By : Janell Bethea
In fact, anxiety is considered the most common mental illness. However, if you’re like the majority of adults that are affected by anxiety, it is also likely that you have not sought treatment for whatever reason.
While it is important that you seek a licensed health care professional, I’m going to share some tips that will hopefully help to decrease the symptoms of anxiety and prevent future occurrences. Just remember that these are merely tips and that you should still seek help to determine the intensity and underlying factors behind your anxiety.
For those of you who don’t know, WebMD defines anxiety as:
“a mental health disorder that is characterized by feelings of worry, anxiety, or fear that is strong enough to interfere with one’s daily activities.”
This feeling is typically more intense than the situation at hand deserves.
Due to this, you might have had people tell you that you’re overreacting, to “just stop thinking about it”, to calm down, or you may even feel that people start to drift away or get frustrated when you have these intense feelings.
Growing up, I remember having all the symptoms of anxiety without actually knowing what it was. Friends and family would tell me that I would over think things and that I was a “nervous Nelly”. Yet, the more I was told to stop thinking about things, the more obsessed with the thoughts that I would become. In addition to these thoughts, I would show physical signs as well. Suddenly my heart would start pounding, the air would seem thicker as it became harder to breathe, my hands would start to tremble, and I would become dizzy.
I remember one day I was shopping with friends and I experienced my first anxiety attack. I didn’t know what to do, so I just sat down on the floor in the middle of the store. At this point, I didn’t know that I was experiencing my first panic attack, but I did what I could for the time being.
Owing to this lack of understanding of what was going on, I in turn thought it was something physical-health related. However, due to the symptoms eventually going away, I never sought help. It was not until I took a psychology class that I learned what happened in the store that day.
Upon learning about anxiety, I was then able to recognize when my anxiety was increasing. Nonetheless, I still didn’t know how to cope, recognize underlying factors, or how to prevent full on anxiety attacks. While I knew about the basic signs and statistics of anxiety, I, like most other adults, did not seek professional treatment. It was not until about 6 months ago, that I began to see a counselor.
Fast Forward to present day, and I’m finally starting to understand some of my triggers as well as signs that my anxiety levels are increasing.
As a result of this newly obtained knowledge, I am here to share some strategies that have helped with my anxiety.
1) Doing yoga on a daily basis:
If you’re unfamiliar with how to do yoga, here is a video I found on YouTube that has helped me.
If the thought of ‘yoga’ sounds too forced, you could also play some soothing music while doing stretching and breathing exercises.
Yoga has aided me to not only feel relaxed, but also to clear my mind of the extremities I have created on particular issues. Allowing my mind to calm down and come back to reality.
Doing this twice daily has created a reset button for my mind.
In the morning I am able to start my morning positively & at night I am able to relax before bed.
