Self-Help Tips: Anxiety & Counterstatements

If you struggle with anxiety, panic, or fear, you’re not alone. Thousands of folks struggle with these debilitating feelings everyday. If you’re up for trying some self-care tips, give one if the following a try!

One: If you feel a panic attack coming on and find you are breathing rapidly, breathe slowly in and out and try to focus on controlling your breathing

Two: Take a walk around your floor, go up to the roof, take a walk around the building.

Three: Don’t attempt to fight your way out of a panic attack – this will simply increase the adrenaline. Instead accept the feelings will come and go and allow the symptoms to play their tricks as they will. Practice imagining yourself floating over them. Eventually the panic will subside.

Four: Distract yourself – do a puzzle, soduku, play a game online, or write an email.

Five: Focus outside of yourself during an attack. Listen to some music or do a pleasurable task while waiting for the panic to subside.

Six: Use a relaxation technique. First close your eyes and breathe slowly and deeply. Locate any areas of tension and imagine them disappearing. Then, relax each part of the body, bit by bit, from the feet upwards. Think of warmth and heaviness. After 20 minutes of doing this, take some deep breaths and stretch. There’s also a guided imagery exercise on my website that can help: www.drkathynickerson.com

Seven: Designate a small amount of time (maybe 30 minutes or less) to worrying/analysis of what’s worrying you. Then, during worry time, do the following exercise:

On a piece of paper, make a chart with four columns. In column 1, write down all the things you are worried about. In column 2, write down how likely that event is to happen (is it 10% likely, 25%?). In column 3, write down all the “if/thens” that come to mind when you think about what’s bothering you. In column 4, write down some things you can actively do if the worst case scenario events happen or what you can do now to prevent the worst case scenarios from happening.

Here’s an example:
Column 1: What’s bothering me? I may lose my job.
Column 2: How likely is this to happen? 30% because my company just had a lay off.
Column 3: If this happens, what then? Then I will need to look for a new job, I don’t know how long that might take, maybe I will not be able to pay the bills
Column 4: If the worst case scenario happens? Then I will need to polish up my resume, get into contact with a networking group, call some old contacts, reach out to some connections, post my resume online, etc… – OR – I could be proactive and talk to my supervisor about the company’s future plans, how I can be helpful; I could also connect now with some old contacts or join a networking group.

Sometimes just by thinking a worrisome thought all the way through and coming up with a solution, we find we feel much better.

Eight: If you’re finding yourself telling yourself some very negative things, try writing some counter-statements, here are some tips on how to do that:
http://www.anxietynetwork.com/helpcope.html
http://www.healthyplace.com/communities/Anxiety…

Nine: If you’re finding yourself really getting upset, reach out to a friend, call someone you care about, just talk it out….if no relief, call me and let’s talk about your going to an urgent care clinic. Of course, if you feel like you need immediate medical attention, go directly to the emergency room and call me when you get there.

Ten: Firmly tell yourself that your symptoms are nothing more than an over-sensitized nervous system. They are temporary feelings and are not medically harmful or dangerous.However, if you feel more comfortable, you can always call 911 for help.