linked to your sympathetic nervous system, controlling your fight-or-flight response. Exhaling, on the other hand, is associated with your parasympathetic nervous system. That’s what influences your ability to relax. If you’re feeling anxious, try to do a deep exhale and push all of the air out of your lungs. Then, let your lungs inhale normally. From there, try to spend longer periods exhaling than inhaling.
- Deep breathing from your diaphragm can help you manage an anxiety attack. Sit comfortably or lie flat, with your knees bent. You can put one hand under your rib cage and the other over your heart. Inhale and exhale through your nose. Notice the movement of your stomach and chest with diaphragmatic breathing. See if you can isolate your breathing so that you move your chest more than your stomach and vice versa.
- Belly breathing exercises can also help with anxiety. You can lie down or sit down. Put a hand on your chest and a hand on your stomach above your belly button. Breathe through your nose as you’re mindful of your stomach rising. Pursing your lips, exhale through your mouth. Try to engage your stomach muscles, pushing air out at the end of your breath.
2. Make a Therapist Appointment
Therapy and working with a mental health professional can be incredibly helpful when you suffer from anxiety. For many anxiety disorders, therapy is considered the most effective treatment option. When you participate in therapy, you uncover some underlying reasons for your worries. You can learn how to change your perspective and reactions to things and develop skills for coping and problem-solving.
There are different types of therapy, but cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure therapy are most often used for anxiety disorders and other mental health conditions.
3. Consider Anxiety Medication
Once you start working with a therapist, they might also recommend taking anti-anxiety medication as part of your treatment plan. Most therapists can’t prescribe medicine, so you might work with your primary care provider or a psychiatrist on this.
There are both short- and long-term medicines for people with anxiety disorders.
Benzodiazepines like Xanax are short-term medicines that work quickly to help you feel calmer, but they’re not often prescribed because they have addiction potential. If a doctor does prescribe benzodiazepines, it’s usually only for a short time.
Antidepressants are medicines that affect neurotransmitters in the brain and can also be used to treat anxiety symptoms. These medicines can take four to six weeks to start working.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs can work by raising serotonin levels in the brain, which may help with anxiety.
Beta-blockers are another type of medicine. These are used in the treatment of heart conditions. They’re used off-label for physical anxiety symptoms, especially involving social anxiety.
4. Grounding Techniques
Grounding is a practice that can pull you away from uncomfortable emotions, memories, or flashbacks.
When you practice grounding techniques, you’re refocusing on what’s happening in the present moment, which can alleviate anxiety through distraction.
There are many ways you can physically ground yourself, and these techniques involve your five senses or things you can physically touch.
For example, you can put your hands in water when feeling anxious. You can notice the temperature of the water and how it feels. You can alternate between warm and cold water.
Taking a quick walk can be a form of grounding. Focus on the steps you’re taking, or even count them. Think about the rhythm of your steps.
Hold a piece of ice. Consider what it initially feels like and how long it takes to melt. Think about it feels different as it melts.
You can do exercises like jumping rope or jumping jacks and think about how your body feels with every movement. Another simple way to use grounding techniques is to listen to your surroundings for a few minutes.
5. Call a Friend
Don’t underestimate the value of social support when you’re experiencing anxiety. A lack of social support, on the other hand, contributes to loneliness and isolation. If you’re feeling especially anxious, don’t try to go through it alone. Remember to stay in touch with the people you care about and who care about you. Appreciate your friends and family and be available when they need it.
Anxiety Treatment in Orange County, CA
These tips are helpful to help you manage your anxiety symptoms, but they are not a substitute for traditional treatment options, which might include therapy, medication, or supplements. Your cause for anxiety and reaction to that cause is unique to you, as your treatment should be. If you’re interested in learning more about a unique treatment plan for your situation, contact the Orange County team of Story Wellness today at (866) 476-2823.
