Are anxious thoughts dominating your mind and exhausting you? Are you having trouble relaxing or falling asleep? Are you struggling with overwhelming anxiety? Lots of people do. There’s an epidemic of worry going on out there right now, so you’re not alone. Not by a long shot. There are plenty of Anxious Folks and stressed out people. Many of them are living right here in Orange County. I see them in my office every day. They're learning to live with anxiety by reducing their anxious experience overall and doing so successfully.
“What can I do about my anxiety?”
Although it can feel like there's not much you can do to stop your busy buzzing overactive mind, because you haven't been able to stop it up until now, it's just not the case. There is good news on this front: anxiety is largely a learned coping mechanism and it can be unlearned. You can unlearn your anxious habit! There's a way out and you don't have to find it on your own. In fact, this is the work I do every day. I specialize in helping people overcome their overwhelming stress, anxiety, and panic. It's what I do.
When people first contact me for support with their anxious experience, there are a few things we start with right out of the box. On their own, they won't solve your anxious problem, but they can form helpful steps in the right direction. Living with overwhelming anxiety? That's tough. These baby steps can make it a little more doable.
When people first contact me for support with their anxious experience, there are a few things we start with right out of the box. On their own, they won't solve your anxious problem, but they can form helpful steps in the right direction. Living with overwhelming anxiety? That's tough. These baby steps can make it a little more doable.
You can start to relieve your anxiety now.
1. Cut out the caffeine. Yeah, I know. It’s a bitch. But cutting out the caffeine in your diet and replacing it with water, non-caffeinated teas and drinks, or decaf coffee can go a long ways in supporting your other efforts to relieve your anxious experience. Unfortunately, caffeine mimics anxiety in the body (increased heart-rate, increased perspiration, jumbled stomach, sharper mind) and can set you down the road to a panic or anxiety incident. No. Fun. Cutting out caffeine isn't going to heal your anxious experience on its own, but it will keep you from elevating your anxiety unnecessarily and can prevent you from tipping over into panic attack.
2. Get enough sleep. You've already eliminated the coffee, so that will help. I know you’re tired of hearing this, but getting enough sleep helps everything. Including anxiety reduction efforts. For one thing, you’ll cope better with life when you are fully rested. Here's the thing, though, anxiety is a great sleep disruptor. It's not always as simple as getting to bed on time, however, getting to bed on time is a great start. When I interview Anxious Folk in my office about their bedtime habits, I find getting to bed on time can mean anything from midnight to 1 a.m. So, let's start with that. Get to bed earlier. Although many of my twenty-something clients are a generation of sleep deprived vampires, even they can retrain themselves over time. The rest of the adults I work with will also benefit from a good 7-8 hours of sleep per night.
2. Get enough sleep. You've already eliminated the coffee, so that will help. I know you’re tired of hearing this, but getting enough sleep helps everything. Including anxiety reduction efforts. For one thing, you’ll cope better with life when you are fully rested. Here's the thing, though, anxiety is a great sleep disruptor. It's not always as simple as getting to bed on time, however, getting to bed on time is a great start. When I interview Anxious Folk in my office about their bedtime habits, I find getting to bed on time can mean anything from midnight to 1 a.m. So, let's start with that. Get to bed earlier. Although many of my twenty-something clients are a generation of sleep deprived vampires, even they can retrain themselves over time. The rest of the adults I work with will also benefit from a good 7-8 hours of sleep per night.
It helps to have an evening routine and to maintain it. This means finding what works best for winding down over the last two or three hours of the evening. This includes turning off the TV and especially not listening to the news as you try and drop off. It also means unplugging from media the Internet and smartphones for about an hour before you retire. I know, it's hard not to check into Facebook just one more time! Still, recent studies indicate connecting to computer screens before retiring to bed actually disrupts sleeping patterns. Go figure. On top of that, the content itself is stimulating (and I don't just mean Debbie Does Dallas!), working against sleep and restful sleep, as well.
Many people I work with find developing a routine, such as getting things set up for tomorrow, laying out your clothes, packing your lunch, and gathering your stuff by the front door help soothe out the evening and make for an easier morning. In addition, reading, meditating, or taking a warm bath or shower are great ways to ritualize bedtime and get ready for rest.
Many people I work with find developing a routine, such as getting things set up for tomorrow, laying out your clothes, packing your lunch, and gathering your stuff by the front door help soothe out the evening and make for an easier morning. In addition, reading, meditating, or taking a warm bath or shower are great ways to ritualize bedtime and get ready for rest.
Even adding these soothing routines to your bedtime rituals may not help when you are deep in the throes of your anxious ruminating habits. True. So developing a few great self-soothing skills can be a real boon. We'll talk more about this in a minute. Anxious Folk are NOT at our best when they're exhausted and if it's one thing we hate, it's not being at our best.
3. Don’t believe everything you think. This one is huge. I can't say it enought. Your busy brilliant brain is churning out between 60,000 and 600,000 unique thoughts a day. Most of them anxious and negative. Ninety percent of them are the same nasty negative thoughts you had yesterday. Ugh! Your bright and beautiful mind (Oh, did I fail to mention it’s bright people who tend to suffer from anxiety in the first place. Yup! True story. You're brilliant. That's why you're miserable. Great, right!?). Anyway, back where I was, your bright and beautiful mind busies itself with solving problems and churning out problems to solve. At a certain point your anxious mind just runs away with itself into catastrophic, worst-case scenario thinking. Exhausting! And hard to turn off. So, step back and notice the scary story you’re telling yourself, label it as a “story,” and watch it like a movie. Believe it or not, consistently reminding yourself you’re telling yourself stories is a very significant step in dismantling the impact of your scary, negative stories. Besides, if you can step back and watch your mind thinking, who's doing al the thinking anyway? You. Are. Not. Your. Anxiety.
4. Pick up some real relaxation techniques. And do them. Good solid relaxation techniques have always been a big help in reducing and managing anxious experience. Let’s face it, we Anxious Folks tend to be stress cases. Anything we can do to “bring it down” a bit is going to benefit us (and everyone around us). There’s now great brain science supporting the tremendous benefits of meditation for everyone and especially for those of us who are most stressed. Meditation has been found to make measurable differences in the brain. At any age. Isn’t that amazing? Spending 10-20 minutes once or twice a day can do a whole lot for helping you cope with the rest of your day more effectively, while improving your sense of well-being overall.
Self-soothing is one of the things I teach people in every day. Another tool to consider learning is Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR). You can Google it. It's a great way to become familiar with the way your muscles are holding tension in the body.
3. Don’t believe everything you think. This one is huge. I can't say it enought. Your busy brilliant brain is churning out between 60,000 and 600,000 unique thoughts a day. Most of them anxious and negative. Ninety percent of them are the same nasty negative thoughts you had yesterday. Ugh! Your bright and beautiful mind (Oh, did I fail to mention it’s bright people who tend to suffer from anxiety in the first place. Yup! True story. You're brilliant. That's why you're miserable. Great, right!?). Anyway, back where I was, your bright and beautiful mind busies itself with solving problems and churning out problems to solve. At a certain point your anxious mind just runs away with itself into catastrophic, worst-case scenario thinking. Exhausting! And hard to turn off. So, step back and notice the scary story you’re telling yourself, label it as a “story,” and watch it like a movie. Believe it or not, consistently reminding yourself you’re telling yourself stories is a very significant step in dismantling the impact of your scary, negative stories. Besides, if you can step back and watch your mind thinking, who's doing al the thinking anyway? You. Are. Not. Your. Anxiety.
4. Pick up some real relaxation techniques. And do them. Good solid relaxation techniques have always been a big help in reducing and managing anxious experience. Let’s face it, we Anxious Folks tend to be stress cases. Anything we can do to “bring it down” a bit is going to benefit us (and everyone around us). There’s now great brain science supporting the tremendous benefits of meditation for everyone and especially for those of us who are most stressed. Meditation has been found to make measurable differences in the brain. At any age. Isn’t that amazing? Spending 10-20 minutes once or twice a day can do a whole lot for helping you cope with the rest of your day more effectively, while improving your sense of well-being overall.
Self-soothing is one of the things I teach people in every day. Another tool to consider learning is Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR). You can Google it. It's a great way to become familiar with the way your muscles are holding tension in the body.
5. Ask for help. You don't have to do it all alone. I can't say it enough. Get some help already! Anxious Folk are help refusers by nature. Self sufficiency is one of our favorite anxious habits and self-protection strategies. Convincing ourselves "being strong" means being stoic and suffering through on our own, even if the end result is this trait raises our anxiety through the roof and beyond. Sometimes our overwhelming anxiety is more than we cope with on our own. By the time we look for real help, we've been suffering way too much for way too long.
It took years to become as anxious as you are today.
It took years to become as anxious as you are today; it can take a little while to resolve it. You don’t have to do it by yourself. There’s qualified help out there to coach you as you work to reduce your anxiety and increase your level of happiness and well-being overall. Find a therapist who is comfortable with you, even when you are popping out of your skin. Look for a therapist who specializes in stress and anxiety. There are drug-free approaches to winning back your life and moving forward. I use them to support people I work with every day. You can choose peace. Now.
VICTORIA WALLACE SCHLICHT, MA, LMFT, SEP
2030 East 4rth Street, Ste. 111
Santa Ana, CA 92705
In the beautiful Cabrillo Park area
[email protected]
SIGN UP HERE FOR MY EZINE, THRIVING NEWS
714.914.5565
"I help people who feel bad feel better."
2030 East 4rth Street, Ste. 111
Santa Ana, CA 92705
In the beautiful Cabrillo Park area
[email protected]
SIGN UP HERE FOR MY EZINE, THRIVING NEWS
714.914.5565
"I help people who feel bad feel better."
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