Anxiety and Coping Strategies
By Victoria Garza
Having anxiety is our body's natural response to stress. It’s a feeling of worry or fear combined in one. When you’re experiencing anxiety do you feel yourself breathing rapidly? Do you often find it hard to concentrate on one thing and feel as if you’re moving at 100 miles an hour? Do you constantly feel as if you are alone in this turbulence? Well, you’ve come to the right place and you’re not alone.
Today, there are over 40 million adults in the U.S. alone who have an anxiety disorder. Approximately 7% of children aged 3 to 17 experience issues with anxiety each year. Most people develop symptoms before the age of 21. Sometimes having anxiety can be seen as a positive thing. It can help us become motivated to get things done. An example is driving through heavy traffic. We have anxiety because we don’t want to crash into other people and we don’t want other people to crash into us. The course of anxiety helps us stay alert and cautious of our surroundings.
Some people may have anxiety that is more prominent than that. There are people who get anxious about both big and small things. It may come from taking an exam, being in unfamiliar large social settings, or a death in the family. Anxiety can be formed by a stressful major event or a buildup of smaller events that have happened in one's life. There are many risk factors for developing anxiety. Some we have more control over than others.
Anxiety can be formed by trauma experienced by children. Adults who have endured or witnessed abuse are at higher risk of developing excessive anxiety. Stress due to health conditions can cause significant worry about issues such as treatment plans or the future. Stress buildup might occur based on the work environment, having too much on your plate, or family problems. There are particular personality types that are more prone to anxiety disorders than others. Having other mental health disorders such as depression can influence anxiety disorders. Misusing drugs and alcohol or withdrawals from them can cause or worsen anxiety.
How does one know when they are experiencing anxiety? (Information below from NAMI and the Mayo Clinic. )
Emotional Symptoms:
Feeling tense or jumpy
Restlessness or irritability
Anticipations of the worse or being watchful for signs of danger
Physical Symptoms:
Sweating, tremors, and twitches
Headaches, fatigue, and insomnia
Upset stomach, frequent urination, or diarrhea
How to take care of ourselves?
There is no way to predict what will cause someone to develop anxiety, but there are steps that can be taken to help reduce the possibility of symptoms if you’re anxious. Below you will find 10 great natural remedies for anxiety:
Regular exercise for at least 30 minutes a day can be a huge benefit to your physical and mental health. Exercising helps increase your heart rate which changes your brain chemistry to create more space for anti-anxiety neurochemicals such as serotonin, gamma-aminobutyric, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and endocannabinoids. Regular exercise enhances willpower and concentration. Common exercises are walking, HIIT workouts (high-intensity interval training), yoga, or biking.
Although drinking alcohol helps take the edge off as it is a natural sedative, there is a downside. Heavy drinking can cause interference with the balance of neurotransmitters in the brain. There have been studies that show that decreasing alcohol intake can improve both anxiety and depression. Try limiting alcohol consumption for a few weeks and see if it makes a difference for you!
This is a big one for most college students, limiting caffeine! If you struggle with chronic anxiety, caffeine is not your friend. It may cause more nervousness and jitters which does not help your case if you’re already anxious. Similar to alcohol and anxiety, caffeine and anxiety are often linked due to the alternation of brain chemistry. Try decreasing your caffeine intake slowly for a few weeks and replace it with flavored water if you’re not a big water drinker.
Getting a good night's sleep should always be a priority although everyday living can interfere with that. Sleep has been proven time and time again how important it holds to our entire well-being. You can make sleep a priority by only sleeping at night when you’re tired, not reading or being on any electronics before bed, avoiding caffeine and large meals, keeping the bedroom dark and cool, writing down your problems and worries in a journal before bed, and going to sleep at the same time each night! It sounds simple, right? Creating a functional habit takes time, but it is worth it to reduce anxiety.
Last, but not least. One method that has helped me time and time again is practicing deep breathing. Shallow and fast breathing is common with anxiety. It can lead to faster heart rates, dizziness, lightheadedness, and panic attacks. Deep breathing exercises are simple and the process is to take in slow even breaths. Breathe in air as much as you can through your nose, then let it out slowly through your mouth. Do this for 60 seconds or longer if you need to.
Home remedies for coping with anxiety are easy to access and good to know in case you, a friend, or a loved one ever have these experiences of your own. Although home remedies are great, they don’t replace the professional help that is often recommended to help get to the source of the feelings of anxiety. Continued or increased anxiety may require medications or a visit to a therapist to help meet all your needs. At the end of the day, it is important to always remember that you are not alone and many people struggle with anxiety.
References
“Anxiety Disorders | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness.” Nami.org, 2021, https://www.nami.org/About-Mental-Illness/Mental-Health-Conditions/Anxiety-Disorders
Mayo Clinic. “Anxiety Disorders - Symptoms and Causes.” Mayo Clinic, 4 May 2018, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anxiety/symptoms-causes/syc-20350961
“Natural Remedies for Anxiety: 10 Ideas.” Healthline, 15 Dec. 2021, https://www.healthline.com/health/natural-ways-to-reduce-anxiety