Long term solutions for feeling anxious and worried

Feeling anxious is feeling worried and bad about something all the time, it’s a state of inner turmoil that I hope no one goes through. You start doubting yourself in this state and are unable to perform at your best levels because of lack of confidence. Feeling anxious about an important event in life is completely normal though, but feeling anxious all the time is like someone telling you all the bad things about you all the time, and the worst part is that this someone who’s saying these things is you. In this article, we’ll first get to know how someone can know if they have anxiety, then after that, we’ll cover long term solutions to the anxiety, for short term solutions of anxiety if you need it urgently please read our other article related to instant relaxation https://tranquilinside.com/2019/09/05/12-ways-for-instant-anxiety-relief/

How to recognize if you have an anxiety disorder?

Anxiety can be in short spurts which can have symptoms like a stressful panic attack, related to going to a presentation or feeling anxious when going to meet a larger group of people. This type of anxiety is known as acute anxiety. Though the other type of anxiety which is known as generalized or chronic anxiety can have long term symptoms related to your health and quality of life. Chronic anxiety can lead to depression later in which a person can go forward and harm themselves.
Most of the effects of anxiety are in the emotional state of the person which can cause feeling tense, irritability, restlessness, feelings of danger and feeling like you can’t think of anything.
The symptoms also include regular nightmares, feeling scared of everything.
Though chronic anxiety can also have some physical symptoms.

Here are the physical symptoms of an Anxiety disorder:

1. It can lead to headaches and other neurological symptoms like a feeling of needles or tingling sensations, feeling dizziness, or feeling like the objects around you are moving when they’re stationary.
2. Digestive or Abdominal Pain.
3. Shortness of breath of sighing breathing.
4. fatigue and muscle tremors.
5. Perspiration or itchy skin.
6. Frequent urination, urgency in urination, or impotence.
7. Genetic reasons can also cause anxiety.

Now you know how to recognize if you have anxiety, below is a list of methods that you can try to reduce anxiety.

Long term solutions to Anxiety

This is a list of long term solutions which have worked on a percentage of people who had anxiety though if for some reason after trying these you still feel anxious and if these don’t solve your problem, I highly recommend you to seek help from a professional.

Identify what is causing you to feel anxious

In this step we identify what is actually triggering your anxiety, it could be a stressful day job, could be a fear being alone, could be driving or a terrible way of commuting that you have to go through daily, it could also be side-effects of certain medications so do consult with your doctor in case you’re taking any medications, it could be trauma or phobia of some kind, chronic illnesses like heart disease, diabetes can also cause anxiety, chronic pain can also be a cause, and surprisingly drinking too much caffeine or smoking too much can also cause anxiety.

Recognizing and identifying the cause and triggers of your anxiety can help you remove that problem from your life so that you’re much less anxious or work around it. Like if you’re having anxiety due to a bad boss then you can go on and look for another job, likewise if the cause you’ve identified is a long commute, try to find some way to get there faster like traveling early or late and avoiding traffic hours or try and taking work from home for a few days in a week to cut down on the time of travel.

Do daily meditation

Doing daily meditation even for 10 minutes can help you make less anxious all the time, it helps by clearing your mind and giving you a bit of time for relaxation in a day, doing meditation in the morning can increase your productivity as you can think more clearly. Being mindful can also increase your chances to notice the minute details in your work so that you can optimize them and live life at your best. You can be calmer throughout the day so do try morning meditation. In the night you can try guided meditations for sleeping which can put you to sleep in case you’re having trouble sleeping because of your anxiety.

Sleep well

Your body and mind need enough sleep in order for you to feel rejuvenated and refreshed. Sleeping for 6-8 hours a day is a good way to make sure that your body had enough rest for the next day of your life. Avoid taking phones or electronic devices on your bed and at least keep them 10 feet away from your bed when you’re trying to sleep. When I used to take electronic devices to my bed I noticed that I was looking at them before sleeping and was going through my emails or using social media on my phone at night time which was not letting me sleep early and well. This also caused me to use the phone as soon as I woke up to check emails or anything I missed, and then I wasted 5-15 minutes in the morning using my phone for not so useful things. Also try using “night light” in your phone and other screens, by removing blue light from your screen watching time your eyes feel much more relaxed and you can sleep better.

Exercise regularly

Exercising regularly can help you keep fit and a fit body will help your mind getting fitter too, you’ll feel more energetic and less anxious throughout the day by exercising daily. It can be brisk walking for 15 minutes a day or it can be going to the gym daily for weight lifting. Once you start doing exercise daily you’ll feel the difference in the anxiety levels. I myself like walking in the park regularly, the feeling of grass touching your feet is great in the morning and evening.

Change your diet

You can take supplements which help with anxiety reduction, which can be,
1. Ashwagandha
2. Green tea
3. Valerian root
4. Omega-3 fatty acid

It takes a bit of time if you’re taking supplements and you can expect results from 3 months to 6 months to notice something.
More importantly, then taking supplements, you should reduce the amount of junk food in your diet and cut down on sugar in your diet, consuming processed sugar can cause mood upswings and downswings, also sugar is more addictive than cocaine and it’s everywhere, in almost every processed food item at the very least. The diet or zero sugar foods contain other chemicals causing more damage to your health then suger so stay away from those too.

Reduce Clutter from your life

By reducing clutter I mean that you should live with less number of things so that you can focus on what you really want to and not really bother about excess things in your life. Do you have a guitar that you never play but it’s just there sitting in front of you every day, do you have some books that you have but you are never going to read them, do you have some other things or clothes you haven’t used in years. Clutter can cause anxiety and keeping things minimal and clean can help you reduce anxiety and focus on the most important things in your life.

Keep your environment tidy

Keeping your room clean can help you feel much better and less anxious, it takes very less time and still even if you have a bad day filled with anxiety, you come back to a clean tidy home, which can make you feel relaxed and less anxious. It feels great to know that you’ve kept everything as it should and you’re doing really good at least in one place in your life when everything else seems upside down.

Meet a professional

If things are too bad or not working out still because of anxiety, you should go and meet a professional therapist, therapists can support you in developing ways to change negative thoughts to positive, and you can learn more ways to deal with anxiety and they can also help you in keeping track of your success in therapy and can be good motivators as they can talk to you on a more personal level.

Write a Journal

Writing a journal can help you in recognizing the things that are bothering you and it’s also a way to get your feelings out of your head, by writing down the emotions you’re feeling, you have better chances of thinking about the causes and how to work around the problem that you’re facing which is making you anxious. Writing a journal also helps in keeping track if the methods of making improvements are working for you and focus on the ones which are working better for you.