Chronic worrying and nervousness can be more than just a habit. It can be a sign of a general anxiety disorder. This can be bad for your mental and physical health since it puts a lot of stress on you. The problem is that anxiety and all that it brings can quickly snowball into a heavy burden on your shoulders. Additionally, it can be hard to shake off since anxiety can make any attempt to fight it difficult. But it is not impossible to handle it. Here are some methods you can turn to so that you can improve your life.
Start With Regular Exercise
Exercise may seem to focus on the physical, but it can also be effective at improving your mood. High levels of physical activity can release endorphins, the body’s natural antidepressants. They can help lighten your mood and make you feel better. This is a good thing for those who are continually fighting their anxiety. Additionally, a better body can help with your self-esteem, which is another source of anxiety for many people.
Get Therapy
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) are just two examples of effective therapy techniques that can help you handle your anxiety. CBT works by identifying the potential triggers of your anxiety and then breaking them down into more easy-to-handle parts. You then use therapy to change how you react to them and how you think. DBT, on the other hand, focuses on improving the interpersonal relationships you have by using validation and behavioral change. This can help erase a source of anxiety for you. Therapy can also touch on a wide range of issues so that you can deal with the world better.
Adopt Relaxation Techniques
Stress and a dozen other burdens can keep pulling you down every day. While you can handle it in short spurts, it can be overwhelming when it builds up. The result can be an anxiety attack comes to overwhelm you. You can avoid all of that by adopting some relaxation techniques. There are several that you can pick up. The simplest one is meditation. Take the time every day to meditate and erase all of your worries for some time. It can be surprising how a short moment of peace can refresh and revive you.
Change Your Diet
It can be surprising how much the physical side of your body can affect the mental side of it. Your diet is just as important to help ease your anxiety as any mental technique. Certain substances increase anxiety or make the effects worse. Caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine may seem like they help ease your feelings, but they magnify it. Excessive amounts of each can be very bad for your mental health. If you want to relax, there are herbal supplements like lemon balm and valerian root that can help ease your feelings.
Think About Medication
Modern medicine can also be a big help with your anxiety. There are several medications that your doctor can give you that can help with anxiety. However, these are all assistants to more robust treatment, but they can help with a lot of the symptoms that people face with anxiety. For example, there is Buspirone which is a general anti-anxiety drug. It is the safest but will only weaken the symptoms of anxiety not fully handle it. Benzodiazepines are more powerful but they might cause dependence which is why many doctors only give out prescriptions for them in the worst anxiety case.
Break The Worrying Habit
A lot of anxiety can come from actually worrying too much. This is a habit that a lot of people get into. While some people can handle it, those who are more sensitive feel that stress can trigger their anxiety. The best way to avoid this is to stop the habit of worrying. It sounds easy, but habits are very difficult to break. You need to start small and move on from that. Start learning to accept some things are beyond your control and to challenge every time you worry. Pretty soon, you will stop the habit on your own.
There is no single solution to anxiety. It is too big for any one of them. But you can handle your anxiety by using a combination of the methods above. Your mind would be able to bear the strain, and you would know how to cope properly. With the right approach, you should be able to live your life as normally as possible.
