When anxiety strikes, it often feels like it is the end of the world.
You would feel overpowered, trapped, and unhappy, with nowhere to go to escape from the terrible sensations that envelope you.
There are many ways to help you cope with anxiety and I have endeavored to compile here 7 easy yet very effective techniques that you could adopt singly or in combination with others.
Do not worry if you do not see immediate results initially.
Many of the techniques would take a little practice to master, but when you do, you would be able to regain control of your feelings almost effortlessly.
These techniques can be divided into three groups: (i) prevention, (ii) the preceding phase which happens before the anxiety strikes and, (ii) the action phase, during and after the anxiety strikes.
Prevention Is Better Than Cure Whatever the case, where anxiety is concerned, it is always better to make all efforts to prevent it rather than cure it.
Anxiety is a mental disorder caused by chemical imbalance that may be induced by a number factors enumerated earlier.
If you find you are anxiety prone, you would need to take concrete steps that you do not feed it into a full blow attack.
Here are a few important steps that would help you: Exercise, Exercise And More Exercise Exercise should be for you like insurance against disaster, which in this case can be represented by anxiety attack.
Adopt any type of exercise you prefer and are comfortable with and include it in your daily routine.
You could start with as little as 10-15 minutes a day spent on stretching exercises, which you could in your bedroom and gradually push it to 30 minutes or more workouts.
If you are comfortable only with the 10-15 minutes stint, which is okay too.
Say No To All Stimulants Exclude or reduce to the minimum possible foods that contain nicotine and caffeine from your diet.
Instead, concentrate on eating balanced meals and include vitamin and mineral supplements in your daily diet.
The better you eat the better would your body be able to ward off anxiety attacks.
Accept That You Have A Problem As long as you deny that you have a problem, you would never be able to look for a solution seriously.
Accept that you have a problem: you are prone to anxiety attacks.
The moment you internalize this fact, you would look out for a cure and you would find yourself more open to the idea of consulting a psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor or therapist in search for the appropriate treatment.
Research To Find The Roots Of The Triggers Of Your Anxiety Attacks All anxiety attacks are triggered by something.
Carefully identify the triggers and then research painstakingly to find the reason behind each one of these.
What scares you? What projects the idea in your mind that you are helpless or hopeless about anything? What or who are these triggers reminding you of? This task would be easier to handle if you take the help of professionals such as psychiatrists or psychologists who would be able to guide you in your quest.
Define Worry If you would attempt to define worry what would your answer most likely say? 'Misplaced negative imagination of events that may never take place' would be a good attempt.
Pay close attention to the last part of the statement - "...
events that might never take place.
" So, is worrying a good thing? Definitely not.
You waste such a lot of energy and emotion for something that in all probability would never happen.
Try adopting this motto in your life, 'Always prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.
' You will definitely be happier.
Enlist With A Support Group A support group is not necessarily a formal group such as Alcoholic Anonymous.
It could be just a couple of friends or your close relatives.
These would be people you could talk to when you feel low - you need not necessarily wait until you feel an anxiety attack coming on to verbalize your thoughts.
It would be best if the people you choose to talk to also suffer from anxiety attacks because in that case you would be able to see what goes wrong with them - and compare their situation with yours.
Often such comparisons are mutually enlightening and empowering.
If you find it easier to talk to people who are close to you, but do not suffer from anxiety attacks that is okay as well.
Give Vent To Your Grievances Do not absorb and keep inside anything that troubles you whether this is at home, workplace or anywhere else.
Make it a habit to voice your ire then and there when it happens.
This will diffuse the stress that would otherwise build up within you, which would otherwise sooner or later explode into an anxiety attack.
When I say you should air your grievances I am not advising you to react in anger, though sometimes even that is a good thing to do as well.
What you need to do is make it known that you are upset about whatever-it-is or that you do not appreciate what happened.
This takes some practice to do, more so if you have a shy personality, but once you learn how to do it you will understand how important this technique is for defusing anxiety.