I don't know what to do about my anxiety/ anxiety attacks

Having occasional feelings of anxiety is a normal part of life, but people with anxiety disorders experience frequent and excessive anxiety, fear, terror and panic in everyday situations. These feelings are unhealthy if they affect your quality of life and prevent you from functioning normally.

There are many coping skills and strategies that can be helpful to reduce your level of anxiety and amount of anxiety attacks that are occurring. Physical activity is a great way to assist with coping with anxiety, adding 30 minutes a day of exercise can be helpful routine to develop. 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.

Stress management is also key, if your anxiety seems to be getting worse it could be due to an overall increase in stress not one particular situation/issue. Lean on stress management and relaxation techniques as often as possible. Some stress management skills include problem solving skills like determining what you are in control of vs. what is out of your control and increasing organization skills. Other helpful stress management skills can be through prioritizing and letting go of tasks that are not a priority. Acceptance can also be a tool for reducing stress.

Along with that are relaxation skills like visualization techniques, meditation and yoga can all ease anxiety symptoms. Sleep and diet can also play an important role in reducing our anxiety levels. With sleep it can be helpful to keep a set time to wake up and go to sleep, as well as, trying to achieve at least 6-8 hours of sleep each night. With our diet it is important to eat balanced healthy meals, try to limit caffeine as much as possible.

Lifestyle changes can have a significant impact on reducing anxiety but sometimes it can take additional work. Utilize coping skills to challenge anxious thoughts. Question what you’re thinking.  Consider other perspectives. Sometimes you need to ask yourself: how do I know this is true?  Is there evidence against this thought? Is this a fact or opinion?  What would I say to someone else who was thinking this? What is the bigger picture? Challenging your anxious thoughts helps you come to a more balanced way of looking at a situation. Let unhelpful thoughts go.  Unhelpful thoughts are just that, unhelpful.  And many times we let them hang around for far too long.  So if it’s not helping you move forward to a solution, let it go.