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Have you been exercising, eating right, practicing breathing, and still have a hard time with your anxiety? Does the thought of having a panic attack or a lot of anxiety create an instant dread? What if I told you there was a missing piece that could help manage that anxiety a bit more?
Something most people who report symptoms of anxiety struggle with is fear or worry about having a panic attack or the fear of feeling like they are “going crazy”. These people associate anxiety and panic with that of complete torture and intense fear that creates another layer of anxiety on top of what they are already experiencing. So, when that anxiety or panic even hints at its presence, people are not only completely terrified, but then they are dealing with even more anxiety and panic. The vicious cycle continues and that means people are doing everything in their power to avoid that anxiety. Things like safety behaviors come into play and reinforce those maladaptive behaviors. Safety behaviors include examples like: you have a panic attack in your local grocery store and now you will not go into the store to avoid having another panic attack. We know that simply going into a grocery store does NOT cause a panic attack, however, your brain has now made that connection and you might notice that simply thinking about going into that store brings up feelings of anxiety for you.
We know, especially for more “anxiously-wired” people, it is important to learn to sit with anxiety and uncertainty rather than “making it go away”. Trying to push away our anxiety usually only makes it more terrifying, therefore increasing overall anxiety. Being able to sit with your anxiety with acceptance and courage actually often helps reduce longevity and severity. When we are able to no longer view anxiety as a “big scary monster” and instead simply a feeling, (and often a feeling based on inaccurate information) then we can start to see a change in our behaviors and levels of anxiety. Often times, these improvements must incorporate a good balance of mindfulness, self-compassion, and some exposure and response prevention therapy. Finding a therapist who specializes in exposure and response prevention (Gold Standard treatment for OCD and anxiety disorders) can really help you find a way to relate to your anxiety and conquer that lingering anxiety.
Some beginning steps you can take are practicing mindfulness. Start being mindful with some minor feelings of anxiety. Simply take notice of your thoughts and how the anxiety feels in your body. What sensations do you notice within your body? What thoughts do you notice that pop up? Over time, you and your therapist can work towards sitting increasingly more anxiety. Sounds terrible, right? This process is definitely not easy, but most of the time my clients realize the anxiety is much easier to experience and most of the time, they have less anxiety about a situation than they originally thought. The whole point is for you to learn that you CAN sit with your anxiety and over time it will decrease. You can also begin to see that many of these things that you worry about either don’t ever happen or if they do, you can most definitely handle them.
TL;DR: Find yourself a good therapist who can practice Exposure and Response Prevention. Between some basic Cognitive Behavioral Therapy skills, Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, and Exposure and Response Prevention, you should be well on your way to improving your anxiety!
