Coping With Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety is a response to a situation that an individual feels threatened or frightened by. As a result the bodies inbuilt survival instinct gets triggered in preparation to stand and fight or to run away. This is known as the fight or flight response. In order to overcome anxiety you have to bring this response under control so that it does not overwhelm you. This fight-or-flight response that causes your anxiety is being activated by situations that are not dangerous when you should be in control. Your body is literally preparing to face a life or death situation which is totally out of proportion to what is really going on.
You are not ill if you suffer from anxiety. Anxiety is just an inappropriate response to what is actually happening or your perception of it. Anxiety is a habit than can be unlearned. By learning about your anxiety and the causes of it you will find that you can more easily cope with it. Anxiety is likely to have a connection with something specific such as a situation, person or place.
Keeping an anxiety journal is a great way to help you identify what is causing your anxiety. Every day make a note in your journal about your anxiety levels and what you were doing at the time. You should record the level of your anxiety by rating it on a scale from 1 to 10. Did you avoid any situations because your feared they will have made you anxious? If so make note of the things that you didn’t do due to your anxiety. You should try and remember what you were thinking about in the moments that led to your anxiety and record these in your journal. This will help you to identify whether negative thinking is causing your anxiety. Once you have been updating your anxiety journal for a while there should be enough information within it to give you some clues to what is causing your anxiety. So be sure to read what you have written every so often.
You don’t have to continue to live with your anxiety. There are so many things you can do to remove causes of stress from your life. You can find yourself a relaxing hobby. Having something to focus your attention on is a great way to forget about the stressful things in your life. You might like to read a book or to take up art or photography. You could try taking up yoga, meditation, Tai Chi or Qi Gong. These are all great ways to relieve stress. Don’t underestimate the influence your diet is having on your anxiety. Try and eat a balanced healthy diet. Try to get some extra sleep if you aren’t getting enough. Why not treat yourself to a reflexology or a massage treatment. You should also try not to drink too much caffeine containing drinks such tea and coffee as it has a stimulant effect than can make you more prone to anxiety. If you are finding it difficult to unwind then you could get yourself one of the many available relaxing hypnosis MP3 downloads.
If it all gets too much and you find yourself becoming preoccupied by your anxiety, then you need to try and distract yourself from your anxious thoughts. The best way to do this is to become more aware of what’s going on around you instead of what’s on your mind. Look around you and pay attention to the details of what you see and pay attention to the sounds and smells. As you become absorbed in the outer world you start to pay less attention to your inner world and you will forget about your anxiety.
For more advice on dealing with anxiety you could try one of the anxiety self help guides that are available online.