Top tips to cope with anxiety
Everyone has feelings of anxiety at some point in their life. Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe. Here are some of our top tips to help you deal with anxiety.
Understand your anxiety
Try keeping a diary of what you are doing and how you feel at different times to help identify what’s affecting you and what you need to take action on.
Make time for worries
If your worry feels overwhelming and takes over your day, setting specific “worry time” to go through your concerns each day can help you to focus on other things. Watch the video for more advice.
Face the things you want to avoid
It’s easy to avoid situations, or rely on habits that make us feel safer, but these can keep anxiety going. By slowly building up time in worrying situations, anxious feelings will gradually reduce and you will see these situations are OK.
Challenge your anxious thoughts
Tackling unhelpful thoughts is one of the best things we can do to feel less anxious.
Shift your focus
Some people find relaxation, mindfulness or breathing exercises helpful. They reduce tension and focus our awareness on the present moment.
RelatehubNHS
You don’t need to deal with stress, anxiety, or relationship issues alone, discuss your worries or concerns with a trained Relationships and Wellbeing Advisor. Relatehub’s free 30-minute WebChats or phone calls provide immediate non-judgmental support and advice. You can also get access to up to six free counseling sessions to help you cope with anxiety.
Get in touch: https://www.relate.org.uk/relatehub-nhs or call 0300 303 4477.
Get your Every Mind Matters Mind Plan
Every Mind Matters has lots of advice and practical tips to help you look after your mental health and wellbeing.
Answer five quick questions to get your free Mind Plan with tips to help you deal with stress and anxiety, improve your sleep, boost your mood and feel more in control.
'For simple, easy to follow advice and information on a range of health topics and conditions, take a look at the Dorset Video Library. www.healthvideos.ourdorset.nhs.uk'
Coping with covid
Steps 2 Wellbeing have produced the guide Coping with COVID – staying strong & hopeful within challenging times, which contains a collection of tools and techniques to help you cope with the challenges we’re all facing at the moment, with resilience and hope.
Steps2Wellbeing colleagues have also produced a series of webinars in collaboration with the Dorset Recovery Education Centre from the Dorset Mental Health Forum, including this one on Worries and Anxious Thoughts:
