How To Deal With Anxiety

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This blog post has been highly requested and I thought I’ll write about how I manage my anxiety. Yes, it will be long as I want to share the knowledge that I know but, I also want you to go back thinking you’ve learnt a lot and that next time this feeling happens you can deal with it.

So get a cup a tea or your preferable drink and lets dive in!

Anxiety is the most common mental health disorder within young people and I am one of them *GASP*.  People tend to say to me ‘’ You’re so daring and confident, how come you have anxiety’’ or I get ‘’ But you have a blog, doesn’t that mean you’re cured’’ Ha! I wish It was that simple but its not. Over the past years I have learnt to manage my anxiety and panic attacks when their occur. It took a lot of determination and challenges but I can say I have seen a significant difference.

I am going to get a bit technical now, but this is how you can truly understand what is happening within your body.

What is the Amygdala?

According to Oxford dictionaries Amygdala means:

Now I don’t know about you but that definition went straight over my head. However, I am here to give you a simple definition so you don’t finish reading this post thinking WTF.

The Amygdala is an almond shaped part in your brain. Amygdala is the reason why we have fear, it controls how we react to certain events that we find fearful and non-fearful. When we detect danger it is due to our stressors convincing our Amygdala that we are in total danger and need to get out of the situation. When we’re in a situation our bodies react in different ways e.g.. Shallow breathing, Sweaty Palms, Hyperventilating ect.   When we get out of the danger the Amygdala says ‘’I was right about that particular danger, lets avoid that thought/event FOREVER’’.  And thats how we have fear!

Fear can not be ‘erased’ or ‘cured’ but it can be managed. I will discuss some of the advice I was told and I will also discuss some of the suggestions I’ve researched.

1.Sit With The Fear

When a professional recommended this tip to me, I thought he was chatting shit and he didn’t know how anxiety feels. But once I tried it out I realised that he was on to something. I don’t know for most people but I tend to run away from a situation when my anxiety rises but if you sit with the fear you’re rivalling with the amygdala and standing up to it. Which in terms counteracts it ( You see where I’m going with this).

2.Acknowledge, Accept, Await

This ties in to the first advice,.

Acknowledge: Acknowledge that you are feeling a certain way which may lead you to a panic attack

Accept: Accept this feeling but do not overthink the feeling or give it the power to affect you physically and mentally

Await: Know that the feelings is not going to last. The feeling will only last max 5 minutes but we convince ourselves its happening for longer. When we await for the feeling to pass our brain starts to give a little cheer.

3.Breathe

Taking slow deep breaths slows down the brain and gives you more clarity in what to do next.

4.Positive Affirmations

Telling yourself that this is going to be okay.

This feeling is not going to last.

My disorder is not going to get the best of me.

Telling yourself these positive affirmations change the thoughts within your brain and replaces the negative thoughts/emotions with positive ones.

5. Mindfulness 

A great app that I adore is insight timer, this app has a various of meditation talks, podcasts and music to help you feel calm and reflect on the things that are happening around you.

6.Seek A Professional

If this affects your day to day living and you’ve tried every tip under the sun…including these ones…My suggestion is to seek professional advice. There are a number of services that will help for example Cognitive Behavioural Therapy ( CBT), Counselling ect.

Why not join a chat rooms like Pacifica (located in the app store) where you can share your worries with people around the world and seek advice from people who have been able to manage dealing with the feelings.

Feel free to email me at thegroundedtree@outlook.com for more advice or to simply have a chat.

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Be Bold, Be Strong, Be you x