Dealing with Anxiety: What to Do When You’re Feeling Anxious

Life presents us with many situations in which future outcomes matter but are unknown, or where it’s likely that things won’t go your way. Where uncertainty reigns, or in situations where you or your loved ones might be at risk in one way or another, it can make us worried and anxious. Anxiety isn’t a bad thing; in fact, anxiety can be a good thing. However, anxiety can become an obstacle to your well-being and sense of flourishing.

Anxiety Gets Us All In The End

Some people seem to have nerves of steel. Nothing seems to faze them, and they can operate under enormous amounts of pressure without flinching. Other people find themselves struggling, whether it’s with a new environment, meeting new people, touching certain objects, or handling certain situations such as when there are a lot of people around.

Appearances can be deceiving because we all get anxious. Our bodies have an in-built stress response mechanism, often called the fight or flight response. Essentially, when our emotional processing center, the amygdala, senses danger of various kinds, it kicks off a response that allows your body to produce a burst of energy, allowing you to fight the threat, or flee from it.

While we all get anxious and stressed, and our bodies have the same basic response to such stimuli, what differs is what gets that response going, and how we handle it once it gets triggered. Due to different personalities, varying levels of emotional self-management, and emotional intelligence, people respond differently to anxiety.

The person with nerves of steel might still be feeling anxious, but they’ve just figured out how to function despite their nerves. Sometimes the way they experience and interpret the physiological changes anxiety brings about is to feel it as excitement, and not nerves. Elite athletes may feel their hearts beat faster, and their muscles tense before the start of a race or game. You and I would feel that as nerves, while they would say, “I’m amped!”

It must be said, however, that there are situations in which some people’s anxiety feels overwhelming. What others may call ordinary situations that might elicit some anxiety, for them are too stressful and anxiety-inducing. The anxiety can produce symptoms that are prolonged, cause discomfort, and disrupt everyday functioning. In such a situation, a diagnosis by a health professional might reveal an anxiety disorder.

How Anxiety Can Affect You

One of the main functions of anxiety is as a part of our natural warning system that helps us deal with danger. You feel anxious when you come to a busy street and need to cross it because there’s a possibility something could go wrong, and you could get hurt. You might feel a bit anxious when you’re in a room full of strangers, or a social situation in which you might be rejected, or find yourself doing something that you think is silly.

Anxiety hits can affect you in various ways. Some of the signs of anxiety include racing thoughts, digestive issues, sweating, feeling tense, a rapid heartbeat, and restlessness, to name a few. You might find yourself tapping your foot, pacing up and down in a room, struggling to fall asleep or stay asleep, struggling to eat or keep anything down, having headaches or other bodily aches, or wringing your hands to deal with the tension.

Each person reacts to anxiety in their own way. That way of responding is learned over time and shaped by your personality. Feelings of anxiety drive some people forward, give them focus, and enable them to push harder and dig deeper. It helps them prepare better for an exam, first date, or job interview. In the moment, that feeling of being on the edge helps to keep them sharp and on their toes.

For other people, anxiety hits them hard, and they feel like they’re in a fog. It makes their thoughts either sluggish or erratic and unfocused. Things can feel out of focus and out of control, and it can be quite distressing. If they’re feeling anxious about a situation or conversation, they may find themselves struggling to find words or properly organize their thoughts. Being anxious makes it harder to feel present in the moment.

Anxiety can also have physical effects on a person. Increased heart rate over a longer period, frequent muscle tension, or difficulty sleeping can affect your well-being. The fight-or-flight response releases adrenaline and cortisol into your system. While these help your body prepare for action, they also place it under stress. Frequent stress or stress over long periods will affect your health, including your heart health and immune system.

Being anxious can thus be a good thing in the short term and for moments here and there. However, frequent anxiety, or for prolonged periods will affect your mental, emotional, and physical health. Anxiety might even keep you from enjoying things like time with loved ones, work, or certain places and activities. In other words, anxiety can become a hindrance if you experience too much of it.

Dealing with Anxiety Well

Most of us are dealing with anxiety in one form or another. We might not get triggered by the same things, but we feel anxiety because it’s just part of who and what we are. Some of us struggle with bugs, while others struggle with strangers, talking in public, doing something for the first time, failure, or open spaces. These anxieties can be an aid, but they can also hinder our well-being. It’s important to know how to handle anxiety well.

There are a number of techniques to effectively deal with anxiety in a healthy way. Some of the ways to handle anxiety include the following:

Become aware of your triggers

What makes you anxious might not make any impression at all on the next person. Knowing what makes you anxious can help you prepare mentally ahead of time if you know it’s coming. If forewarned, you can prepare yourself to feel the symptoms of anxiety and work through them.

Don’t avoid your triggers

You’d think that the point of knowing your triggers is to go about systematically avoiding them. You’d be wrong. The problem with avoiding the things that trigger your anxiety is that it only makes these triggers even more powerful, and your reaction to the trigger even more visceral.

Instead of avoiding, prepare to face your anxieties. Facing your anxieties doesn’t mean going out of your way to make yourself anxious. Rather, it means not letting them drive you away from opportunities to enjoy life and perform your daily tasks.

Take self-care seriously

Anxiety is often rooted in fear, and how you handle your emotions is tied to your overall well-being. If you’re emotionally reactive, don’t get enough sleep, or don’t take care of your body, you won’t be able to manage your own emotions well. Taking care of yourself includes getting enough time to rest, enjoying the things that help you to relax, and eating healthy.

Eating healthy can include avoiding food and drink that exacerbates your anxiety. Caffeine, alcohol, processed and sugary foods can all contribute to increased feelings of anxiety. Self-care can also include taking time to exercise, as exercise can reduce your stress levels while elevating your mood.

Seek help

Sometimes, the way to deal with anxiety is to talk to a friend about it. Talking through something and putting a name to it can help you understand the problem better, and it can even demystify it. Your friend can help you think through possible solutions, correct faulty or catastrophic thinking, and help you maintain perspective. All this can help you reduce anxiety greatly.

Seeking help can also take the form of seeking professional mental health care. A therapist or counselor who’s well-versed in dealing with anxiety effectively can help you better understand why you might be anxious, and find ways to respond to such anxiety without causing further distress. Your counselor can help you learn how to identify and disrupt anxious thoughts for your well-being.

It may sometimes be necessary to deal with the symptoms of anxiety through medication. This can be an effective tool in coping with anxiety, particularly when combined with counseling. If it feels as though your anxiety is in the driver’s seat, or if it’s preventing you from enjoying all that life has to offer, reach out and talk to a mental health professional for help.