According to Mind, 25% of English people will experience some kind of mental health problem each year in England and, in any given week, approximately 16% of English people report having symptoms of common mental health problem, such as depression and anxiety.
The National Health Service (NHS) also report 5% of the UK population has Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), a frequently disabling disorder. Anyone living with anxiety, wherever they are in the world, know that the physical and psychological effects can be very significant and debilitating, such as shortness of breath, sleeping issues, headaches, nausea and and even difficulties securing and sustaining employment.
Despite the effects of anxiety frequently being debilitating, there are steps you can take to improve your symptoms and knowing when to seek help from professional counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists is often key to ‘digging yourself out of the hole‘. In this article, we uncover 10 anxiety hacks, which sufferers can use, to improve their life.
1. Accept the situation (but then move on!)
It is commonly stated that people with anxiety should try distraction techniques in order to reduce the anxiety. However, for some people, it appears that allowing theirself to feel or acknowledge the situation is key to moving on with their life. These people sometimes find that fighting the anxiety makes it worse, whereas acknowledging it and giving yourself permission to feel anxious or uncomfortable, can find it quite a cathartic experience.
2. Talk to yourself, with compassion
Repeating a calming phrase to yourself can sometimes help you calm down enough for your symptoms to fade away. As a hypnotherapist, I’ve often found that those who have had more hypnotherapy sessions tend to gain the ability to be able to calm themselves down using this method. The effect of using a repeated, calming phrase can be boosted when used with slow breathing.
Slow breathing (also known as ‘square breathing‘)
Adjust this as needed. Usually on 2 or 3 cycles is required for the person to start calming down. As a bystander, you can help the person by guiding them through this process.
- Breathe in for a count of 4
- Hold for a count of 4
- Breathe out for a coulnt of 4
- Hold for a count of 4
We’re not sure if it’s because they know what a relaxed feeling feels like, because those who are chronically and frequently stressed and anxious, sometimes forget what ‘calm’ feels like and, with no benchmark, it’s difficult to know what feeling you’re searching for. However, always make sure you talk to yourself with compassion, as you would do to somebody else, as this is a great self-esteem booster.
3. Let it out
As said earlier, some people find that fighting anxiety makes it worse, whereas acknowledging it and giving yourself permission to feel anxious or uncomfortable, can be quite a cathartic experience.
4. Reset your emotions
Sometimes, carrying out an activity that grabs your attention can be enough to re-set the emotional response. Some clients have found thatputting their hands into a bowl of ice cold water for a few seconds can grab the attention of your nervous system, taking your attention away from the anxiety. Following dipping the hands in ice, the person sometimes does not go back into the emotional response that they were having, giving them quick relief of uncomfortable symptoms.
5. Get rid of the technology
While your phone or laptop can provide distraction in some circumstances, some people find that browsing sites such as social media sites, can shift their mood state into an anxious state. If that’s the case for you, we recommend shutting down the social media apps for a while. Nobody needs to make themselves feel worse by comparing theirself to unachievable standards portrayed in the media.
6. Burn off that adrenaline
Exercise is often touted as a great way of relieving anxiety, but it can be difficult to get your head into the right headspace to be able to even consider going on a run, or a swim (or whatever). However, having some kind of physical outlet for strong emotions can often be very useful. Some exercises that you can do to burn off that adrenaline are:
Muscle tightening and then relaxing the same muscle(s). If you do this regularly, we’ve found that your brain starts to associate relaxing the muscles with relaxing the mind. This appears to be especially effective when paired with ‘square breathing‘ (see above) and some positive affirmations.
7. See a professional
Many people living with mental illness find the support and guidance from medical and mental health professionals very helpful. The help available obviously depends on your country, so we’re unable to offer advice on who to contact, but in the UK, we recommend that you speak to your GP.
8. Write it down
Writing down your thoughts and emotions can help you to manage intrusive thoughts and strong negative emotions. Writing down your thoughts can often help you pin-point troublesome areas, such as ‘all or nothing thinking’ and other unhelpful thinking patterns (opens a new window). Recognising the emotion is often just the beginning in learning how to ‘tame’ those emotions. If identifying emotions is something that you struggle with, have a look at Plutchik’s emotional wheel as this will help you pin-point the right emotion.
9. Take in your surroundings
It can be difficult to observe your environment when you’re having a strong emotional crisis. However, it does get easier with practice and the good news is that, observing your environment can help to distract you from your current crisis. Using the ‘5-4-3-2-1‘ method can sometimes help to switch your focus to something else.
To recap, the process starts by first observing the environment and taking in the surroundings. Next, the person identifies:
- 5 things they can see in as much detail as possible.
- 4 things they can touch, whether it’s a tree, grass, sand or even concrete. It doesn’t matter; the key thing is to really notice the texture, temperature and anything else that you can discern with your fingertips.
- 3 things they can hear, such as wind, rain, birds, or cars driving by. Next, have listen to how near or far these sounds seem and the direction they appear to be coming from.
- 2 things they can smell, whether it’s freshly cut grass, a bonfire, flowers, or the waft of food cooking.
- 1 thing they can taste, although not always easy to find, there is usually something in our environment which we can at least imagine tasting. Traditionally, it’s
10. Confront it
We get it, anxiety IS terrifying. Truly, we understand, yet facing up to your anxiety and confronting it – and the trigger – head on is often an effective strategy for reducing your anxiety. Avoiding the trigger usually fuels the anxiety, so should be avoided (‘scuse the choice of words there). Confronting the anxiety tells your brain that there is nothing to be afraid of and gives you the confidence that you can handle whatever situation – or even just life in general.
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We do our best to provide suggestions based on our experience as hypnotherapists and using nationally recognised good quality health education material, such as that provided by the NHS (UK). Information contained on our site does not constitute medical advice and is not intended to replace medical advice. You should speak to your doctor about any health concerns that you have and before making any radical changes to your lifestyle and health and fitness goals, including your quest to reach those goals.
