August 26, 2024

Coping With Anxiety - 5 Strategies For Everyday Life

Are you living with anxiety that’s starting to affect your day-to-day? If so, keep reading for some helpful tips that can make coping and living with anxiety a little easier.

Limit Caffeine

If you love caffeine, then this entry may be a little disappointing. However, there’s a likelihood that if you’re living with anxiety, that morning cup of coffee is making your anxiety worse.

The reason why is that coffee mimics the natural state the body goes into when it’s in a fight or flight mode. This includes feelings of nervousness, increased heart rate, sweating, and faster breathing. It also can lead to insomnia, which you know to be true if you’ve ever drank coffee late at night and couldn’t sleep.

Quitting coffee cold turkey isn’t the right call. Instead, gradually lower your intake over a few months so you’re not experiencing common caffeine withdrawal symptoms. With time and perhaps, a switch to decaf, you can experience reduced symptoms of anxiety and an improved quality of life.

Identify Your Triggers

If you have anxiety, avoiding things that make you uncomfortable isn’t a long-term strategy. But, it’s a good bridge to a long-term solution.

Per the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a trigger refers to “...something that brings on or worsens symptoms.” This leaves the definition of a trigger wide open, since what worsens your symptoms may not be the same as what worsens someone else’s.

That being said, the most common emotional triggers that bring about anxiety include but aren’t limited to social events, the death of a loved one, specific personality traits, moving, the birth of a baby, having to make small talk, working stressful jobs, and going through a divorce.

Triggers can be anything stressful or life-changing, as mentioned above, or simply hearing a song, a word, or seeing an object that triggers a painful memory. Regardless of what causes it, triggers can be scary and overwhelming. That’s why identifying them is so beneficial.

By knowing what is bound to trigger a painful memory for you, you can learn to either avoid situations that will affect your mental health or set boundaries that limit your exposure. For example, if your mom died of cancer and it triggers a lot of pain and anxiety for you, shutting off a TV or radio commercial that talks about treatment may be helpful while you’re working to address the root of the anxiety.

Over time, and with therapy, you’ll be able to expose yourself to triggers more easily. However, when you’re starting out and learning to cope, reducing your exposure to things that will worsen recovery is a smart idea.

Identify Your Support System

This is huge because the right support system is basically free medicine with side affects that add to and/or multiply your life. You may have a huge group of friends or people you know, but not everyone will be the right support system for you. That’s why, if you have anxiety, you should identify a support system that can help you through it.

This person(s) should be sympathetic to your struggle with anxiety and be open to listening about it without dismissing it or offering unwarranted insight. Sometimes, when your anxiety level is high, the last thing you want is to hear someone else’s opinion. Instead, what you need is an outlet to vent.

Venting will untangle your anxious thoughts so you can think more clearly. Find a friend who will allow this process to unfold naturally, and then when it’s time, offer supportive suggestions or practices you can do together, like breathing or grounding techniques.

Practice Aromatherapy

Do you have some essential oils lying around? Maybe something lavender or bergamot scented? If so, you may want to turn to them next time you’re feeling anxious.

According to Timothy K.H. Fung et.al, in the article Therapeutic Effect and Mechanisms of Essential Oils in Mood Disorders: Interaction between the Nervous and Respiratory Systems published in the National Library of Medicine, there is sufficient evidence that indicates that essential oils (EOs) “...can successfully reduce anxiety and relieve pain when combined with conventional treatment.”

When inhaled, essential oils help regulate mood by sending signals to the brain that activate serotonin and dopamine, two neurotransmitters that help improve and stabilize mood. The most successful scents include those mentioned above, as well as rose, lemon, and sandalwood.

If you don’t have essential oils, you can also try lighting a candle or using a room spray of a similar scent. Keep in mind that the practice of aromatherapy shouldn’t be relied upon as the only coping mechanism for treating anxiety. Instead, it should be used in conjunction with the other methods listed here along with therapeutic treatment.

Practice Better Sleep Hygiene

Last but not least, one of the best everyday coping strategies for addressing anxiety is to practice better sleep hygiene.

Sleep is when your brain goes to work, helping to maintain your cognitive skills and regulate emotions. Without it, your brain can’t perform these necessary actions, and the result is going to be increased anxiety and worsening mood and cognitive function.

Of course, when you’re living with anxiety, practicing good sleep hygiene may be easier said than done because being in a consistent fight-or-flight mode makes it hard to fall and stay asleep. That’s why you have to take proactive action.

Here are some steps you can take:

• Power off your phone or stop using it at least an hour before you go to bed
• If you wake up in the middle of the night, don’t try to fight going back to sleep; instead, get up and read some pages of a book in another room
• Limit both caffeine and alcohol intake, especially before bed
• Wake up and go to bed at the same time every day, limiting naps, if possible

These tips aren’t foolproof, but they can offer some immediate help to get you back to sleep. Try them out and see what works for you.

Remember, dealing with anxiety is stressful and often overwhelming. However, with the right everyday coping strategies, you can help reduce symptoms, so you enjoy a happier and healthier quality of life moving forward.

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If you liked this article, check out my Substack Newsletter on "How To Harness The Power of Positive Thinking" at: https://theunreliablemind.substack.com/p/how-to-harness-the-power-of-positive