Some common signs of anxiety include:

Physical

• Increased heart rate
• Sweating
• Trembling
• Trouble sleeping
• Muscle tension
• Dizziness
• Stomach pains and cramping

Behavioral

• Avoiding situations because they cause anxiety
• Consistently watching for signs of danger
• Checking and rechecking
• Trouble concentrating

Feelings and Thoughts

• Often worried, tense, or on edge
• Consistently Irritable
• Regularly believing something bad will happen
• Prone to expect or anticipate the worst outcome

If you have a diagnosed anxiety disorder, counseling and/or medication can help. However, not everyone who experiences anxiety needs to be treated in this way. Many people have found relief using self-help strategies to reduce anxiety symptoms.

These strategies include:

Physical

• Exercising regularly
• Getting enough sleep
• Eating a healthy diet
• Avoiding or minimizing caffeine consumption

Behavioral

• Practicing deep breathing, meditation, and/or grounding techniques
• Spending time with friends, family, and others you care about
• Doing things you enjoy or engaging in a distracting activity
• Focusing on things you can control instead of those you can’t
• Taking small steps to deal with anxiety-inducing situations instead of avoiding them all together
• Doing your best, but not demanding perfection

Thoughts and Emotions

• Replacing extreme thoughts with more realistic ones
• Imagining the best outcome instead of the worst
• Focusing on the positives
• Monitoring how you think about stress and working to change negative thoughts
• Accepting that you can’t control everything