Mental Health Awareness Month: Anxiety
Mental Health Awareness Month
May is Mental Health Awareness Month! Each week, we’ll take a look at common mental health concerns and how to manage them. First up, we have the common issue of anxiety.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a feeling of dread, uneasiness, or fear often with no direct reason or cause. It can show up in several types of disorders such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety, Panic Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.
Getting to know Anxiety:
Physical symptoms include high blood pressure, rapid heart rate, nausea, headaches, sweaty palms/forehead, and shakiness/trembling.
Psychological symptoms might be a racing mind, intrusive thoughts (unusual or even scary thoughts that seem to come from “out of nowhere”), excessive worry about the future, or some other indistinct fear.
Some form of anxiety disorder affects 19% of adults and 31% of adolescents. (ADAA)
*Adapted from the Britannica Encyclopedia, the American Psychological Association, and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
How to Support Those With Anxiety
You probably know a friend or loved one who experiences anxiety. They may have even shared some about it with you. Here are some things to consider when you’re supporting someone who experiences anxiety.
1. Be a friend
What does a good friend do? A good friend shows up, listens, and carries the burden alongside the person.
2. Be compassionately curious
Be curious about the person. What’s it like to feel that way? What kinds of things cause anxiety to show up? How can I help “weather the storm” and make it through this particular episode of anxiety?
But remember to be compassionate. The last thing a person who is feeling anxious needs is a barrage of questions. Show patience and warmth to the person to the best of your ability.
3. Try a grounding technique
A person in the midst of anxiety is experiencing the discomfort of a fight-or-flight state—often with no perceivable threat. If we can ground ourselves in the here and now, we can then move ourselves out of that fight-or-flight and back into a relaxed, at-ease state. The good news is there are tons of effective and easy grounding techniques out there! Check out these Grounding Techniques: Exercises for Anxiety, PTSD, & More from healthline.com, for example.
*Adapted from Johns Hopkins Medicine
How Therapists Can Help With Anxiety
There are many ways therapists help clients who experience anxiety, and their methods can look different depending on the psychological theory they utilize. Here are two common approaches:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
A common form of treatment for anxiety is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT holds the principle that humans’ behaviors and emotions are based largely on how and what they think.
CBT therapists help clients examine what they are thinking in response to a stimulus or situation and assess for ways clients might be “distorting” what’s really there. How does the client’s distortion compare to reality? Reevaluating these distressing thoughts can change how we feel about them, and ultimately how we behave in light of them.
*Adapted from apa.org
An Example of Implementing CBT:
Let’s say I feel anxiety around public speaking. When I think about public speaking, I think about stumbling over my words, forgetting what I planned to say, and looking unintelligent in front of others. I worry people will reject, devalue, or make fun of me. In reality, most people in any given crowd feel sympathy for a speaker, want them to succeed, or are too busy focusing on their own experience of being in a crowded room to think about the speaker! Confronting some of these less-than-accurate thoughts can temper my emotional response, and hopefully free me up to speak effectively and confidently.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Another form of treatment for anxiety is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).
DBT offers clients psychoeducation (learning about psychology) around intense emotions and how to manage them.
DBT focuses largely on the bodily experience of psychological concerns and the skills to manage them. What happens to your body when you feel anxious? Does your heart race? Does your breathing shallow? Do you feel dizzy? Through awareness of these symptoms, we can tune ourselves into what’s going on and respond accordingly.
“Responding accordingly” looks like implementing the skills DBT is known for. DBT utilizes things like mindfulness to help clients become aware of their emotional experience, accept it as a fleeting emotion that won’t last forever, and let it go over time. With skills like this, DBT seeks to increase clients’ tolerance of distress and their ability to regulate their emotions.
*Adapted from Psychology Today
An Example of DBT:
Once again, I am anxious about public speaking. DBT teaches me how to make sense of my bodily experience. My heart is beating, I’m sweating, I feel a bit dizzy, I’m breathing quickly… Ahh, I must be feeling anxious! With this knowledge, I can implement a breathing technique that will both slow my breathe and bring my heartrate closer to normal. I can acknowledge and accept that I am nervous about public speaking—and by giving up the fight, it might be a little bit easier to hold the anxiety. Now, my mind and body are in a better state to take on this presentation.
These are just two examples, and other therapists use different therapeutic models. But a large majority, regardless of their theory, utilize the skills offered by CBT and DBT because they are shown to be effective in lessening anxiety.
