What to do if I have anxiety? 4 basic tips

Several practical ideas to apply on a daily basis to combat anxiety and stress.

Among the reasons why people go for psychological consultation, anxiety stands out.

This phenomenon has effects both on our physiological state (sweating, Blood pressure, etc.) and on our thoughts and actions, and in fact appears both in patients without diagnosable mental disorders and in psychological pathologies as important as OCD or social phobia. Anxiety takes many forms and is capable of manifesting itself in different ways and independently of our way of life.

Therefore, it is important to know what to do if you have anxiety, it is important to know what to do if you have anxietyIf we modify certain aspects of our daily life, we will be less vulnerable to this type of discomfort and we will be able to prevent its appearance in contexts in which it is not useful to us. Let's see how we can limit its harmful effects on our mental health.

What to do if I have anxiety? Several tips

Anxiety is one of the most common psychological and physiological disorders, and can appear regardless of our lifestyle. In fact, it is part of the basic functioning of the human body, and its reason for being is very simple: it leads us to pay attention to our environment to react quickly when there is something potentially dangerous.

The curious thing about anxiety is that it has not disappeared as we began to live in societies where access to technology and the creation of the welfare state has removed us from immediate physical dangers such as predators or death by starvation or accidents. However, this propensity to go into a state of alertness continues to haunt us and appears even when there are no contexts that are capable of seriously harming us; sometimes, something as seemingly simple as a midterm exam or the need to cook something for some guests at our home can lead us to suffer through a mixture of anguish and stress.

1. Maintain a healthy lifestyle

In part, anxiety is a product of our body's inability to adapt to tasks and challenges that require continuous effort. Therefore, we need to make sure that we are doing our best to ensure that our body is able to perform well and has energy available.

To do this, a healthy diet and a healthy diet and a good night's sleep, above all, are essential.above all. It may be that the same lifestyle that leads us to suffer stress favors us to forget these two aspects of daily life to concentrate on what worries us, but if we take them seriously, the effects of this will be felt quickly.

2. Do moderate exercise

This advice to control anxiety is related to the previous one, but it is also an escape valve to release tension. Being able to make physical efforts without damaging our body thanks to moderate exercise keeps our muscles and joints in good health, and it is also an excellent way to "disengage" our attention from our worries and obsessions, so that although it may seem paradoxical, it prevents us from feeling exhausted more quickly as the day progresses.

So, dedicate 30 to 40 minutes to moderate exercise 4 to 5 times a day. moderate exercise 4 to 5 times a week.Try not to use too little before going to sleep at night.

3. Plan your time

Another thing that often escapes us when we ask ourselves "what to do if I have anxiety?" is that this disturbance often arises when we see that we do not adapt effectively to the challenges that arise in our path, such as university projects or professional goals.

Therefore, not wasting time and making an effective management of our capabilities and our resources is key. It is therefore important to to make it easier to commit to these objectivesTo do this, we must subdivide our goals into smaller and simpler ones, and set short-term dates to achieve them.

Keeping an agenda and writing down everything in it is also very usefulIt is also very useful to physically move away from distractions during the times of the day that we set to attend to these responsibilities.

4. Attend psychotherapy

The possibility of going to psychotherapy and having professional help that can monitor our evolution is also a possibility to be taken into account. Contrary to what is often believed, this type of psychological interventions are usually short, and do not focus only on talking to the psychologist, but on receiving a "training" that leads us to transform our habits to protect us against anxiety, regardless of whether or not we are prone to experience its effects.

To manage the effects of anxiety and prevent its appearance in contexts in which it is not very useful, psychotherapy professionals use different tools.

At the Instituto de Psicologia Psicode in AlicanteFor example, we intervene by helping patients to transform the way they relate to their environment and also by helping them to adopt a mentality that increases self-confidence and makes it less common to feel overwhelmed by events when it is really possible to take control of what is happening.

These are the basic principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy applied to anxiety, which affects both behavior and thoughts and beliefs so that we believe we can face challenges and are better able to manage them effectively.

At the Psicode Psychology Institute, which has more than 12 years of experience, they point out that although it is essential to adapt psychological therapy to the needs and personality of each patient, this dual path of action is something that guarantees the desired results in the shortest possible time, making the effects of the psychotherapy sessions last over time.. Of course, they also use techniques that complement this cognitive-behavioral approach, such as Mindfulness, which helps people to better modulate their attentional state and not to let worries linked to the past and the possible future generate additional problems.

In conclusion

Anxiety is an inevitable aspect of our lives, but we can do our part so that its effects do not overwhelm us and damage our well-being.

To do this it is important to modify our habits, since this will make us less vulnerable to its appearance, and it is also desirable to be able to count on the help of psychologists with experience with anxiety problems, since their assistance can make a difference.