“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Wayne Dyer
According to research,
Anxiety disorders affect more than 3 million of us in the UK alone. That is apart from those individuals who
suffer from some kind of mild anxiety who haven’t sought treatment or advice
from a health professional.
Unfortunately, the numbers of those diagnosed with an Anxiety Disorder
are only set to rise.
Anxiety can take many guises-
for some it is triggered by specific situations like driving, or it may be a
more generalized feeling of Anxiousness or worry which in normal circumstances
you could cope with. If you feel you might be suffering from an Anxiety
Disorder read this guide online for more information: http://www.moodjuice.scot.nhs.uk/anxiety.asp
GP’s are often at a loss at
how to treat those with Anxiety aside from prescribing Anti depressant or Anti
Anxiolytic drugs like Beta Blockers that are often just a short term ‘fix’. CBT is then recommended as a way of managing
the Anxiety symptoms better which in my experience, can be very effective. For a slightly different approach, here’s 5
creative ways to overcome your Anxiety immediately:
1.
Change the Anxious self talk: Rick Carson, author of ‘Taming your Gremlin’
says we all have an inner ‘gremlin’ that talks us down and makes us feel
negative about ourselves and the world.
He suggests tackling it first of all by just being aware of that voice
and learning to be more detached from it.
I’d suggest adding a dose of humour in there too as the best way to
diffuse fear is usually to laugh at what makes us scared. What kind of voice would you rather have- a
comedian you like? Your best friend who makes you laugh? Changing the associations with that negative
voice might well help.
2.
Add a happy soundtrack: Often our mind not only tells us what could go
wrong in a never ending audio loop.
Often it is great at ramping up the fear with visual images of our fears
too. When this happens, try picturing
the image of the fear on the cinema screen and try playing the image with a
happy/funny soundtrack to again mix up the fearful associations with amusing
ones. See how you feel…If your fear is
more generalized, ask yourself ‘what’s the worst thing that could happen?’ and
you’ll probably get an image or thought come up to work on.
3.
Neutralise the fear: Another way of diffusing fear is to use
Cognitive Diffusion techniques which allow the mind to start neutralizing the
connections to the Anxiety. For example,
the words ‘Anxiety’ and ‘Fear’ are often loaded with well a lot of negativity
unsurprisingly! Try using a neutral word
like ‘orange’ or ‘banana’ instead when you feel that way. It might well make
you smile!
4.
Let go of the Anxious identity: Through my experience of working with hundreds
of clients with Anxiety over the years is that they have a strong sense of
identity connected to being anxious. ‘I’m
an anxious person’ they say, ‘I’m always anxious’. Telling their mind they are anxious is pretty
much saying, ‘this is me, I can’t get over it’.
Pretty limiting wouldn’t you say?!
Whereas anxiety, like any other emotion is just a state we are
experiencing at the time- like anger, sadness or happiness and doesn’t define
who we are. Next time you get a thought
like that come up challenge it and see what it feels like!
5.
Create a pattern interrupt. In
a way, all the above are techniques for interrupting the patterns of anxiety
and fearful thinking. Another one I like to use with children and adults alike
is using a positive anchor word that you can use whenever you feel anxious to ‘break
the state’. Think about either what
makes you feel happy or calm? Could it be playing football on a Sunday, seeing
your friends, reading in bed? Whatever
it is, allow yourself to be immersed in the memory of doing this thing and get
into the positive state and think of an anchor word. Practise using that word whenever you start
to feel anxious and keep reconnecting your mind to that feeling.
