Dealing with Anxiety, part 4 of 11

Dr. John Delony regularly offers massive amounts of solid advice. Let’s spend some quality time with him and his thoughts on Anxiety, which is so prevalent —

Anxiety is real. It’s powerful. Anxiety affects millions and millions of adults, teens and children in the United States alone, and it’s the most commonly diagnosed mental health challenge of our time.¹ It hijacks our thoughts, our guts and our heart rates. It can be crippling. But it’s not a death sentence (even though it feels like it sometimes). And here’s the truth: To start healing, you don’t just deal with the anxiety . . . You have to address the things causing anxiety in the first place—the situations, thoughts, schedules and choices throwing your wellness and world totally out of whack.

Think of anxiety like a smoke alarm. It goes off when it detects a “fire” in your life. The alarms sound when you feel like you’re in danger or have an unpleasant emotion. And before you know it, your body floods with muscle tension or panic or a racing heart or you overanalyze every single detail of your day.

But the good news?

You can quiet the alarms and put out the fires.

Here’s how to get started dealing with anxiety.

11 Ways to Deal With Anxiety

Dealing with anxiety and healing the chronic fight, flight or freeze response is a multilayered process. While it might take some intentional counseling and lifestyle changes to help calm these stress responses, there are ways you can quiet anxiety in the moment.

1. Stop being alone.

Stop isolating. Just stop. Loneliness is killing us. It’s more destructive than obesity or smoking. Reach out to a friend or family member you can connect with . . . today. Have lunch with a coworker. Go for a walk with a neighbor. Meet some friends for nachos. True human connection and peace only happen when you’re safe and when you can be honest with other people. I don’t care if you’re an introvert or extrovert or what your Enneagram number or Myers-Briggs type is. You cannot get through life alone. Go hang out with someone. If you need help with anxiety, there are people like friends and trusted therapistsready to walk alongside you. We can’t pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Believe me: I’m an introvert from Texas, and I’ve tried.

2. Take a deep breath and drop your shoulders.

When we get anxious, we hold our breath. Holding your breath cuts off oxygen to your brain. Breathing calms the body’s fight-or-flight response. Close your eyes and take a deep breath in through your nose for four seconds. Pause and hold your breath for seven seconds. Then, slowly exhale through your mouth for eight seconds. Do this until you feel more calm.

3. Turn off the news.

If you’re trying to deal with anxiety, the answer is not to consume more information or look at yet another inspirational Instagram post. Shut off the TV. Log off social media. Turn off the true crime podcasts. Stop bingeing self-help books. Our minds are so attuned to messages from all types of media. You’ve got to recognize how much information is enough to stay updated and how much more will kick off a mental spiral of obsession and doom.

4. Write down your thoughts.

Get those looping, catastrophic thoughts out of your head and onto paper. Anxiety makes it easy to jump from a reasonable, healthy thought to a worst-case scenario death spiral. The way to end a spiral of overthinking and worrying is to release those thoughts from your brain. Seeing your thoughts and feelings on paper helps you search them for truth or exaggeration. For example, does forgetting your work assignment really mean you’re stupid and unlovable? Of course not. Write your thoughts, see them, and challenge the dramatic, critical voice inside your head.