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What are some coping skills for anxiety?

+1 vote
I have anxiety and need help to cope.
asked Aug 11, 2015 in Coping Skills by anonymous

1 Answer

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The main problem with coping with anxiety is that people naturally try to distance themselves from the feared object or situation- this is how they use 'coping' to reduce the anxiety. By avoiding the feared stimulus, the person with anxiety arrives at the false logic that their anxiety will be reduced. On the contrary- when you avoid your feared stimulus, then you never get to find out that the anxiety will go away eventually, on its own, if you just continue to expose yourself to your feared stimulus. Eventually, with enough exposures to your fears, your anxiety levels go down. This is called systematic desensitization.

So avoidance of your feared situation will reduce your anxiety temporarily, but in reality, the negative cycle of anxiety is maintained when you avoid as you never find out that exposure will decrease your anxiety with repeated exposure. So the most important coping skill is to face your fears. When you are exposing yourself to your fears, then you may feel an increase in your anxiety levels. You can try to reduce your anxiety levels via other means, such as diaphragmatic breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, yoga, massage, and acupuncture. 

Another coping skill you can try is to change the way you think about your feared stimulus. It is not the stimulus which causes the anxiety- rather, it is the way you think about the stimulus which induces the anxiety. Changing from negative appraisals to positive ones will help tremendously to reduce your anxiety.

To learn more about coping skills for anxiety, please read the Anxiety Protocol. Also, to calm your anxiety naturally, you can also try KalmPro, a natural supplement for anxiety.

answered Aug 11, 2015 by drcarlo (298,060 points)
selected Sep 20, 2015 by drcarlo
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