Anxiety

Just writing the title elicits those feelings for me. My chest feels tight and my jaw tenses up. My friends have referred to me as a “human shaped ball of anxiety” at times. It’s been present for most of my life, even if there was nothing really going on.

Anxiety is something that just about everyone will experience in some form throughout their lifetime. For a lot of people, that feeling goes away as soon as the thing that is causing anxiety goes away, but for many others, that feeling stays with them, even when there is seemingly nothing to be anxious about.

Something that has been helpful in managing the future thinking that anxiety causes might seem silly, but has worked for me.

When a thought about the future comes up, my brain can produce dozens of “What if?” situations. I’ve begun to say out loud, “That is a what if situation. We need to focus on the '“right now” situation. That’s something we can control right now”.

Saying this out loud helps to stop the seemingly endless spiral of “What ifs” and gives me a moment to reset. Does it work every time? Nope, but if it helps 3 out of 5 times, that’s 3 more times that I didn’t spend my energy on those thoughts.

Give it a try when you feel those “what if” thoughts coming through and see if it helps.

#anxiety #skill #mentalhealth #counseling #therapy