What to do about anxiety

When fear, worry and anxiety are interfering in your life, you need to do something about them to stop things from getting worse. It sucks when you can’t do everything you want to do and be everything you want to be because your anxiety is getting in your way but there are a ton of things you can do to manage and deal with it. Keep in mind that some of them will work for you better than others.

Top tips for tackling anxiety

Things to do that have been shown to help include:

• Exercise. You might not feel like it, but getting sweaty five times a week makes people less anxious, stressed and depressed.
• Self-talk. Learning self-talk that’ll help you combat anxious thoughts that go through your head. Check out our stuff on self-talk.
• Practical stuff. Looking at practical things you’ve got to deal with and knock them over one at a time – avoiding things feeds anxiety.
• Build a toolkit. Getting tools like deep breathing and relaxation techniques that’ll help when things get too much.
• Try to focus your thoughts. Find out more about meditation and mindfulness techniques.
• Check your thinking. Study your anxious thought patterns so you can see when things start to get out of control, and challenge the accuracy of these thoughts when they start.

Need something stronger?

Sometimes you can’t beat this on your own – and that’s why there are professionals who study mental health for years to lend a hand. Find people to help you work on anxiety – that means seeing a doctor for a referral to a psychologist or other mental health professional, who are really helpful and work with people on stuff like this all the time. That kind of help gives you a massive head start and will help you get through it easier and more quickly.

It can be hard to know where to find the right support you need. ReachOut NextStep is an anonymous online tool that recommends relevant support options based on what you want help with. Try ReachOut NextStep to learn about the support options available for you.