For millions of people around the country, and even more around the world, anxiety is a part of everyday life. Anxiety can be a quiet force that we grapple with privately, or a public problem that manifests itself in more explicit ways. Either way, anxiety has the power to affect our relationships, our work, and just about every other aspect of our lives.
But this doesn’t mean that anxiety is entirely beyond our ability to control. Living with anxiety can be made more manageable if we make proper use of the resources available to us and strategize ways to minimize its impact. Here are a few ways to manage anxiety in your life.
Anxiety: a natural problem
Before touching upon the ways in which we can minimize our anxiety, we should address a basic fact: our anxiety is something to treat, but not something that we can abolish entirely. Anxiety is a common problem. In fact, it’s the most common mental health issue in the United States, where it affects more than 18 percent of the population. You are not alone in grappling with an anxiety issue, and anxiety is not a sickness that we “cure” in order to become “normal.” We should seek to minimize the way anxiety affects our lives, but we should not expect to get rid of it entirely.
Seeking help
The most powerful choice that you can make in your fight against anxiety is to enlist professional help. Americans are far too reluctant to seek treatment for their mental health, experts agree. But doing so can open a lot of doors. Working with a psychiatrist can give you access to medications that can be key to treating your anxiety. Speaking with a psychologist or therapist can help you understand your condition and develop strategies to counteract it. You wouldn’t put off heading to the doctor for help with a physical ailment, so by the same token, don’t delay speaking to a mental health professional about your mental health.
Medicines and remedies
Psychiatrists, who have the power to prescribe medications, can help connect you with many possible treatments that could ease the burden of your anxiety. These include natural and modern medicines. CBD, a cannabinoid (cannabinoids are the chemicals in cannabis that make marijuana a drug), has been demonstrated to have powerful medicinal properties. In addition to being able to stop seizures and treat pain, CBD can be used as a treatment for anxiety. Be sure to look into ingredients and quality to make sure you’re getting the best CBD gummies on the market.
In fact, you don’t need a prescription to get many forms of CBD legally. Consider CBD oil, CBD edibles, or other forms of CBD as possible additions to your supplement routine. You may find that CBD eases your mind and helps you feel more like yourself.
Lifestyle solutions
Anxiety can cause us to react to the things that are going on in our lives in unfortunate ways. While that is not our fault, we can still control anxiety to an extent by managing our own lifestyle and schedule. It’s important not to develop a habit of avoiding (important) anxiety-inducing tasks, but we can counter our natural inclinations with good habits like planning ahead and staying organized. We can confront fears by expanding our comfort zones, changing our routines, and working with our habit loops. Use smart anti-anxiety strategies to calm down and avoid problems.
And we can make the lifestyle decision to stay active, too. Exercise is good for our mental health, and a healthy lifestyle (including both exercise and a healthy diet) can help us battle conditions like depression and anxiety. Experts in swimming pool construction point out that creating an inviting outdoor space can encourage us to get exercise and sunlight, both of which are good for mental health. A soak in a spa or a few daily laps in the pool can be surprisingly powerful allies in your fight for mental (and overall) health.
Anxiety is a serious condition, but there are ways to keep it from controlling your life. Invest in the resources that help you battle your anxiety, and gain more control over the way you live.
