Anxiety Is The Worst
Anxiety is the worst! It’s always hanging out in the background, ready to pounce on you at the slightest trigger. It loves a worst-case scenario, undermines your instincts, and insists that you'll never be good enough. It loves nothing more than to drag you into a giant black hole of negativity.
The problem with anxiety is that it’s difficult to shake. So how do we come to both accept and stop anxiety from taking over our lives?
According to the National Institute of Health, 1 in 5 American adults experience an anxiety disorder every year. Living with chronic anxiety isn't just a minor inconvenience; it can disrupt your whole life and have serious consequences on your physical and mental health.
A common theme in anxiety is excessive worry but other symptoms may include:
A sense of impending doom and/or panic
Irritability and restlessness
Poor concentration
Insomnia
Heart palpitations
Headaches
Fatigue
Shallow, rapid breathing
Increased blood pressure
Sweating, trembling, or shaking
Muscle and body pain
So what do we do about it?
We’ve all heard dozens of ways to cope with anxiety. You gotta stay active, avoid alcohol and drugs, meditate, do yoga, eat healthy, identify your triggers, and journal. These are all true! You have to create a strong foundation for your mental health to thrive. But when anxiety comes out of nowhere and smacks you in the face, it can feel like a black hole that keeps sucking you in.
So here are a few tools I hope you find helpful for those moments of anxiety and overwhelm:
Acknowledge and accept: Strange as it may sound, acknowledging and accepting anxiety in the moment can be a powerful way to regain control. This is not admitting defeat and saying anxiety has won. Rather, instead of fighting the attack or trying to ignore what is happening, acknowledgement gives permission to notice what is going on in your body and help shift your focus back to the present (what triggered me, why am I feeling this, are these thoughts true or false). This is also a great time to extend yourself some compassion and know that you are doing the best you can.
Shake down the tree: this qigong exercise is perfect for releasing pent up nervous, restless, panicked energy. To start, place both feet firmly on the ground with arms by your side. Take a few deep breaths, relax through the body, and start gently bouncing in place, allowing your whole body to join in. The intensity and speed is up to you.
Hum or sing: The longest nerve in your body, the vagus nerve, runs all the way from your brain to your large intestine. This nerve is responsible for controlling your parasympathetic nervous system, or your rest and digest response, and is critical to your mental health. Stimulating the vagus nerve when you are deep in an anxiety attack can help offset some of those terrible symptoms. Because the vagus nerve attaches to the muscles in your throat and vocal chords you can easily stimulate it by humming or singing. Bonus points if you add in some dance moves!
Take a shower: Hot or cold, a shower is a great way to snap out of it! A shower can help bring you back into the present and, speaking of the vagus nerve, stimulate vagal tone to calm the parasympathetic nervous system and encourage relaxation.
Find a therapist: This tip is not for a quick, in the moment fix… But therapy is a great place to be authentically yourself. It’s a safe space to be vulnerable and honest while having the benefit of a licensed professional walk you through your experience. Therapists are trained to give you tools and insights that you can take home and use when you start to feel anxiety.
Acupuncture: It is common to store emotional pain and stress in the body. This can manifest as TMJ, muscle tension, pain, feeling jumpy and easily startled, or even being sensitive to touch. We can use acupuncture to down-regulate the sympathetic nervous system and slow the release of stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) to reduce anxiety symptoms. Through acupuncture, we are also able to help you process memories and feelings to help you let go and move forward in your life.
Curious about how acupuncture can help you? Book an appointment now.
References
“Understanding Anxiety Disorders.” National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 8 Sept. 2017, newsinhealth.nih.gov/2016/03/understanding-anxiety-disorders.
Cherney, Kristeen. “Effects of Anxiety on the Body.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 13 Nov. 2023, www.healthline.com/health/anxiety/effects-on-body.
“Anxiety Disorders.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/anxiety-disorders. Accessed 10 Jan. 2024.