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Managing Anxiety This Year

How to Manage Anxiety This Year: Strategies and Resources

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety impacts close to 20% of adults with a higher prevalence in females than males. People often describe anxiety with a mixture of physical and cognitive symptoms. Anxiety is a mental health condition that can impact a person on both a mind and body level. As a mental health condition, it is seen in children and adults and poses a prevalent concern in today’s world.

The anxiety and depression association of America (adaa) share how people with an anxiety disorder are more likely to be hospitalized. This is shared to bring attention to the impact the mental health condition can have on a persons life. At Santos Counseling, we have first hand experience in seeing how anxieyt impacts kids in school, on the sports field, and adults in varying settings of life.

What is Anxiety?

Are you familiar with the feelings wheel? It’s a figure in the shape of a wheel that holds varying feelings people experience. You will everything from sadness to guilt on there. One of the feelings in the wheel is anxiety.

At its core, anxiety is a natural feeling that people experience in response to stress. More than likely you have experienced it during a stressful situation. Like when you are running late for work or when you have to discuss a topic you have been avoiding.

What makes anxiety a mental health disorder is focused on how it shows up in a person’s life. The World Health Organization brings attention to how anxiety is one of the world’s most common mental health disorders.

Key symptoms associated with anxiety disorder include:

  • Excessive and persistent fear.
  • Ongoing worry that you cannot control.
  • Anxiety symptoms that persist for several months.
  • Trouble concentrating.
  • Difficult making decision.

Listen to the mental health podcast episode below to learn how to practice self-care. This is a key practice that can be used to address anxiety.


 

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Signs and Symptoms of Anxiety Disorder

As mentioned earlier, anxiety can impact a person in varying ways. Some experience mostly physical symptoms while others may experience a mixture of physical and mental. One of the key steps in improving your mental health is awareness. Below are common signs and symptoms of anxiety. 

Common Mental Symptoms:

  • Constant Worrying: You are experiencing a constant sense of dread, worry, or fear about the future.
  • Racing Thoughts: You are having a hard time concentrating or controlling your thoughts.
  • Irritability: You get easily agitated.
  • Sleep Disturbances: You are having a hard time falling asleep or even staying asleep due to the symptom of overthinking.

Common Physical Symptoms:

  • Increased Heart Rate: When anxious, you notice that your heart accelerates even without you doing physical exertion.
  • Muscle Tension: You notice that certain muscles are stiff or even sore.
  • Shortness of Breath: This leaves you with a feeling like you can’t catch your breath.
  • Sweating: You start sweating during stressful situations.

Remember, a key step in improving your mental health is awareness. Today, start by learning about symptoms and signs of anxiety. After this step, you can begin to explore healthy coping skills. 

4 Affirmations To Improve Mental Health And Your Mood.

The Impact of Anxiety on the Mind and Body

Think about the last time that you experienced anxiety? Now try to remember if it impacted your body, mind, or both. Anxiety isn’t just a psychological experience—it can impact both the physical body and the mind. 

When a person experiences anxiety on a psychological level their is a disruption of cognitive processes. This disruption can make doing things challenging. Such as trying to make decisions or focusing on a specific task.  Overtime the cognitive disruption can cause a person to feel mentally exhausted. 

On a physical level, people experience the fight or flight response. You may have heard of this as a trauma response. What happens is that the body shifts from a stable and comfortable place to one of physical threat response. Internally, the body begins to produce more cortisol. This is the stress hormone.

People often experience rapid heart rate, pain in certain muscles, stomachaches, or muscle tension.

How anxiety impacts the physical body:

  • Persistent anxiety can lower the body’s defense and as a result weaken the immune system: 
  • Stomaches can develop to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This is condition that is linked to anxiety. 
  • As mentioned before, the fight or flight response impacts heart rate. As a result, prolong anxiety can also be associated with risk of high blood pressure and heart related illness. 
  • Ongoing anxiety impacts the musculoskeletal system in the form of headaches and pain in muscles.

Common Settings That Can Impact Anxiety

Did you know that certain settings can trigger anxiety? The trigger can be associated to what has taken place in the past or a fear of something unwanted happening in the future. Anxiety can be triggered by varying settings and situations.

4 common settings that may impact your anxiety:

1. Workplace Stress:

This can be due to unwanted pressure, unhealthy expectations, or the balance between managing your responsibility with productivity. 

2. Social Settings:

Some people experience an increase in anxiety during specific social settings. Such as when in a setting of judgement, during a public speaking even, or when interacting in a group setting.

3. Family Dynamics:

In your family system, there may be specific settings or situations that spike your anxiety. A common example is that of taking on a caretaker role or having to step in to address conflict. Click here to learn more about mental health and caregiving. 

4. Financial Stress:

Money is a very common stressor for most people. Situations like navigating debt or struggling to meet a specifc financial obligation can increase stress and make a person feel very anxious. 

Effective Strategies for Managing Anxiety

Now that you have a stronger understanding of what anxiety is and how it can impact the mind and body, let’s shift to addressing strategies for managing anxiety.  Below are several strategies that can help reduce the symptoms and improve mental well-being:

1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT):

Harvard Health Medical school brings attention to how CBT can be an effective evidence based approach to managing anxiety. At Santos Counseling, we utilize evidence based practice like CBT to ensure up to date and effective treatment.

CBT as a treatment approach focuses on the mind and body. This way you are able to understand the patterns of anxiety as it impacts you on physical and cognitive level. The treatment approach further helps people to reframe anxiety and develop coping skills that counter the symptoms of anxiety.

2. Work With A Licensed Counselor:

If you’re in Greensboro, NC or live in North Carolina, please know that Santos Counseling is here to help your mental health. Speaking with a licensed professional counselor can provide you with the tools and support to manage anxiety and other mental health life difficulties.

Counselors at Santos Counseling hold specialized mental health training in varying evidence-based approaches. Some include:

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
  • Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT).
  • Trauma Informed Training.
  • Mindfulness.
  • Somatic Work.
  • Play Therapy.
  • Gottman Therapy.
  • Internal Family Systems Training. 

3. Mindfulness Practice:

The practice of mindfulness supports people to learn how to bring awareness to the symptoms and triggers of anxiety. Next, the practice helps people understand how to address the unwanted symptoms with compassion and not judgement.

Practicing mindfulness through techniques like grounding exercises can help to reduce stress, improve emotional regulation, and address unwanted symptoms of anxiety.  See the video below of a helpful mindfulness exercises: