Top 10 Techniques for controlling anxiety
Oct. 14th, 2005 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahmichiganI got these from a recent Psychotherapy Networker, and while they're aimed at people with clinically-diagnosed disorders like panic attacks or Generalized Anxiety Disorder, I think they could help people with lower levels of stress, too.
I'm summarizing/paraphrasing for space considerations.
1. Manage the Body. Eating right, getting adequate sleep, avoiding alcohol, nicotine, excessive sugar, and caffeine, and getting exercise sounds like obvious advice, but neglecting these can undermine the effectiveness of other coping techniques. Hormonal changes during pregnancy and menopause can also trigger anxiety.
2. Breathe. Learn deep, diaphragm breathing. Yoga classes often teach this, but you can use slow, deep breathing independent of any other relaxation practice. Experienced therapists find that asking clients to try one minute of deep-breathing 10 to 15 times during each day is more effective than having clients do one or two 10-minute sessions.
3. Mindful Awareness. This is especially useful to those prone to panic attacks. Most anxious people are thinking about the future when they worry, instead of concentrating on Being Here Now. One "mindful awareness" technique consists of two steps, repeated several times. a) Clients close their eyes and breathe, noticing the body, the heartbeat, the feel of in and out breaths. b) With eyes still closed, the client purposefullyshifts the awareness away from the body to everything they can hear, smell, or feel-- the clock ticking, the temperatue in the room, the smell of a co-worker's coffee, etc. This allows those prone to panic to take control of how much attention they pay to physical symptoms, rather than interpreting every twitch or heart skip in a catastrophic light.
4. Don't Listen When Worry Calls Your Name. Often, worry shows up as a feeling of impending doom, or dread in the pit of your stomach. The feeling of dread is almost NEVER based on anything real; it is simply a physical manifestation of your fear and worry. Even when nothing particularly worrisome is going on, if an anxiety-prone person starts feeling dread or doom, they start looking around for some "real" reason that's causing the feeling of dread or doom, and small incidents or concerns are blown out of proportion. The anxiety sufferer feels the doom/dread MUST have a legitimate cause and so the person starts looking for things to worry about! Instead of giving in to this thought process, clients can be taught to notice the feeling of dread but to not give into worry. Instead, the client can tell themselves, "That's just your anxiety talking," and can then use other techniques such as deep breathing and muscle relaxation in response to the doom/dread feeling.
5. Knowing, Not Showing, Anger. Some people become anxious or depressed when they "stuff" anger, either because they're afraid of their own anger, or they somehow feel that "nice people" don't get angry. The key to dealing with this kind of stress is decreasing tension and stress while raising consciousness of the anger so it can be dealt with. It doesn't require primal screaming or punching pillows. You can tell yourself, "To know you're angry doesn't mean you have to act out in an angry way." The next time you're stricken with anxiety, try sitting down with pen and paper and asking yourself, "If I were angry, what might I be angry about?" List the things you might be angry about. Just admitting to yourself that you're angry about something can often decrease your anxiety levels.
6. Have a Little Fun. Laughing is a great way to increase good feelings and discharge tension. Some people take things so seriously they forget to have fun. [Sarah's note: I realized when I was extremely tense toward the end of my tenure as editor of the paper that I'd lost my sense of humor, so this one really rings true for me. Also, it's been shown that you can "reprogram" an anxious or depressed brain by making sure that you have many opportunities to laugh and feel happy. Just remembering, vividly, a time when you were really happy can flood your brain with happy chemicals and start the re-wiring process.] Make a list of things you used to do for fun, and pick one!
Running out of time! I'll post techniques 7-10 later.
I'm summarizing/paraphrasing for space considerations.
1. Manage the Body. Eating right, getting adequate sleep, avoiding alcohol, nicotine, excessive sugar, and caffeine, and getting exercise sounds like obvious advice, but neglecting these can undermine the effectiveness of other coping techniques. Hormonal changes during pregnancy and menopause can also trigger anxiety.
2. Breathe. Learn deep, diaphragm breathing. Yoga classes often teach this, but you can use slow, deep breathing independent of any other relaxation practice. Experienced therapists find that asking clients to try one minute of deep-breathing 10 to 15 times during each day is more effective than having clients do one or two 10-minute sessions.
3. Mindful Awareness. This is especially useful to those prone to panic attacks. Most anxious people are thinking about the future when they worry, instead of concentrating on Being Here Now. One "mindful awareness" technique consists of two steps, repeated several times. a) Clients close their eyes and breathe, noticing the body, the heartbeat, the feel of in and out breaths. b) With eyes still closed, the client purposefullyshifts the awareness away from the body to everything they can hear, smell, or feel-- the clock ticking, the temperatue in the room, the smell of a co-worker's coffee, etc. This allows those prone to panic to take control of how much attention they pay to physical symptoms, rather than interpreting every twitch or heart skip in a catastrophic light.
4. Don't Listen When Worry Calls Your Name. Often, worry shows up as a feeling of impending doom, or dread in the pit of your stomach. The feeling of dread is almost NEVER based on anything real; it is simply a physical manifestation of your fear and worry. Even when nothing particularly worrisome is going on, if an anxiety-prone person starts feeling dread or doom, they start looking around for some "real" reason that's causing the feeling of dread or doom, and small incidents or concerns are blown out of proportion. The anxiety sufferer feels the doom/dread MUST have a legitimate cause and so the person starts looking for things to worry about! Instead of giving in to this thought process, clients can be taught to notice the feeling of dread but to not give into worry. Instead, the client can tell themselves, "That's just your anxiety talking," and can then use other techniques such as deep breathing and muscle relaxation in response to the doom/dread feeling.
5. Knowing, Not Showing, Anger. Some people become anxious or depressed when they "stuff" anger, either because they're afraid of their own anger, or they somehow feel that "nice people" don't get angry. The key to dealing with this kind of stress is decreasing tension and stress while raising consciousness of the anger so it can be dealt with. It doesn't require primal screaming or punching pillows. You can tell yourself, "To know you're angry doesn't mean you have to act out in an angry way." The next time you're stricken with anxiety, try sitting down with pen and paper and asking yourself, "If I were angry, what might I be angry about?" List the things you might be angry about. Just admitting to yourself that you're angry about something can often decrease your anxiety levels.
6. Have a Little Fun. Laughing is a great way to increase good feelings and discharge tension. Some people take things so seriously they forget to have fun. [Sarah's note: I realized when I was extremely tense toward the end of my tenure as editor of the paper that I'd lost my sense of humor, so this one really rings true for me. Also, it's been shown that you can "reprogram" an anxious or depressed brain by making sure that you have many opportunities to laugh and feel happy. Just remembering, vividly, a time when you were really happy can flood your brain with happy chemicals and start the re-wiring process.] Make a list of things you used to do for fun, and pick one!
Running out of time! I'll post techniques 7-10 later.
