Anxiety Self-Help Methods: What You Can Do

A self-help treatment is one that can be used by person without necessarily consulting a health care professional.

• Physical exercise. Because anxiety is the body's response for fight or flight - physical exercise is a very good way of burning the adrenaline off. It improves our physical well-being and helps to restore balance.
• Eat a healthy, balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables.
• Avoid alcohol and drug abuse. It may seem that alcohol or drugs relax you. But in the long run they make anxiety worse and cause more problems.
• Avoid caffeine. Caffeine is found in coffee, tea, soft drinks and chocolate. Caffeine may increase your sense of anxiety because it stimulates your nervous system.
• Spend as much time as possible with people who make you feel good.
• Share your thoughts and fears with friends, family or a therapist. A journal might be a helpful way to record things that cause make you anxious, stressed or hurt.
• Often, helping someone else can take your mind off your worries and give you perspective. Volunteering on a regular basis or helping someone in need from your neighborhood, church or community can give you a break from yourself and your worries.
• Improve you intimate love relationships. If your anxiety stems from early life issues that interfere with your ability to build safe, trusting, intimate love relationships, you may benefit from learning ways to improve love relationships.
• Plan your day - list the chores or activities that need to be done today, then the ones that can wait until tomorrow. List them in order of priority, and make sure you at least try to do those at the top of the list.
• Relax. Take time out for play, recreation and relaxation and try to spend time doing hobbies or activities you really enjoy.
• Identify your stress or anxiety triggers. Identify the situations or thoughts that cause anxiety. It is only by identifying them that you will learn to control the anxiety. Consider the following: When do I feel anxious? Who am I with? How do other people cope in this situation? Is there anything I can do differently? Am I allowing myself enough time? Is there anyone I can talk to or telephone? Try to limit the known stressors in your life.
• Be realistic - don't set your goals too high. Lower your expectations.
• Become your own expert. Learning more about your anxiety will help you get the best treatment and enable you to conquer your fears. Read books, visit websites, go to lectures and workshops, and talk to your doctor and therapist.
• Laugh as much as possible and seek out things and people that you find funny (like exercise, laughter causes the release of healthy endorphins in the body). Try to find humor or absurdity in stressful situations.
• Don’t generalize. Notice when you use expressions that generalize ("He always lets me down." "She is never nice to me." "Everyone knows I'm a loser." "No one will help me."). Such statements are rarely true, but when you use them, you are more likely to react to the situation as if they are, which will increase your anxiety.
• Deal with situations/problems before they get out of control.
• Positive Thinking. Optimism can counteract the negative impact stress, tension and anxiety has on your immune system and well-being. Often it is how you perceive things that determine if you get overwhelmed, both mentally and physically. Having a positive attitude, finding the good in what life throws your way and looking at the bright side of things enhances your ability to effectively manage stress.
• Sleep. Getting enough sound sleep has a profound impact on your stress levels, immune function and disease resistance. A chronic lack of sleep can leave you feeling sluggish, irritable, forgetful, accident-prone, and have difficulty concentrating or coping with life's daily aggravations. Strive to get 7-8 hours of sleep each night.

When self-help strategies are not enough to control anxiety symptoms, a number of drugs and several therapies can be tried.

Anti-anxiety drugs (tranquilizers, benzodiazepines) are medications that relieve anxiety by slowing down the central nervous system. Because they work quickly, benzodiazepines are very effective when taken during a panic attack or another overwhelming anxiety episode.

The alternatives to the anti-anxiety tranquilizers include antidepressants, buspirone, and beta blockers. Many medications originally approved for the treatment of depression have been found to relieve anxiety. These include certain SSRIs (paroxetine, fluoxetine, citalopram), tricyclic antidepressants (amitriptyline), and the newer atypical antidepressants.

Therapies effective in treating anxiety disorders include cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), behavioral therapy, and acupuncture.