Understanding and Managing Anxiety

Anxiety is natural and normal for people of all ages. It is a mental, physical, and emotional response to perceived threats that each person may experience to varying degrees and to different stimuli. As with all emotions, anxiety can be helpful in small doses – protecting from danger, providing awareness, and motivating to action such as completing homework assignments, not driving recklessly, or staying away from harmful substances. However, when experienced continuously or in extreme amounts, anxiety can cause unpleasant and unwanted mental, physical, and emotional symptoms. These include the following:

• Uncontrollable worry
• Poor concentration
• Heightened nervousness
• Avoidance of something causing fear
• Sleep problems
• Increased heart rate
• Muscle tension
• Upset stomach

When these symptoms (or symptoms like them) are experienced, there is a tendency to avoid the situation that led to feelings of anxiety. Examples of this include skipping classes to avoid another student or giving a presentation, using drugs or alcohol to avoid certain unwanted thoughts or feelings, and procrastinating doing something you don’t want to do but know you need to do. Avoiding anxiety results in an immediate sense of relief, but is temporary, and leads to a return of anxiety with elevated fear. The brain learns that when anxiety goes away, so do the symptoms, thus creating a cycle of anxiety.

For this reason, it is important that individuals find ways to manage and confront their anxiety to stop the cycle. There are many effective treatments for anxiety, including strategies that can be done at home.

Talk to your school counselor, psychologist, or social worker about finding treatment for anxiety or review our mental health provider list.

What is "treatment" for anxiety like? 

Anxiety is typically treated through a combination of therapy, medication and/or relaxation skills. Here are some of the strategies used in therapy

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) –Challenging and changing unhelpful and/or irrational thinking and behaviors, improving emotion regulation, and developing coping strategies that target problem-solving.
• Exposure Therapy – Therapist and client make a plan to gradually introduce situations that create anxiety and increase exposure to it (systematic desensitization) over time, followed each time by relaxation skills.
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) – Identifying personal values and acting in ways that match them. It uses mindfulness and metaphors to gain control of negative thoughts and emotions.
• Eye Movement Desentization and Reprocessing (EMDR) – Client is asked to recall distressing images and the therapist directs the client to use bilateral sensory input, such as side-to-side eye movements or hand tapping.

What about medication? 

Medication can help control the uncomfortable symptoms of anxiety but does not fix the underlying problems of anxiety. Thus, medication for anxiety should be used along with therapy and coping skills. A qualified doctor or psychiatrist can prescribe medication after a thorough evaluation. Follow-up visits are important to determine the effectiveness of medication use and possible changes.

Here are some simple relaxation techniques that can be done at home.