Whether you are nervous about upcoming midterm exams, have a stressful situation at home or another issue entirely, anxiety is a normal emotion that everyone experiences.
What is anxiety?
In simple terms, anxiety is a mental and physical state of negative expectation. It may be fueled by some form of fear or uncertainty. Anxiety is reasonable and normal when it appears in response to an actual threat. However, when individuals overestimate the danger of a situation and underestimate their ability to cope or utilize resources, anxiety can become overwhelming.
Mental Signs of Anxiety
How do you know you’re experiencing anxiety? We can recognize anxiety as racing or circular thoughts, difficulty controlling worrisome thoughts, difficulty concentrating, excessive worry, being irritable, feeling “on edge,” or experiencing panic or anxiety attacks.
Physiological Signs of Anxiety
Anxiety can also affect your body. People often report the following physiological symptoms:
- Tense muscles
- Heart racing or pounding
- Muscle twitches or spasms
- Nausea
- Stomach cramps
- Indigestion
- Difficulty taking a deep breath
- Chest tightness or pain
- Restlessness
- Feeling fidgety
- Tingling sensations
- Numbness
- Dizziness
- Feeling lightheaded
- Hot flashes or chills
- Sweating
- Weakness
- and more
4 Steps to Manage Your Anxiety
Luckily, there are several different ways to manage anxiety. Try one of these techniques and see if it helps.
- Deep Breathing: As soon as you notice feeling anxious, remember to take a few deep breaths. Deep breathing, “square” or “box breathing” and diaphragmatic breathing are all great breathwork strategies that can have a direct impact on alleviating physiological anxiety symptoms.
- Exercising: A ton of research out there indicates that engaging in 20 minutes of some form of exercise per day tends to lower both anxiety and depressive symptoms. So, get out there and move your body in some way for 20 minutes.
- Yoga Classes: According to lots of research, yoga teaches us to control our breathing, facilitates a meditative state and calms down our autonomic nervous system.
- Identifying Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTS): ANTS may be contributing to your anxiety, so it can be helpful to engage in challenging them by following this cognitive model:
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- First, identify the situation that is contributing to your anxiety.
- Next, take a moment to identify the automatic thought that popped up in your mind after the situation occurred.
- Thirdly, recognize your reaction to that thought. Ask yourself questions such as, What did you want to do after the thought occurred? What did you not want to do?
- Then, take a moment to reflect on what feeling or emotion you felt as a result of the automatic thought that you had. What was your behavior as a result of it? How and where did you feel in your body (physiological response)?
- When you recognize that your initial ANTS have a negative impact on you, you can always return to step two, identifying the automatic thought.
- Finally, identify something else you could consciously, deliberately think of — perhaps something more positive, or at least less negative — to yield a more neutral or even positive emotional reaction, instead of the automatic thoughts that contribute to your anxiety.
How We Can Help
If you find that you need more in-depth help to manage your anxiety, there are several ways to find care:
- Call the Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC) at (512) 471-3515.
- Use the Crisis Line (512) 471-2255 for crisis situations.
- Use Timely Care.
- Download the Thrive App to your device.
Yours truly,
Dr. Arna Erega, LPC
Counseling and Community Outreach Specialist
Feel free to reach out to Dr. Arega with questions at arna.erega@austin.utexas.edu.
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