Your presentation to a very important client is due in just a few hours. Your boss and the senior leadership will all be attending. As it approaches, your stomach hurts, your heart starts beating faster, your palms feel sweaty, and you just can’t shake this feeling of an impending doom.
As petrifying as this mental image may be, anxiety is a perfectly normal part of our lives. We all experience moments that make us anxious and nervous on a regular basis. The problem starts when those feelings don’t go away or become too intense to the point where they interfere with our everyday lives.
What is anxiety?
According to the National Institute for Mental Health, more than 40 million individuals in the US (over the age of 18) experience some anxiety-related disorder with millions still undiagnosed.
Anxiety is a normal human response that serves a certain purpose. So, instead of dismissing it utterly, we should simply turn it into a manageable and healthy part of our lives. Anxiety is simply an integral part of the world, much like happiness, sadness, stress, and other emotions. All you have to do is understand how to cope and keep it from becoming overwhelming and unhealthy.
Simply put, anxiety is a sense of fear that puts us on high alert. From the biological standpoint, anxiety prepares us for potential threats by heightening our senses and raising our awareness. However, if our fight or flight response never shuts down, we’ll live with the emotional and physical effects of anxiety even when there’s no immediate danger.
Are anxiety and stress the same thing?
Taken at face value, anxiety can look a lot like stress, but it’s much more complicated than that. Stress can result in anxiety, but can also manifest in other ways, including anger, sadness, and many other emotions. Anxiety, as we already mentioned, is that specific feeling of dread and apprehension that clutches our brains and doesn’t let go.
Anxiety can be caused by something that’s happening around you but can also manifest on its own without an actual “trigger”. This is what makes it intrinsically different from stress, but also very difficult to manage and predict.
The symptoms of anxiety
Anxiety can take many forms ranging from generalized anxiety disorder and OCD to panic disorder and specific phobias. However, individuals with any type of anxiety condition usually exhibits the following symptoms:
- Feeling out of control of one’s life and health
- Higher levels of stress
- Low self-esteem
- Feeling nervous in social situations
- Difficulties managing pressure
- Overall unhappiness
- Irritability
- Feeling unsettled and overwhelmed
- Restlessness
- Sleep problems
- Muscle tension
- Difficulty concentrating
- Fatiguing easily
This is just a small portion of symptoms that can be caused by anxiety. So, it’s essential to visit your primary care doctor and get an accurate diagnosis before taking any actions. Anxiety disorders are misdiagnosed very often, which causes a whole slew of unnecessary problems, including, but not limited to the wrong treatment.
How to deal with anxiety?
First of all, we need to make one thing clear. Suppressing anxiety is not an option. You can only learn to cope with it. In other words, it’s not a willpower issue.
Trying to suppress anxiety is like trying to stifle hunger with sheer willpower after not eating for a couple of days. Anxiety is a necessary and, above all, normal emotion designed to protect us. So, our goal here should be to identify “unnecessary anxiety” and develop the mechanisms to minimize it and cope with it.
Here’s our list of essential tips that’ll help you handle your anxiety and simply get on with your life:
Get more exercise
When your emotions shift into overdrive, exercising is not at the top of your priorities. However, exercise is one of the most potent anti-anxiolytics we can reach for with them being meds.
Physical activity will raise your serotonin and endorphin levels. Our brains can’t focus equally on two things at once, so feeling better will change your perception of things and take your mind off your problems.
You don’t have to push yourself through a demanding workout, though. Half an hour of light physical activity 3-5 days a week is more than enough. You can do something simple like dancing to your favorite tunes.
The connection between the two is real and measurable – you can read more about it on the ADAA site here.
Get a good night’s sleep
Although some workaholics might brag about needing only a few hours of rest every night, we are not robots. Human beings need sleep, period. Without it, we shamble. The jury is still out there as to why, but we do…that’s for sure.
Developing a steady bedtime routine and getting 8-9 hours of sleep daily is crucial.
Apart from having a good mattress and a comfortable bedroom without unnecessary clutter, you can also consider using weighted blankets as a “weapon” against anxiety. They were initially intended primarily for kids, but grew very popular over the last decade or so, even for adults – you can see some of the better ones recommended on TheSleepStudies here.
On one hand, a good weighted blanket can trigger the release of serotonin and dopamine (also known as the “feel-good hormones”) that’ll help you combat anxiety, stress, and depression. On the other, they’ll reduce your levels of cortisol, which is a stress hormone your brain produces when it thinks you’re under attack.
Never skip meals
This one is especially tricky if your anxiety triggers physical responses like vomiting or nausea. We’re aware that the idea of eating in this situation might have the appeal of eating sand but making a habit out of meal-skipping will make your anxiety worse.
It interferers with glucose levels, which brings us back to cortisol. The stress hormone will definitely help you when you need to be active, but it will make things much worse if you’re suffering from anxiety.
This, however, doesn’t give you a carte blanche to stuff yourself with junk food. Try to eat more fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and fats (the good kind). To maintain the levels of blood sugar stable, spread the meals out through the day – and by all means, avoid binging in the evening.
Go natural
Before you reach out for drugs and other artificial means of battling anxiety, you should try preventing/dealing with it the natural way.
Incorporating yoga or meditation into your daily schedule, visiting a sauna, taking a stroll through the forest, and even holding your breath will also help you reduce anxiety without any drugs.
Limit your caffeine intake
This is a tough one. Yes, chocolate and ice-cold Coke or a cup of coffee might make you feel better, but CAFFEINE IS A DRUG and it’ll make your anxiety worse.
Caffeine will boost your energy levels by jolting your nervous system. This nervous energy, however, can induce a full-blown anxiety attack. Nobody expects you to give up your favorite caffeinated beverage cold turkey, though. Moderation is everything here.
So, try having only two cups of coffee a day instead of four. Try drinking less Coke, etc. While you’re doing this, slowly introduce healthier beverages into your diet. Personally, we recommend decaffeinated herbal teas they’ll do wonders for your nerves and mind.
You can read more on how caffeine impacts anxiety on BeBrainFit here.
The bottom line – make a plan and stick to it
If you’re suffering from anxiety or depression it can be hard to answer the phone some days, we get that.
That’s where your survival instinct should meat you intelligence.
Be aware of two things:
- If you don’t feel like doing something and get tired at the very thought – that’s not your body, that’s your anxious mind
- The longest journey starts with a single step – no matter how hard it is, take those first few steps and makes those first few changes. You’ll soon feel pride and a healthy dose of new energy boosted by the pride of small accomplishments.
So, start by planning the small changes – one or two a day. It’s OK to walk slow, just don’t walk backwards.
Stay strong
