How to deal with anxiety when you cannot influence the situation

This state has many names: anxiety, anxiety, panic. You are constantly running through an endless stream of frightening thoughts in your head and at the same time you feel fear, uncertainty, nervousness, and doom. Here are some steps to help you structure these emotions and find a way to deal with them.

Important: it is not always possible to cope on your own. If your anxiety attacks escalate into anxiety disorder or you are experiencing panic attacks, it is best to deal with this with specialist. Otherwise, you can only make it worse.

Admit the problem

Since resilience has become an integral part of any resume, worrying has become somewhat undignified. Everyone copes with crisis situations in different ways: someone gets a second wind and the person becomes incredibly productive. But someone spends half of the resources on anxiety and cannot get together. Both are normal responses to stress. A kind of "freeze or run", only in the urban jungle, and not real.

It happens that while some in panic buy buckwheat and dollars, others laugh at them: "They are stupid, they panic, I am not like that." This does not mean that the latter are not worried: trying to ignore the problem is also a reaction.

Stress is necessary for a person, because it allows the body to adapt to changing environmental conditions and return to normal. Don't deny what is happening to you and around you. This will not lead you away from the unpleasant reality. There is no need to demand the impossible from yourself and your loved ones. Try to see reality in its entirety.

Elena Petrusenko, Psychologist at Foxford Online School

Once you admit to yourself honestly and plainly that you have a problem, you can start solving it.

Understand the causes of anxiety

You admitted to yourself that you are anxious, it's time to take the source of anxiety through the bones. Let's say you are worried about a global crisis that, for obvious reasons, you cannot influence. But this is a rather abstract concept. If you think about it, it is not the crisis that scares you, but the possible consequences that it is able to bring. Therefore, it is important to speak (or better write) real fears. For example, it could be:

• job loss;
• worsening financial situation;
• inability to pay by loans and debt growth;
• loss of savings.

On the one hand, these worries, translated into a practical plane, can be even more frightening. On the other hand, the enemy turns from the abstract into the real and close to you. And, perhaps, here you can already influence the situation.

This approach will help structure the chaos in your head, formulating the real causes of anxiety.

Act if the situation can still be influenced

You may have articulated your real fears and found out that you are not powerless. As in the example with the global crisis: you are not subject to the economy of the planet, but for yourself you can spread straws.

Frightened by the unknown. Once the enemy becomes familiar, it will be much easier to deal with him.

Specific measures should be taken immediately when possible. As a result, this will allow you to stop panicking, as thoughts switch to finding a way out of difficult circumstances. At the same time, if the actions are sufficiently balanced, the risks of developing a negative scenario are reduced.

Svetlana Beloded, Head of HR Department, QBF

Switch if you can't change anything

Easier said than done. Moreover, not in any state can one get away from anxiety. That is why at the beginning we already talked about the need to consult a specialist if you cannot cope with anxiety on your own. When fears poison life, but have not yet taken possession of it, it is still possible to fight them, although this will require work.

The switch has nothing to do with the advice of well-wishers to "just stop worrying." It doesn't work like that: you can't take it and stop it. But you can try to stop the anxiety attack. To do this, you need to monitor your condition and slow yourself down if you are immersed in a funnel of frightening thoughts. At this point, it is better to be distracted by something else. Here are some options.

Workout

Willpower isn't always enough to distract you. The joy hormones endorphins will do much better at this. They are the ones that are producedEffects of Exercise and Physical Activity on Anxiety when playing sports. It is not necessary to set records. Any one will do physical activity.

Concentrate on sensations

Think about what you see, hear, feel with your fingers, what it smells like - use your senses.

At the moment when you feel that anxiety is coming, look around and name: five objects that you see (sight), four, that you touch (touch), three sources of sound (hearing), two sources of smell (smell) and one object that you sense on taste.

Maria Eril, psychologist, psychotherapist, head of the "Psychology of Communication" department at Business speech

Hug with loved ones

Tactile contact with people you like stimulates the production of oxytocinReceiving a hug is associated with the attenuation of negative mood that occurs on days with interpersonal conflict - one of the four hormones of happiness. Accordingly, the mood improves and the level of anxiety decreases.

Breathe deeply

It's important to focus on the process.

Just for a few minutes, breathe in such a way that while inhaling, your stomach protrudes, and your chest does not rise, and you will feel the excitement go away. This is a simple and reliable way.

Ilya Shabshin, consultant psychologist

Switch to what you can control

In the film Radio Day, in a critical situation, one of the main characters said: “We now have two problems - the Ministry of Defense and a button. Can we find a button? Theoretically, we can! And we cannot do anything with the Ministry of Defense. Conclusion: you need to look for a button. " And this is one way to deal with anxiety.

At the same time, it is important not to switch from one disturbing thoughts to another: changing sewn to soap has never been a good deal.

Streamline the situation

Returning to disturbing thoughts, albeit on the other hand, is not for everyone. But if you are one of those who are reassured by numbers, statistics, evidence, you can try to explain to yourself why the situation is not as dire as it seems.

Talk to yourself, or rather your frightened part. Imagine that you have such a part within you. Perhaps this is your inner child. On behalf of an adult, address yourself to him and comfort him as a baby whom you love and want to help. You can even mentally hug him to make him feel even more secure and safe.

Ilya Shabshin

These are just a few examples of what you can switch to. Find ways that calm and delight you and use them. Whatever you do, it is important to act according to the following algorithm: catch yourself on disturbing thoughts → say to yourself “enough” → switch. Remember that any frightening situation has not only a beginning, but also an end.