Coping Skills for Anxiety
Hi there,
How are you all today? :) I do hope that you are well and happy. Thank you for dropping by and contributing to our online therapy sub-community. We are so glad that you are here!
Firstly, we will start with psychoeducation on what anxiety is and how we can develop healthy coping skills. You are most welcome to please try the skills we discuss in the thread and feedback on how they worked for you or you can leave your own coping skills here. Please note that we are discussing healthy coping skills and what might work for one person might not be as effective for the next. It’s all about finding what works for you! :)
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness and worry which can range from mild to severe. Anxiety is a main symptom of many mental health issues including panic issues, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and social anxiety (NHS, 2021).
What are the symptoms?
Feeling uneasy and panicky
Restlessness
Sleep issues
Overeating/Not eating enough
Headaches
Racing thoughts and an inability to focus
Tearfulness
Muscle aches and tension (NAMI, 2017).
There are many ways to ease anxiety and we have lots of resources on 7 Cups such as the Anxiety Personalised Growth Paths, the anxiety sub-communities and Guided Discussions for you to share what is on your mind. As well as the support of a licensed clinician on 7 Cups.
Here are a few coping skills to add to your own list of healthy coping skills that work for you. Please feel free to share your own and we can all learn from one another :)
Please also feel free to take the 7 Cups Emotional Wellness Test here: https://www.7cups.com/free-emotional-wellness-test
A Simple 3-Minute Breathing Exercise
The exercise below is useful when we feel our body becomes tighter especially in our chest and shoulders and we feel overwhelmed with emotions, it will help you become calmer and able to breathe which will then decrease the anxiety levels. It also activates the parasympathetic nervous system helping you feel calmer.
♡ Breathe in for 4 Seconds
♡ Hold your breath for 7 seconds
♡ Breathe out slowly for as long as feels comfortable. (Please note: Adjust your breathing to what feels comfortable for you).
Grounding Exercise:
Grounding is useful when we feel anxious and unsettled. It can help bring us back to the present moment and reality and to calm our senses thus decreasing the feelings of panic and unease.
♡ Look around at 5 things you can see
♡ 4 things you can feel
♡ 3 things you can hear
♡ 2 things you can smell
♡ 1 thing you can taste.
Great post.
I have suffered from panic attacks my entire life and found that, as others have also mentioned, diaphragmatic breathing helps to slow things down, and focusing outward is also useful. Here are some additional things that help me during a panic attack:
Force a smile. The act of smiling sends a message to your brain that everything is alright and it helps to shut off the sympathetic nervous system, or panic cycle.
Set a timer. I do this in conjunction with the smile, the breathing, and the counting objects. If not triggered again, the sympathetic nervous system with rest after 3 minutes (I'd cite my source, but I don't recall where I learned this a decade ago). For those who don't know, the sympathetic nervous system is the system responsible for your fight/flight/freeze reactions. The parasympathetic system is the system that kicks in to calm you down. Smiling, triggers the parasympathetic system, as does breathing slowly, and distraction. So what I do is when I start to have a panic attack, I try to trigger it and then set a timer for 5 minutes. When the timer goes off, I remind myself I'm fine, I'm not dying, if I was dying then it would have already happened. It still takes me a while to relax, so I usually have to reset the timer every 5 minutes for upwards of 40 minutes before I believe I'm safe.
There is a really cool app, if you can't remember the specific numbers Lisa outlined above (5 of this, 4 of that, etc)... it's called, What's Up? Not to be confused with What's app. The What's Up app, has a get help now section where it tells you to name 5 types of animals (for example) and as you're doing that, you click off a star each time. Once you get to 5, it asks you the next thing... name 5 foods that are spicy... name 5 colors... name 5 TV shows, and so on. Doing this taps into and activates a different part of your brain which also helps your parasympathetic system to calm your body down.
I remember when I first started having regular panic attacks at age 18, the only "cure" recommended to me was to immediatly immerse my bare feet into cold water. So I carried this pot of cold water with me from room to room as needed. Looking back on it now, my roommates must have thought I was insane. I'm glad we have less barbaric methods to manage our anxiety.
Oh and of course there are a couple meditation apps that I use regularly too. They have guided meditation series that are really helpful in learning how to change your relationship with stress, or loss, or whatever it is you're struggling with.
@JustLondon Thanks for sharing your thoughts and your struggles, with us.
Anxiety for some of us, is a rough thing to go through.
But I feel it makes us better able to help others.
When I was a teen, I suffered from Anxiety and sever depression.
But I learned how to communicate my feelings.
See, I use to keep things inside, so no one really knew, what or how I was feeling.
I learned that it was not a healthy thing to do.
Now as an adult I help others at 7cups.
Do I still suffer from anxiety and depression as an adult?
Yes I do, but it is not as bad, like it was as a teen, because of the coping skills I learned as a teen.
I also have a learning disability.
So I can relate some to your struggles, with anxiety.
What helped me was therapy.
So you might want to look into that.
Also maybe talk to a listener here at 7cups.
I hope this helps some.
Could you text me! And thanks so much
Hello there! This a really helpful post! I would like the learn more about it but i can’t open the link you shared for your profile. Can you reply me with the link again?
@wonderfulDay2021 I am not sure what the situation might be, but there may be settings on your browser that prevent you from seeing the profile.
This link works for me https://www.7cups.com/therapists/profiles/Lisa-Meighan-LisaMeighanMBPsS/?redirect=true
And this is another copy of the same link that you can try. https://tinyurl.com/3n66w6fa
@wonderfulDay2021 Thanks for sharing your thoughts, with us.
I really enjoyed reading them.
Thank you for the advice!I used these techniques before I even knew about them! When I would use them it wasn't enough to curb the anxiety completely, but it did help with preventing me from losing any bodily fluids most of the time. I do enjoy the list for the grounding exercise! Even when I did this, I would often forget about one of the senses, so this will be helpful if I need to do it again!
@blueSailboat4172 Thanks for sharing your thoughts, with us.
Your Amazing.
@LisaMeighanMBPsS thanks so much for this generous and helpful reminder! 🤍🙏🏼
@amoOnii You are most welcome! I’m so glad it was a helpful reminder :) stay tuned for more of these coping skills posts soon.
@LisaMeighanMBPsS thanks Lisa for offering insights into coping with specific challenges people face.
I look forward to threads on other challenges. One I see happen a lot is relationship issues and coping with family members.
Hi @LisaMeighanMBPsS,
Would you be able to give advice in regards to recognizing the source of musculoskeletal pain?
I sit with a complicated situation in that I have a clinical diagnosis of Marfan's as well as Bipolar and as a result I suffer from chronic pain due to both conditions as, from what you say and from what I have heard, both depression and anxiety can cause musculoskeletal pain in addition to the joint issues and, suspected "Affarent Barrage" / Hyperalgesia due to the connective tissue disorder. As a result, aside from chondromalacial/hyperextension pain, can't always identify the source of pain so I don't know who to see to address the issue/adjust my medication, my psychiatrist or my GP.
My other concern is that many of my Bipolar "symptoms" may very well be as a result of the connective tissue disorder instead? I understand that the one can't cause the other but could they be mimicking each other's symptoms?
Any advice would be appreciated and I would completely understand if it's not possible for whatever reason.
@Orthrus I am sorry that you are in so much pain. That must be very challenging.
It may be something you could ask your doctors about how to cope with that condition. Not knowing the specific medical condition and not being an expert in that area, it is difficult to say.
Bipolar in my experience can produce new traumas and make coping with existing conditions much more difficult.
I have found mindfulness can help me cope with pain, not alleviate it, but have a new relationship to it. Here is an example of a video that addresses that issue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZillcJeke4
Jon Kabat Zinn also has more videos on mindfulness if you care to search for them on youtube.
Thank you @soulsings for your advice, it is much appreciated ❤️
@Orthrus you are welcome.
Thank you @soulsings. Such useful ideas as usual.
@soulsings Thanks for always being there for others.
You are a gem, my friend.
@Orthrus, thank you for your question! I am sorry to hear of the pain you are going through as I can only imagine it is very disruptive to your life and your mental health too.
Our mind and body is connected and it is possible to experience physical pain in response to suffering from mental health issues. I feel it’s important that you continue to reach out here and to your doctors so they can form a treatment plan for you so you feel supported in the process. It is definitely possible it is all linked but very important that other physical health conditions are also ruled out.
I do apologise for the delay too and I do hope today has been a brighter one for you. Thank you for dropping by! :)
Thank you @LisaMeighanMBPsS for your response and advice, it's much appreciated. I must say I am a lot happier with my new GP as she is a lot more supportive and willing to try and push to improve my situation.
I've made an appointment with my Psychiatrist in January to discuss my diagnosis and medication, even if it just leads to reaffirmation of it. Still, I almost want to say I get the feeling that physicians get a form of tunnel vision with long term patients whereby it becomes difficult to see past an established diagnosis, so perhaps it's a good idea to get a fresh perspective but I want to first consult with him as he knows my medical history, treatments I have tried and the complications with them.
Again, thank you for your advice and support, it means a lot. Sometimes even just confirming ones own thought processes already help with moving in the right direction.
@Orthrus I am so glad to hear you are more happier with your new GP as trusting your physician is an important part of the treatment process. You are really heading in the right direction and please remember we are here to support you as well! You are most welcome. :)
@LisaMeighanMBPsS 💙
@LisaMeighanMBPsS I love the way you help others.
Your amazing.
Your a true gem.
Hi all! i have some coping skills to share!
1. write down your feelings. in a poem or plain dairy
2. speak to a good friend or therapist
3. go out of your immediate environment. do something different, dont just continue sitting there! (exercise, go out, cook something...)
4. listen to a song you love or watch your favorite movie, or comedy.
5. if you're religious, do something spiritual.
@LisaMeighanMBPsS thank you for sharing this. it´s always useful to have tools that can be used to help us be in better mental health.
@bubblyMusic8287 yes I am very grateful to Lisa for sharing their wisdom. It really helps me too.
@soulsings indeed so many people haven´t realised how much difference a little effort can make to the well being!
@bubblyMusic8287 I agree. It is not often what I do but the intention and motivation that I feel before I do it that has a big influence on how I feel after it and how much I enjoy it while it is happening. Expectations that are not realistic can color my perceptions so that I may not even appreciate the joy I do have. I am big on seeing the half of the glass that is full, rather than the half that is empty.
Yes indeed we all need something in our life to hang on and it's a four letter word called hope. Whatever helps keep it is worth it.
@bubblyMusic8287 Yes we do.
Please do not lose hope.
@bubblyMusic8287
You are most welcome. I hope it helped in some way :) Stay tuned for more. We already have one more developing coping skills post by a therapist on developing healthier relationships.
@LisaMeighanMBPsS thanks for that good news. I found that new thread on relationships posted already https://www.7cups.com/forum/7CupsOnlineTherapy_157/DevelopingHealthyCopingSkills_2253/DevelopingHealthyCopingSkills_263214/
Hope everyone enjoys that as much as I did.
@soulsings
Thank you Soul for the link! :)
@bubblyMusic8287 Thanks for your kindness.
@LisaMeighanMBPsS You did a beautiful job on this.
I really enjoyed reading this.
