Common symptoms of anxiety disorders include:
- Feeling nervous
- Feeling helpless
- A sense of impending panic, danger or doom
- Increased heart rate
- Hyperventilation
- Sweating
- Trembling
- Obsessively thinking about the panic trigger
These feelings of anxiety and panic can interfere with daily activities and be difficult to control. They are out of proportion to the actual danger and can cause you to avoid places or situations.
While most people with anxiety disorders need psychotherapy or medications to get anxiety under control, lifestyle changes and coping strategies can also make a difference.
- Keep physically active. Develop a routine so that you're physically active most days of the week. Exercise is a powerful stress reducer. It can improve your mood and help you stay healthy. Start out slowly, and gradually increase the amount and intensity of your activities.
- Avoid alcohol and recreational drugs. These substances can cause or worsen anxiety. If you can't quit on your own, see your health care provider or find a support group to help you.
- Quit smoking, and cut back or quit drinking caffeinated beverages. Nicotine and caffeine can worsen anxiety.
- Use stress management and relaxation techniques. Visualization techniques, meditation and yoga are examples of relaxation techniques that can ease anxiety.
- Make sleep a priority. Do what you can to make sure you're getting enough sleep to feel rested. If you aren't sleeping well, talk with your health care provider.
- Eat healthy foods. A healthy diet that incorporates vegetables, fruits, whole grains and fish may be linked to reduced anxiety, but more research is needed.
- Learn about your disorder. Talk to your health care provider to find out what might be causing your specific condition and what treatments might be best for you. Involve your family and friends, and ask for their support.
- Stick to your treatment plan. Take medications as directed. Keep therapy appointments and complete any assignments your therapist gives. Consistency can make a big difference, especially when it comes to taking your medication.
- Identify triggers. Learn what situations or actions cause you stress or increase your anxiety. Practice the strategies you developed with your mental health provider so you're ready to deal with anxious feelings in these situations.
- Keep a journal. Keeping track of your personal life can help you and your mental health provider identify what's causing you stress and what seems to help you feel better.
- Socialize. Don't let worries isolate you from loved ones or activities.
How to deal with panic attacks
A panic attack is a feeling of sudden and intense anxiety. Panic attacks can also have physical symptoms, including shaking, feeling disorientated, nausea, rapid, irregular heartbeats, dry mouth, breathlessness, sweating and dizziness.
The symptoms of a panic attack are not dangerous, but can be very frightening. They can make you feel as though you are having a heart attack, or that you are going to collapse or even die. Most panic attacks last somewhere from five minutes to half an hour.
How to handle a panic attack
It's important not to let your fear of panic attacks control you.
Panic attacks always pass and the symptoms are not a sign of anything harmful happening. Tell yourself that the symptoms you're experiencing are caused by anxiety. Don't look for distractions. Ride out the attack. Try to keep doing things. If possible, it's important to try to remain in the situation until the anxiety has subsided. Confront your fear. If you don't run away from it, you're giving yourself a chance to discover that nothing's going to happen. As the anxiety begins to pass, start to focus on your surroundings and continue to do what you were doing before.
If you’re having a short, sudden panic attack, it can be helpful to have someone with you, reassuring you that it will pass and the symptoms are nothing to worry about.
Breathing exercise for panic attacks
If you’re breathing quickly during a panic attack, doing a breathing exercise can ease your other symptoms. Try this:
- breathe in as slowly, deeply and gently as you can, through your nose
- breathe out slowly, deeply and gently through your mouth
- Some people find it helpful to count steadily from one to five on each in-breath and each out-breath
- Close your eyes and focus on your breathing
You should start to feel better in a few minutes. You may feel tired afterwards.
Visit the No Panic website for another breathing exercise to calm panic.
Ways to prevent panic attacks
You need to try to work out what particular stress you might be under that could make your symptoms worse. It's important not to restrict your movements and daily activities.
- Doing breathing exercises every day will help to prevent panic attacks and relieve them when they are happening.
- Regular exercise, especially aerobic exercise, will help you to manage stress levels, release tension, improve your mood and boost confidence.
- Eat regular meals to stabilize your blood sugar levels
- Avoid caffeine, alcohol and smoking – these can make panic attacks worse. Panic support groups have useful advice about how you can effectively manage your attacks. Knowing that other people are experiencing the same feelings can be reassuring. Your GP can put you in touch with groups in your area
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can identify and change the negative thought patterns that are feeding your panic attacks.
Ways to treat anxiety and panic attacks
Therapy for anxiety
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This is a type of talking therapy often used to treat depression and anxiety and is one of the most successful treatments. It aims to change your thoughts and behaviours by identifying and disrupting negative thinking patterns.
- Applied relaxation therapy. This is a good way to tackle the physical symptoms of anxiety and can be especially effective for panic disorder. It involves identifying potentially panic-inducing situations and learning to use muscle relaxation techniques to help the body calm down.
- Benzodiazepines (tranquilizers). These are normally for short term use, and popular examples of benzodiazepines include Xanax and Valium. These drugs provide quick relief for panic attacks and anxiety but are very addictive. They help shut down the nervous system, which can alleviate anxiety, but they do tend to have some negative side effects. These can include feeling foggy and sleepy.
- Antidepressants. Alternatively, antidepressants are normally suitable for long term use. The risk of dependency and abuse is lower than for taking benzodiazepines, but antidepressants are not a quick fix, as they can take six to eight weeks to kick in. They also have negative side-effects, which can be too debilitating for some people. Popular examples of antidepressants include Prozac and Paxil.
- Beta-blockers. Beta-blockers are mild tranquilizers that don’t kick in as quickly as benzodiazepines, and also don’t impair memory and coordination in the same way. They take about two weeks to start working, and don’t have the same sedating effect as drugs like Xanax. The main example of a beta-blocker is the drug Buspirone, also known by the brand name BuSpar, which is fairly new and relieves anxiety by increasing serotonin and decreasing dopamine in the brain.
What to look for to help loved ones with anxiety
Anxious Behaviors
- Avoidance of feared situations or events
- Seeking reassurance
- Second-guessing
- Irritability and frustration in feared situations
- Compulsive actions (like washing hands over and over)
Know What NOT to Do
Typical responses to someone with anxiety are often unhelpful. Here are actions you should avoid:
Don’t Enable
It’s common to want to help your loved one avoid painful situations by going out of your way to eliminate the cause for concern. On the surface, this seems really thoughtful and sweet. But anxiety doesn’t usually go away. Over time, if people continually avoid facing difficult situations, the anxiety grows and special requests for accommodations get bigger.
If you continue to modify your behavior or the environment to accommodate your loved one’s anxiety, this can unintentionally enable the anxiety to persist and grow. Avoiding difficult situations doesn’t give your loved one the opportunity to overcome fears and learn how to master anxiety. Instead, it makes their world smaller as what they are able to do becomes more and more limited by their growing anxiety.
Don’t Force Confrontation
On the other hand, it’s also not good to force a person to do something they’re scared of. Trying to push somebody who’s not ready can damage that relationship. Learning how to overcome deep apprehension is work best done in partnership with a professional therapist. This takes the burden off you. It also empowers your loved one by helping them face their fears one step at a time with guidance from somebody with experience.
Use Anxiety Tips That Work
Provide Validation
Many different things can make people anxious. Saying something like, “I can’t believe you’re getting upset over such a small thing” belittles a person’s experience. Instead, ask your loved one how you can provide support during challenging moments.Express Concern
It’s hard to see a loved one having an anxiety attack. But in the moment, there’s not too much you can do to shorten the duration or noticeably lower the intensity of a panic attack.”
When you start to notice your loved one withdrawing from activities that they used to enjoy, you don’t have to cover up your concern. Instead, it can be helpful to approach your loved one in a warm and positive way. You can start a dialogue by saying you’ve noticed certain behavior changes.
For example: “Hey, I noticed that you’ve been avoiding going to [insert location] and other social gatherings. Can you share with me what caused the change?” Then, depending on how the conversation goes, you might ask if they think they need some help or support in coping with their anxiety.
Know When to Seek Help
Encourage a loved one to make an appointment with a mental health provider. If they’re resistant, you can remind them that it’s just one appointment. It doesn’t mean they have to commit to treatment or to working with that specific therapist. It’s really just an initial check-in, like an annual physical exam but for your mental and emotional health.
Thank you, very helpful. :)
ReplyDeleteOf course! I'm glad you found it helpful! Anxiety is something a lot of us deal with, but we can always find ways to help us deal with it! :)
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