10 Strategies to Build Your Anxiety Toolkit

Anxiety can wreck your mental and physical health. These tactics will give you short-term relief and long-term strategies to manage it.

It’s hard to tame anxiety when you suppress it, hate it or, worse, stoke it. Approach anxiety like you would any other surmountable problem. Consider these tactics for addressing your anxiety. And be sure to prioritize sleep, everything is harder when you’re exhausted.

Name it

When you start to feel anxious, pause and try to identify your feelings as precisely as possible. Perhaps it’s something like: I feel a sense of dread about going to work today. Labeling feelings helps your prefrontal cortex organize chaotic emotions into rational thoughts, dampening their effect, according to research by Matthew Lieberman, a neuroscientist and professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. Next, confide in someone you trust so you feel less alone. Explain that you don’t need help, you just want to share your emotions.

Investigate

Tune into your triggers. Also, practice what’s known as cognitive reappraisal, which means reframing the meaning of an emotion to alter its impact. Reappraising is associated with decreased anxiety, while suppressing emotions is associated with increased symptoms.

Take deep breaths

Taking a few deep belly breaths, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth, can turn down your body’s stress response, which is particularly helpful if your anxiety is accompanied by physical symptoms such as shallow breathing, a racing heart or churning stomach.

Listen to music

Several studies have found that music can reduce levels of anxiety in critically ill patients. Experiment with different types of music to see what helps you feel calmer.

Take a brisk walk

“A single bout of exercise can improve your mood,” says Kristin Szuhany, a clinical psychologist at New York University Grossman School of Medicine. Walking outside while focusing on your surroundings can help you feel more connected to your present experience and away from the worried thoughts in your head.

Take a mindfulness class

A recent study by Elizabeth Hoge, director of the Anxiety Disorders Research Program at Georgetown University School of Medicine, found that people who attended an eight-week, in-person course in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) experienced a decrease in anxiety similar to those who were prescribed escitalopram, an anti-anxiety medication. The participants in both groups started out with moderate anxiety; after eight weeks, their anxiety had dropped to levels considered mild. Anxiety levels continued to drop even after the study was over.

See a CBT therapist

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) teaches you to challenge your irrational thoughts and behaviors. It’s a short-term therapy, about 8 to 16 sessions that’s been proved to help with anxiety and help you learn to manage anxiety spirals.

Monitor your diet

Research about the relationship between diet and mood is in its infancy — but making your diet healthier can’t hurt.

Challenge your habits

Anxiety can become an addiction. “You can become so used to worrying that it becomes who you are,” says Judson Brewer, author of “Unwinding Anxiety.” “It fills the space and gives your mind something to do.”  To try tracking your anxious habits, download Brewer’s free habit mapper.

Consider medication

There are many medications that have been proved effective at reducing anxiety. Talk to your health-care provider about your specific symptoms to determine which medication might work best.

The more you understand your anxiety — what triggers it, what helps to tame it — the better you’ll be able to manage it and the healthier you’ll feel.

Excerpted from “10 Strategies to Build Your Anxiety Toolkit” in The Washington Post. Read the full article online.

Source: The Washington Post | 10 Strategies to Build Your Anxiety Toolkit, https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/03/09/anxiety-reduce-strategies | © 2023 The Washington Post

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