Anxiety is a disorder that not only affects you mentally but physically as well. Luckily, there are some things you can do on your own to help manage this condition and free yourself from a life of panic attacks and negative thoughts. There are coping mechanisms and management strategies that you can use specifically for this disorder.

The best thing about these methods is that you don’t need to have a diagnosed anxiety disorder for you to benefit from them. Anxiety coping skills are for everyone. These skills help you in certain situations where you may have trouble dwelling on negative things or have anxiety attacks.

Before discussing treatments and coping skills, let’s talk about what anxiety is and its causes.

What Is Anxiety?

Anxiety is the feeling of excessive worry, fear, or distress. This can lead to physical and mental symptoms that if not addressed can become harmful to your overall health. Anxiety can affect your performance and ability to perform basic daily tasks, like working, eating, spending time with your family, and being social and productive at work.

Types of anxiety

There are different types of anxiety which mainly depend on how long you experience symptoms and their severity of them.

Occasional anxiety

This type of anxiety is pretty normal for most people and occurs in their everyday lives. Many things occur on a daily basis that can bring thoughts of worry or fear. As humans, these types of thoughts or emotions are normal. However, knowing how to control and overcome these things is an important factor. This can help prevent these day-to-day emotions from becoming a bigger anxiety disorder or negatively affecting your health in other ways.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder, also referred to as GAD, is a more extreme and excessive anxiety disorder. This disorder may cause excessive worry daily. People may also feel sad and anxious more frequently than people with occasional anxiety. This type of anxiety is typically diagnosed after at least 6 months of consistent negative thoughts and feelings.

Most times, the anxiety is for little to no reason. These anxious feelings overcome lives and the way people think and behave.

Causes of Anxiety

The cause of anxiety isn’t so easily determined. Causes of anxiety vary depending on the individual and their personal experiences.

Other anxiety disorders

Sometimes, other anxiety disorders are what lead to an increase in anxiety. These orders include but are not limited to:

• Panic disorders
• Phobic disorders
• Stress disorders and more

Life events

Whether it’s stress at work or dealing with the family at home, different life events can cause you to be anxious. Things that occur in your life have the power to take over your thoughts and emotions. Some situations may even be unpredictable, which may lead to more fear and worry.

Other factors

Medications

Sometimes, anxiety can be a side effect of the medications you are taking. Be sure that you talk to your doctor about prescribed medications that may be causing you to experience these extreme side effects. Medications like this are usually government-regulated and can be adjusted for your body.

Recreational drugs

The use of illicit drugs can sometimes affect your emotions and the way you understand things that are occurring at that moment. Illegal substances like this commonly cause paranoia, which may lead to things like anxiety.

Preexisting health conditions

There are many health conditions people may have that cause anxious feelings. For example, people who have conditions like hypoglycemia, where the blood sugar is lower than the standard range, may experience the physical symptoms of anxiety.

How to Calm Yourself Down Quickly

Not every type of anxiety comes from a disorder. You may have anxious feelings right before a big exam at school or an interview for a new job. In situations like this, feeling anxious is a normal human response.

These quick strategies are useful when temporary stress or worries threaten to overwhelm you in a particular situation:

Take time out.

Sometimes, the only thing that can calm you is completely removing yourself from the situation or environment that is causing your panic symptoms. If possible, step away from the situation for some time to do whatever calms you down. You can do things like perform a quick breathing exercise, call a trusted friend, or listen to your favorite song. There are many ways to overcome those negative feelings when they try to come up at any time of the day.

Question your thoughts.

Anxious thoughts can sometimes be irrational or blown out of proportion. Anxiety causes your mind to race faster than it should. It’s important to tell yourself to slow down and assess the situation and your feelings. Take a minute to question yourself these questions:

• What is making me feel this way?
• Is my reaction reasonable?
• Are my fears true or exaggerated?
• Can I do anything to change what is worrying me?

Asking yourself these questions can bring clarity to your emotions. You may find your feelings towards the matter to be completely erased.

Focus on deep breathing.

Deep breathing is an exercise that calls you to slowly and deliberately fill your lungs up with air. This is also referred to as belly breathing. When you’re anxious, your sympathetic nervous system is active. This is known as the fight-or-flight response and is how your body reacts to threats or danger.

Breathing deeply helps counteract this response by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, known as the rest-and-digest. This is the normal state the body should remain in, which reduces symptoms of anxiety. When the parasympathetic nervous system is activated, it slows down the heartbeat and brings your blood pressure back to normal—both of which are affected during a panic attack.

Spend just a few minutes performing a breathing exercise for instant calm. There are many breathing exercises to choose from, as long as you focus on deep breaths. A simple exercise is to breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds.

Write down your worries.

Some people talk to other people not because they want a response or advice, but because they want an avenue to pour their emotions out. If this is you, journaling can be of good use. Jotting down what worries you is a great way to get things out of your head. This inadvertently creates a simple way for you to put things into perspective. It helps you understand your emotions on a different level when you can read things back to yourself after expressing them at the moment.

How to Stop Overthinking

Dwelling on troubling thoughts, also known as ruminating, is a characteristic of both anxiety and depression. Overthinking situations, what happened in the past, or what’s to come in the future will keep anxiety at high levels. Anything you can do to avoid or forget about these thoughts can help reduce your symptoms.

Mindfulness meditation

Mindfulness meditation is particularly useful in helping you forget about thoughts of the past or future. With this meditation technique, you are encouraged to focus on the present moment alone. When this meditation is done consistently, you can have an easier time letting go of overwhelming thoughts and overthinking every situation.

BetterSleep offers some excellent guided meditations that focus on mindfulness. They help you relax your mind and body, which are usually tense from anxiety. Adding these meditations to your routine is a great way to start meditating, especially if you are a beginner. Meditating daily will reap the best benefits.

Long-Term Anxiety Coping Skills

Quick-fix skills like journaling and deep breathing are great for people who face occasional or situational anxiety. People with GAD may need to consider a more serious treatment for their condition. There are coping skills that can be used by people with severe anxiety, and these skills can help them in the long run.

Meditation

Meditation is one of the best natural things you can do to manage anxiety. It serves as an efficient way to ground yourself. Meditation also helps distract you from ruminating thoughts. When practiced consistently, the effects of meditation can help you over the long term.

Meditation also helps with stress management. During meditation practices, you are encouraged to remove negative or distracting thoughts from your mind and focus on the present moment. Instead of thinking about the things that stress you or cause anxiety, you are focused on calm and peaceful thoughts. As time goes on, you become more resilient to stress and can cope with anxiety in stressful situations.

Maintain proper physical health.

Exercising and keeping your body fit helps improve your self-confidence, overall heart health, mood, and more. All of these things combined help to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression. People with chronic anxiety are more sedentary, meaning they spend a lot of time sitting or laying down. Too much of this isn’t good for the body because it requires some type of activity. If this is you, making exercise a part of your daily routine is key.

Exercise distracts your mind from bad thoughts, relaxes muscle tension in your body, and releases mood-boosting neurochemicals. Any exercise or form of activity is great for the body, but some of the best exercises for people with anxiety to do are:

• Swimming
• Running
• Walking
• Riding a bike
• Dancing
• Yoga

Get enough sleep.

Sleep is another aspect of health that impacts not only anxiety but many other things. Many people put sleeping on the back burner because of things like work or other factors of their busy schedules. People of all ages need to prioritize sleep to avoid having health conditions that can diminish their well-being.

Sleep is an important aspect of recovery, and that’s what helps you prepare for the next day. Sometimes, people with anxiety have a difficult time managing their symptoms because their bodies have not fully recovered from the work and stressor of the previous day(s). When it comes to sleep:

• Adults should get at least 6 to 8 hours of sleep
• Teenagers should get 8 to 10 hours of sleep
• Children should get 11 to 14  hours of sleep, depending on their age group

When to see a doctor

Anxiety is a common mental health symptom. Many people struggle with it and may find ways to cope with anxiety on their own. If you try all of these coping skills and mechanisms but still have a difficult time functioning outside of fear and worry, consider reaching out for a diagnosis.

A mental health professional can provide you with more help on how to improve your condition and its symptoms. Your choice of mental health provider may depend on what triggers your anxiety. Be sure to conduct proper research, as each provider may specialize in a specific area.

Try BetterSleep

If you have trouble getting proper rest, some things can help improve your problem. The BetterSleep app has different things you can try, like soothing sounds, meditations for sleep and relaxation, yoga, ASMR sounds, and more. Visit the app today to find out more and start getting better rest.