Simcoe Addiction and Mental Health

Simcoe Addiction & Mental Health

Healthy Coping Strategies For Anxiety

healthy coping strategies for anxiety - anxiety spelled with wooden blocks

Healthy Coping Strategies For Anxiety

Anxiety – An adaptive response

Our brain is the most amazing part of the human body. This organ consists of billions of neural connections and naturally develops new connections throughout our lives. From an evolutionary standpoint, our brain has developed a defence mechanism that will alert us when there is an imminent threat to our survival. This response is triggered by what we perceive as dangerous, otherwise known as anxiety.

Anxiety gone wrong…

Anxiety can be a useful response when experienced acutely. It gives us a clue that we need to make some changes in our situation. The problem is that we are under constant attack from each email we receive from our boss, the constant state of fear on the news, and the alarming rates of inflation. We’re being bombarded from every direction about our state of survival. Instead of having an innate defence mechanism, we now have a new baseline of operation; we’re constantly in a state of fight, flight, or freeze.

Sympathetic VS Parasympathetic

When in a state of fight, flight, or freeze, we activate our sympathetic nervous system, a portion of our autonomic nervous system (refer to the diagram below). Typically we want to be in a state of rest and digestion, activating the parasympathetic nervous system. In today’s society, we are predominantly activating those sympathetic nerves, ringing all the anxiety bells. In this article produced by Harvard medical school, you can read an in-depth explanation of the neuroscience involved in anxiety.

Statistics 

Research from Statistics Canada shows anxiety disorders affect 4.6% of employed participants, 8.0% of unemployed participants, and 10.8% of participants not participating in the labour force, totalling 23.4%. Something has to change.

Unhealthy Coping Strategies for Anxiety

Dealing with anxiety can be mentally and physically crippling, so sometimes, the immediate solution is to find something that will bring comfort and/or a sense of safety. Some people might drink excessive amounts of alcohol, engage in avoidance behavioural patterns, oversleep, overconsume junk food or not eat at all, become isolated or spend all their time working. Although these solutions will help in the short term, they are still unhealthy coping mechanisms. An imbalance within the autonomic nervous system leads to an imbalance in behavioural patterns. So what can be done?

Healthy Coping Strategies for Anxiety

Forbes health suggests a variety of healthy coping mechanisms when dealing with anxiety and trying to obtain balance within the autonomic nervous system.

Taking. Deep. Breaths.

Otherwise known as diaphragmatic breathing. If you take this moment right now to sit with your breath, where do you feel the air building up? Most people will answer their chest, that’s what humans have resorted to, and over time not taking those deep breaths has led us to be more susceptible to chronic anxiety and anxiety disorders. When we engage in deep breaths, we increase our vagal tone, which activates the parasympathetic nervous system, “the rest and digest state.”

Intentional Movements

Yoga, tai chi, and qi gong are all types of ancient practices that aim to activate a relaxed state in the body. They combine slow and gentle movements with deep long breaths. Thanks to the internet, you could do a quick search on youtube and begin this new habit now.

EFT Tapping

The emotional Freedom Technique can be administered by a practitioner or oneself. It requires the individual to create a phrase that acknowledges the issue and allows acceptance of self despite the problem, followed by saying this phrase out loud while simultaneously tapping specific meridian points on the body. For example: “even though I have anxiety, I deeply and completely accept myself.” In this meta-analysis, which reviews 14 studies with 624 people, Morgan Clond shows that there’s a significant decrease in anxiety scores compared to participants receiving other care.

Aromatherapy for Anxiety

In combination with all these modalities, aromatherapy can also be used. In this meta-analysis, using 32 trials,  the results show that aromatherapy may alleviate anxiety no matter the reason for the anxiety.

Longer-Term Coping Strategies

All of these strategies can be used with minimal requirement from anyone else except the person in need. However, when someone has chronic anxiety or suffers from an anxiety disorder, there are longer-term mechanisms that may help.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Learning how to identify and manage one’s triggers can be an incredibly powerful tool in reducing the effect that anxiety can have on the body. The expression  “you want to catch the train before it leaves the station” comes to mind. Once able to identify and recognize the triggers, you can consciously change the thoughts that follow, which is where cognitive behavioural therapy comes into practice. CBT is utilized at Simcoe, and it is discussed in length here.

Diet and Exercise:

Incorporating a balanced diet and moving the body regularly will support bringing balance to those who deal with anxiety. Although it may seem daunting and overwhelming when first choosing to live healthier, by making simple substitutions, the long-term effects will show themselves. For example, instead of getting anxious about exercising, just go for a 10-minute walk. Walking every day can be an excellent way to exercise. Feel like changing your diet is going to be drastically overwhelming? Switch out one “bad” item for a “good” item, like swapping pop with carbonated water. 

Conclusion

The magnitude of how anxiety may be experienced by each individual will differ, but luckily there are a variety of tools that can help. Do you have any other tools that you find helpful? If so, we’d love to hear about them and how they’ve changed your life!

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