Anxiety Self-Help: Ways to Help Anxiety

Anxiety help comes in many forms including medication, therapy, alternative treatments and anxiety self-help. Self-help for anxiety is simply anything you can do to help improve your anxiety symptoms. These ways of helping your anxiety may be particularly beneficial when combined with other anxiety treatments.

Some ways to help your anxiety include:

• Learning about your illness
• Making anxiety-reducing lifestyle changes
• Creating a support network

Anxiety Self-Help – Learning about Anxiety

Learning about any mental illness can be the first step to conquering it. This may be done through a doctor, therapist or other professional. You can also do this on your own.

• Many books on anxiety and resources are available. Check out your local library or community mental health service organization for materials.
• Online self-help for anxiety is plentiful. After HealthyPlace, one place to look is the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. There, they can point you to further anxiety self-help and treatment alternatives.

Self-Help for Anxiety Includes Lifestyle Changes

While learning about anxiety is a good first step, the next step is putting what you learn into practice. Anyone's life can be unhealthy and overly demanding, but these tips can help create a lifestyle more conducive to helping calm anxiety:

• Eat right and exercise – this may seem obvious but if you don't take care of your body and keep it in good shape, other anxiety self-help may not have a chance to work. Try to cut down on refined foods and unhealthy fats and instead focus on healthy fats like omega-3s. You can find these in cold watcher fish like salmon as well as flax seeds and other foods.
• Use relaxation exercises – relaxation exercises focus on relieving stress and creating calm. Many find this type of anxiety self-help beneficial. Breathing exercises, mediation and yoga may all help.
• Make time for yourself – often when we feel overwhelmed we forget to make time for ourselves. By making time for friends, spending time on hobbies or just getting some fresh air, overall stress can be reduced.
• Don't take on more than you can handle – no one can do everything so make sure and ask for help from others when you feel you have taken on too many responsibilities.
• Change your attitude – a pessimistic and bleak attitude will not help anxiety symptoms. Instead, focus on the positive and things for which you are grateful.

Using a Support Network

Self-help for anxiety doesn't mean you have to go it alone. One anxiety self-help technique is building a support network of people who can help you through the rough times. Sometimes, nothing relieves anxiety better than watching a sporting event with a friend or spending the day out shoe-shopping. Having people in your life you can talk to about your health is a key way of helping anxiety.

People who can become part of an anxiety support network include:

• Friends
• Family
• Those from community organizations
• Faith leaders or those from faith groups
• Those in mental health support groups

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