7 Research-Backed Coping Skills For Anxiety: CBT Strategies For Calm And Clarity

Anxiety can make daily life challenging—anxious thoughts may trigger a cascade of symptoms that may make otherwise normal occurrences feel overwhelming, taking a toll on mental health and overall wellbeing. With effective coping skills, however, you can learn to manage these anxious thoughts, regain clarity and composure, and keep anxiety at bay.

Here, we’ll cover some effective coping skills for anxiety, including those that can help you manage an anxiety or panic attack and some to help you heal from the unhelpful patterns that trigger them. These skills are commonly taught in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), a well-founded form of therapy that’s commonly used to treat anxiety. 

With these strategies, you’ll be equipped to handle your condition more effectively and reduce its impact on your daily life.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the Three Cs:

1. Calm your body

The physical symptoms of anxiety can themselves fuel anxious thoughts, creating a negative feedback loop that prolongs and intensifies anxiety. Thus, the first step in coping with anxiety is to calm your body. Relaxation techniques like deep breathing, meditation, or going for a walk can diminish your body’s stress response and bring you back to baseline.

2. Check your thinking

The next step is to recognize and challenge the unhelpful thoughts causing the anxiety. These thinking errors or cognitive distortions are irrational or exaggerated thoughts that may not align with reality. For example, a person with social anxiety disorder may assume that their coworkers judge them unfavorably, even if there is no evidence to support this belief. 

Learning to recognize these types of thoughts is a fundamental coping skill for anxiety. You might also note the circumstances that make you more vulnerable to anxious thoughts—for example, you may notice that these thoughts tend to arise more when you are tired, hungry, sedentary, or overwhelmed with work or school.

3. Change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors

Once you’ve recognized an anxious thought, you can replace it with a more helpful one. In the example from above, the person may assess the characteristics of their coworkers and note that they’re generally kind and happy to engage in conversation.

Changing maladaptive behaviors can also be an effective way to manage anxiety. For example, diet, sleep quality, and activity levels are known to have a significant impact on anxiety, and improving these lifestyle habits can be immensely helpful. 

Avoidance is another habit that can worsen anxiety. Rather than avoiding anxiety-inducing situations, you might consider each experience a learning opportunity in which to practice your new coping skills. With repeated exposure, you can desensitize yourself to anxiety triggers and improve resilience.

Evidence-based anxiety coping skills for improved mental health

Whether you feel stressed from the challenges of everyday life or are living with an anxiety disorder, these tips can help you get through anxious moments, challenge anxious thoughts, and build healthier habits that lessen the impact of anxiety on your daily life.

1. Anxiety and stress relaxation techniques

Relaxation techniques are a fundamental skill for those living with anxiety. These methods target the body’s stress response, helping you manage the racing heart, trembling, and unease that occur when you’re distressed. 

Common relaxation techniques include deep breathing, meditation, and body scanning; however, there are dozens to choose from, and you can experiment with different methods to find a few that work for you. Some methods can be used anytime, anywhere, while others might require a few uninterrupted moments in a quiet space.

2. Problem-solving as one of the coping strategies for anxiety

It may be helpful to think of anxiety as your brain’s way of telling you there’s a problem. Thus, it can be helpful to determine whether there is truly a problem, and, if so, what that problem is. 

For example, a student who feels anxious about their school performance might choose to take action and study for an upcoming exam. In doing so, they can divert their attention towards solving the problem that their anxiety was alerting them to. 

Sometimes, anxiety may not stem from a real problem, but rather an imaginary one rooted in uncertainty. In these cases, the anxious thoughts themselves may be the problem, and you can change the thought to a more adaptive one through cognitive reframing.

3. Cognitive reframing for mental health and anxiety management

Cognitive reframing is a CBT technique that targets the unhelpful thoughts that underpin anxiety. It’s a structured process that helps you learn to identify and challenge irrational or negative thoughts and replace them with more balanced and realistic ones. The process is as follows:

1. Identify negative thoughts: Pay attention to the thoughts that trigger anxiety.
   Example: "I'm going to fail this exam, and it will ruin my future."

2. Examine the evidence: Evaluate the evidence for and against the negative thought.
   Evidence against: "I have studied hard and passed exams before."

3. Challenge cognitive distortions: Recognize and correct thinking errors.
   Cognitive distortion: Catastrophizing.
   Reframe: "One exam won't determine my entire future."

4. Create balanced thoughts: Develop a more balanced, realistic thought.
   Balanced thought: "I am prepared, and even if I don't do as well as I hope, I can learn from the experience."

4. Externalizing anxious thoughts as one of the coping skills for anxiety

Sometimes, it can be helpful to express your anxious thoughts. This could mean talking to someone, writing in a journal, or simply talking aloud to yourself. 

Expressing your thoughts and feelings to a friend, loved one, or therapist can be a way of fielding helpful advice, while externalizing your thoughts discreetly can spur you to solve problems and cultivate mindfulness. In verbalizing your thoughts, you might gain a new perspective, reduce the intensity of your emotions, and uncover solutions that were not apparent before. 

5. Physical activity

Physical exercise is known to be an especially effective way to manage anxiety due to how it controls key hormone levels in the brain. Here are a few key benefits:

• Lowers stress hormones like cortisol, reducing overall stress and anxiety.

• Boosts levels of mood-enhancing chemicals like serotonin and endorphins, which can alleviate anxiety symptoms.

• Promotes the growth of new brain cells, particularly in areas that help control mood and stress.

• Can improve your confidence in your ability to manage stress and anxiety.

• Provides a mental break from worries and can create a sense of relaxation and well-being.

• Helps control your sleep patterns and improve sleep quality, which can be key in managing anxiety.

If you are not currently engaging in regular physical activity, consider trying some different types of exercise to find one that you enjoy and can stick with. Going for a brisk walk with your favorite music can be a good place to start, while yoga may be worth a try for both its physical and mental benefits. Whatever you choose, aim for 30 minutes of moderately strenuous activity per day.

6. Activity scheduling

Activity scheduling can be a powerful coping skill for managing anxiety at the behavioral level. This strategy is often used in a type of therapy called behavioral activation, which addresses the behaviors that can contribute to or alleviate mental health symptoms. 

Activity scheduling involves planning your day to include specific activities that are meaningful, enjoyable, or necessary. By creating and executing a plan, you can reduce the uncertainty and chaos that contribute to anxiety, as well as derive a sense of accomplishment. It can also help reduce avoidance behavior, improve time management, and promote a balanced lifestyle.

7. Mindfulness for managing anxiety and depression

Mindfulness is a skill that helps you recognize and understand how your mind works, giving you greater control over your thoughts. This fundamental skill can help you manage anxiety by allowing you to stay focused on the present rather than worrying about the past or future. 

Meditation is one of the most common and effective ways to learn mindfulness. Here’s how a typical mindfulness meditation might look:

1. Find a quiet place to sit and set a timer for 5, 10, or 20 minutes. If you are new to meditation,  you might choose an even shorter duration.

2. Clear your mind by focusing on your breath, or on some other sensation. This could be a sound, object, or even the feeling of the seat beneath you.

3. When a thought or sensation distracts you, take notice of it and then return your focus to your breath or your chosen sensation.

4. Continue to meditate until the timer goes off. When you are finished, gradually bring your awareness back to your surroundings. Reflect on how you feel, acknowledging any sense of calm or clarity you may have gained.

This practice can help you learn to notice your thoughts so that you can correct negative thinking before it triggers anxiety. There are a wide variety of mindfulness and meditation techniques to choose from, so explore different techniques to find what works best for you. You might also consider trying mindfulness-based therapy, which is known to be helpful for those with anxiety.

Getting professional help for anxiety and mental health disorders

If you’re finding it difficult to manage your anxiety symptoms on your own, it may be worth seeking support from a mental health professional. In therapy, you’ll learn to understand the root causes of your anxiety and develop practical skills for coping and managing your symptoms. 

Online therapy

Through BetterHelp, you can attend virtual therapy sessions with a mental health provider who specializes in treating anxiety disorders. Extensive research has found online therapy to be just as effective as in-person therapy, and may be preferable for those seeking a convenient, low-cost alternative to face-to-face sessions. 

Your BetterHelp membership also includes group sessions, digital CBT worksheets, prompted journaling, and educational webinars, helping you make progress faster and get the most out of your time in therapy.