How to Cope with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Everyone worries. However, if the level of your worry is excessive, intrusive, persistent and debilitating you likely suffer from GAD, general anxiety disorder. There are emotional, behavioral and physical components to the symptoms, which fluctuate and increase during times of stress. By using practical tips, addressing your anxiety and seeking professional help, you can learn to manage and create balance in your life.

Method 1
Method 1 of 3:

Addressing the Symptoms

  1. For people with GAD, the stress of everyday life never subsides. GAD makes worries that would otherwise be minor seem insurmountable, making it difficult to get through the day. GAD can develop slowly over time, and it sometimes runs in families. [1] Symptoms can get better or worse over time, and it's important to learn healthy ways to manage them. Symptoms of GAD include the following: [2]
    • Your worrying is uncontrollable and you can't avoid thinking about things that make you anxious.
    • You are unable to relax or be by yourself.
    • You have trouble sleeping because you can't stop worrying.
    • You experience a constant feeling of dread.
    • Your worrying is affecting your job and social life.
    • You can't relax unless you have a plan; you need to know what will happen in the future.
    • You feel edgy, restless, or jumpy.
  2. Studies that show heightened activity in the fear part of the brain for people with GAD. Going to a place that relaxes you can help you find relief. Getting outside into nature, for example, has many health benefits. including stress and anxiety reduction. [3]
    • Sometimes getting a change of scene can help ease the symptoms of GAD. For example, if you've spent the afternoon in your house feeling worried about unpaid bills, taking a walk around the neighborhood might help you get your mind on other things.
    • Try setting aside a room in your house where you can sit peacefully. Fill the room with things that comfort you, such as candles with calming scents or calming artwork.
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  3. This can be effective if you need a moment's break from worrying. If you are listening to music or concentrating on singing, you will not be worrying or feeling anxious. It is very difficult to do both at the same time. While listening requires your brain to send messages to your ears, it distracts you from thinking too much about your worries. Singing lowers your stress and allows you to open your throat and release emotions that you might feel are struck and causing problems. [4]
    • If you are feeling worried in any situation, then hum a tune to yourself. Keep this tactic at the ready to help in all sorts of social situations. Avoid using it in extremely quiet situations that would not be conducive to humming or singing out loud.
  4. Your sense of smell is an important part of helping you remember. Use it to introduce a new memory of calm and lightness. Deep, cleansing breaths will lower your stress, blood pressure and provide other health benefits.
    • If you are feeling anxious, take a moment and focus on breathing in for a few seconds; hold it for a few seconds and release it slowly. Tell yourself you are filling your body with healthy, stress-free air, and breathing out the anxiety and stress you are feeling.
  5. Taking the time to eat a great meal can be like conducting a peaceful ceremony. Slow down and enjoy each section of your meal: first appetizer, then main course, then dessert. Savor each bite and practice gratitude for the things that you have. Eating slowly will help reduce the stress you are feeling.
    • Stay fully present when you eat and appreciate the fuel it provides. Focus more on the eating rather than worrying and overeating because you aren’t paying attention. Avoid getting lost in the process and consuming excessive amounts of food. It will lead to health struggles like obesity, and other weight-related health conditions. [5]
  6. Use your sense of touch to manage your anxiety. Smooth, soft, cool, warm – whatever the textures and temperatures are they can help increase your sense of calm.
    • If it is cold, wrap yourself up in a soft, cozy blanket that comforts you. Run your hands along the blanket as if you are petting a dog or cat, which has been shown to help lower stress and anxiety.
    • If it is warm, go to the beach and run your hands and feet through the warm sand. Feel the comfort it brings into your body.
  7. Expending physical energy is a great way to manage your anxiety. [6] Sitting in one place allows your emotions to rise. It is important to express your feelings, and doing so by way of physical exercise is extremely beneficial to your health.
    • You can participate in activities like walking, hiking and running which release endorphins (produced in the brain) that have a positive, calming effect. [7]
    • Dancing is a great way of managing anxiety. [8] If you take a dance class you will be required to pay attention to every move your body makes. This will free you from worrying about things, and will provide a great break from your thoughts.
    • Find other activities that require you to focus all your attention on the task in front of you. For example, participate in special projects at school, work or around the house that require your full attention. Don’t take on too much as it may increase your anxiety and stress. Follow your intuition. If it feels like too much, then back off until you find a healthy level of participation.
  8. Some people find it very difficult to relax. If you have difficulty it doesn’t mean that you cannot relax; it just means that you need to learn how. Like with any new skill, it takes acquiring information, implementing methods and following up on results.
    • Use techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation. [9] Find a quiet place and get comfortable. Working from your feet upward or head downward tense the muscles in each body part for a few seconds, then release and relax. As you progress tensing and relaxing individual body parts you will feel the relaxation expand. Your muscles may be much more tense than you realize. You can use this technique in most any anxiety provoking situation. You can perform this technique without being in a quiet place.
    • Meditate by yourself or in a group. Meditation has been used for centuries by many cultures to overcome negative thoughts and cultivate positive ones. [10]
  9. Close your eyes and imagine doing activities that challenge you, but you are able to successfully and peacefully complete them. These scenarios can include various social situations that cause you to feel anxious, or could be activities like surfing, racing horses, exploring your musical talents or something smaller like asking an athlete for an autograph.
    • The goal of guided imagery is to provide you with a glimpse of yourself doing something without being impacted by anxiety. [11] You can see yourself doing anything you can imagine, which will help you believe you can do it in real life as well.
    • Scientists believe that our brains experience real-world and imaginary actions in a similar way. If you picture yourself walking into a party, smiling, and immediately approaching a group of people for conversation, you strengthen the neural pathways associated with those actions. The practice begins to feel familiar to your brain, so when you actually walk into that party, it feels natural to engage with others instead of stand off by yourself.
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Method 2
Method 2 of 3:

Managing Your Anxiety

  1. The primary trigger for GAD in adults is uncertainty and, since nearly everything in life is uncertain, this trigger makes it possible for you to worry about just about anything. Anxiety is a normal system that does, in fact, serve a purpose: it notifies us when we are in danger and helps keep us safe. However, with GAD, a person worries that he is in danger when there is no danger, and his body reacts with unnecessary anxiety. By identifying and recognizing your worry, you can begin to manage it. [12]
    • Keep a worry diary. This means you record your worries each day at a set time, two to three times a day. Write down the worry, what triggered your worry, and your anxiety level.
    • Writing down your worries will not make them worse, as many with GAD believe. The worry diary requires you to examine worries that already exist
  2. Split your worries into two groups: hypothetical and current. These worries must be managed differently, so separating them out will help you learn the best way to cope with each worry as it arises. [13]
    • Hypothetical worries concern situations over which you have little or no control, such as whether or not you will get a serious disease when you are older, if a car will blow a red light and hit you, and so on.
    • Current worries concern problems over which you have some direct control. Paying bills, finishing school work, or a painful toothache are all things you can take action to fix.
    • Record whether your worry is hypothetical or current in your worry diary.
  3. Though you probably recognize that you are worrying too much, chances are you feel you are still accomplishing something by worrying. Many people with GAD believe worrying shows that they are caring, is motivating, prevents bad things from happening, and makes them prepared and protected. Start challenging whether your anxiety is actually doing what you think it is doing. [14] Try asking yourself these questions:
    • Worrying shows that I am caring: Do I know other caring people who worry less? What are other ways I can show that I care?
    • Worrying motivates me: Has worrying ever kept me from doing the things I want to do?
    • Worrying prevents bad things from happening: Have bad things happened even though I worried about them? Has my excessive worrying actually led to bad things happening, such as negatively affecting my health?
    • Worrying makes me prepared: Do I know other people who are prepared who worry less? Am I confusing worrying with my actions (i.e. worrying in your head versus taking active steps to solve the problem)?
    • Worrying keeps me safe: When something bad actually has happened, did I truly feel I was better equipped to deal with it because I worried about it?
    • Other questions: How much time and energy have I spent worrying? Has worrying affected my friendships or relationships? Am I often tired because my worrying keeps me awake? Is it possible to to get the perceived benefits of worrying by some other means?
  4. You may feel you are actively doing something when you worry, since it can be draining and exhausting, but to actually solve a problem you need to get out of your head and take action. [15] Each time you address a problem instead of avoiding it, you will have one less thing to feel anxious about.
    • Problem-solving involves a level of uncertainty ("What if my solution fails?") and will help you become acclimated to experiencing uncertainty.
  5. Problem-solving is not an efficient way to manage hypothetical worries, as you can't use those skills to calm your fears of your plane crashing (unless you are the pilot). A worry script will allow you to face your anxiety head-on instead of trying to avoid it. This will be uncomfortable at first, but the only way to get over your fears is to face them. [16]
    • To make a worry script, write down your worry and what you are afraid of. If you are afraid of your plane crashing, write specifically about your fear of dying, of missing out on the rest of your life, of leaving your family behind, and so on.
    • The worry script gives you a specific image of what you are afraid of instead of thinking about in a general or "fuzzy" way.
    • You will likely feel an increase in anxiety when you first begin this exercise, but research shows that your anxiety will decrease over time when you face your worries head-on.
    • Write a worry script every day for one to two weeks to address hypothetical worries.
  6. It is common for a person suffering from GAD to worry about uncertain outcomes. [17] This is a struggle because most situations do not involve 100% certainty. Therefore, you must learn to become more comfortable with it. Uncertainty is an unavoidable part of your day-to-day life. How you respond to it is where you can make a change.
    • One method would be to act “as if” you are comfortable with uncertainty. [18] First, examine the things you do to avoid uncertainty and feel more certain. Write down your answers to the following questions:
    • Do you double and triple-check most of the things you do?
    • Do you avoid events or procrastinate a lot?
    • Do you need excessive amounts of reassurance from others?
    • Do you need an abundance of information before making even small decisions?
    • Next, identify the situations in which you feel anxious about uncertainty, and what you do to feel less anxious. Rank the situations on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest level of anxiety, and 1 being the lowest.
    • Next, start with the least anxiety provoking activity and practice acting “as if” you were tolerant of uncertainty. For example, you could go to a movie without first reading a review, completing a written school assignment and don’t ask someone to review it and give an opinion, or delegate a work assignment to a trusted co-worker and don’t check that it was done correctly.
    • Finally, keep a written record of your results. Ask yourself what you did, whether it was harder or easier than anticipated, whether everything turned out well, and how did you adapt if it didn’t turn out as you had planned. Writing these things down will help you see the improvements you make and the way to change your behavior.
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Method 3
Method 3 of 3:

Seeking Professional Help

  1. GAD is best treated by a mental health professional. If you are struggling with feeling tension, tight muscles and body aches, difficulty sleeping because your mind won’t shut off, feeling restless and jumpy, or having stomach problems it might be time to seek professional help. Obtain a referral or suggestion from a doctor, or trusted family member or friend. Licensed therapists are trained to help others learn to manage the anxiety that is impacting their lives.
    • If you feel you and your therapist are not a good fit, look for a different therapist. Every therapist is different and finding one with whom you feel comfortable is essential.
    • Look for a therapist who practices cognitive behavioral therapy. [19] This type of therapy is one that is commonly used to treat generalized anxiety disorders, panic disorders, social anxiety disorders, and phobias. Your therapist will help examine and dispel the negative thought patterns that you have developed.
    • Additionally, a therapy like art therapy might be just the right thing to help you shift your focus on creating art rather than worry. [20]
  2. Commit to changing your behavior. In both psychotherapy and physical therapy, you will benefit from setting goals. [21] Engage in it by allowing yourself to be open and vulnerable. Don’t abandon the process just because it gets difficult. Your hard work will pay off and leave you with a healthy sense of accomplishment.
    • Identify your objectives. For example, would you like to be more at peace about getting good grades in school? Tell the therapist that this is one of your goals.
    • Reward yourself when you reach your goal. Your motivation will increase if you reward your accomplishments. [22]
    • Adjust your objectives rather than give up.
    • Continue to make new goals as it will keep you engaged in life.
  3. A medical doctor (M.D.) licensed to prescribe medication can discuss pharmaceutical options for treating GAD. Medication is intended to be used in tandem with therapy rather than on its own. Ideally, medication is used for a period of time to help you through the roughest part of the struggle. You work with your doctor and therapist to lessen and eventually eliminate the dose once you learn new techniques and strategies to manage your anxiety.
    • Your doctor or therapist may suggest: Buspirone (considered the safest drug for generalized anxiety disorder); Benzodiazepines (quick-acting but building a dependency is common); Antidepressants (slow-acting and may increase sleep difficulties and cause nausea). [23]
    • Research the side effects before making a decision to commence taking any drug.
    • Communicate substance abuse issues. Many people suffering GAD also suffer from other disorders. Some use non-prescribed drugs and alcohol to manage symptoms. You must discuss this matter with your doctor or therapist to ensure that you receive the help you need and avoid dangerous drug interactions.
  4. Surround yourself with people who care about you. This includes family, friends, and co-workers. Branch out and meet new people to expand your circle of support. You have learned so much through the therapeutic process that you feel resourceful and confident about managing your anxiety. A good support system will help you reduce stress and may boost your immune system. [24]
  5. Personal struggles can leave you feeling bad about yourself. Unfortunately, since GAD involves worrying, you may be worrying that you are worrying too much. Anxiety and worry are a natural part of life, and you can learn to manage it rather than try to eliminate it or feel bad about yourself because of it.
    • The cognitive behavior therapy you will be participating in will help you examine your thoughts and develop new more effective ways of thinking about yourself as well as helping you manage anxiety and worry. [25]
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      Tips

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      Warnings

      • Avoid drinking alcohol. While alcohol may temporarily reduce anxiety and worry, it actually worsens anxiety as it wears off.
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      • Avoid smoking tobacco. You may think that smoking a cigarette will calm you; but nicotine is a powerful stimulant that increases anxiety.
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      • Be aware of hidden sugars in processed foods. Read the food labels to ensure you are filling your diet with foods containing a low level of sugar grams.
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      References

      1. ↑ http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/generalized-anxiety-disorder-gad/index.shtml
      2. ↑ http://www.helpguide.org/articles/anxiety/generalized-anxiety-disorder-gad.htm
      3. ↑ http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/enhance-your-wellbeing/environment/nature-and-us/how-does-nature-impact-our-wellbeing
      4. ↑ http://ideas.time.com/2013/08/16/singing-changes-your-brain/
      5. ↑ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11707547
      6. ↑ http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/fundamentals/exercise-and-fitness/benefits-of-exercise
      7. ↑ https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/exercising-to-relax
      8. ↑ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1470658/
      9. ↑ http://www.anxietybc.com/sites/default/files/MuscleRelaxation.pdf
      1. ↑ https://www.helpguide.org/articles/anxiety/generalized-anxiety-disorder-gad.htm
      2. ↑ https://nccih.nih.gov/health/stress/relaxation.htm
      3. ↑ http://www.anxietybc.com/sites/default/files/adult_hmgad.pdf
      4. ↑ http://www.anxietybc.com/sites/default/files/adult_hmgad.pdf
      5. ↑ http://www.anxietybc.com/sites/default/files/adult_hmgad.pdf
      6. ↑ https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/anxiety-treatment-options
      7. ↑ http://www.anxietybc.com/sites/default/files/adult_hmgad.pdf
      8. ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/anxiety-tips.html
      9. ↑ http://www.anxietybc.com/sites/default/files/ToleratingUncertainty.pdf
      10. ↑ http://www.helpguide.org/articles/anxiety/therapy-for-anxiety-disorders.htm
      11. ↑ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071468/
      12. ↑ https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/setting-goals-developing-treatment-plans-in-therapy-1207165
      13. ↑ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/00346543064003363
      14. ↑ http://www.helpguide.org/articles/anxiety/generalized-anxiety-disorder-gad.htm
      15. ↑ http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore-healing-practices/social-support
      16. ↑ http://www.aafp.org/afp/2009/0501/p785.html

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