The Best Strategies for Managing Your Anxiety Symptoms

Anxiety disorders come in many forms and many different levels of potential severity. No matter what, you’ll need to be proactive in managing your anxiety symptoms, so they don’t take over your life. But what does it mean to actively manage your anxiety symptoms? And which tools and techniques can help you do it?

The Value of Anxiety Symptom Management

According to Dr. Sina Saidi, psychiatrist in Boulder, CO, anxiety symptom management is the most important goal for people with anxiety to set. There is no known cure for most anxiety disorders, and even in cases where treatment is highly effective, most people with anxiety disorders have lingering (albeit much milder) symptoms for the rest of their lives. Medication can help some people, but it’s not always the best treatment strategy – and even when used consistently, some users still feel problematic anxiety flare-ups at least occasionally.

Having anxiety management strategies in your tool belt gives you opportunities to address anxiety as it arises, regardless of what types of treatment programs you’re following. At the moment, it can help you stave off an anxiety attack or respond to a problematic trigger in a healthy way. And in the long term, these practices can give you much more control over your anxiety symptoms – and more confidence in your daily life.

The Best Strategies for Managing Your Anxiety Symptoms

These are some of the best strategies for managing your anxiety symptoms:

  • Talk therapy

There are few treatment strategies more effective than talk therapy when it comes to managing anxiety symptoms. In your talk therapy sessions, you and your therapist will discuss the nature of your anxiety, the thoughts and feelings you experience regularly, and past events in your life that might have led you here.

Through greater awareness and support, many of your anxious feelings will ebb away, and you’ll gain access to more coping strategies that can help you manage anxiety in the moment.

  • Trigger avoidance and mitigation

In some cases, anxiety management is best utilized for trigger avoidance and mitigation. In other words, your goal will be avoiding or managing situations that cause your anxiety to spike. This could mean avoiding certain people, certain areas, or certain types of interactions – or it could lead to bigger life changes, like changing careers.

  • Grounding techniques

Grounding techniques, like the 333 rule, attempt to prevent you from getting trapped in a spiral of anxious thoughts; the 333 rule, specifically, encourages practitioners to identify three things they can see, three things they can hear, and three things they can touch in their immediate surroundings. It’s a specific distraction exercise that can break the recurring chain of anxiety.

  • Thought pattern recognition

Most unhealthy anxious thoughts arise in response to unhealthy thought patterns. For example, if you’re anxious about an upcoming social situation, it might be because you’ve spent all morning thinking about all the ways that it could go wrong. It’s hard to gain control over your thought patterns, but recognizing them is a good first step.

  • Physical exercise

Physical exercise is one of the best ways to beat anxiety, and it also has enormous benefits for your physical health. Aim to get at least 20 minutes of moderate intensity exercise every day, and consider getting more exercise when your anxiety flares up.

  • Deep breathing

Deep breathing exercises are designed to occupy your focus and stimulate physical relaxation. There are many different exercises that you can practice here, following different timings and frequency intervals; experiment to see which ones you prefer.

  • Meditation

Practicing meditation is another focus exercise that can help you manage even your most extreme feelings in the moment. There are many different meditation philosophies and practices to consider.

  • Journaling

Through the art of journaling, you can express your inner thoughts and more closely examine how they arise. And if you journal consistently, you’ll be able to track your progress as you get better at managing your anxiety symptoms.

  • Effective sleep

Sleep and anxiety have a complex relationship. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll feel more anxious when you’re awake. And if you feel more anxious when you’re awake, you’ll find it harder to get to sleep. This is a tough cycle to break, but it’s an important one to address. Do whatever you can to facilitate better sleep, such as scheduling time for sleep, investing in better bedding, and avoiding digital screens before it’s time to go to sleep.

  • Substance use cessation

People often turn to substances like alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and miscellaneous illicit drugs to help them cope with feelings of anxiety, but they can make things worse. It’s typically better to avoid these substances entirely, or at least reduce your reliance on them.

  • Socialization

Socializing with others is also good for your anxiety, even if you have some form of specific social anxiety. Even simple activities, like talking on the phone, can be good for your mental health, so prioritize them!

Managing anxiety isn’t easy, and for many people, it’s a practice that must be followed indefinitely. Fortunately, many of these strategies are easy to learn and implement, yet they still have tremendous potential impact.

The more you work at your anxiety disorder, the more control you’ll get over your symptoms, and the better you’re going to feel overall.

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