Other types of medication used to treat anxiety include beta-blockers , monoamine oxidase inhibitors MAOIs , and buspirone. Medications can provide offer benefits to people with anxiety.

However, a person who begins to take medications for anxiety should be cautious about not stopping them abruptly. Some medications, especially antidepressants like SSRIs or SNRIs, can cause withdrawal symptoms, which can include brain zaps.

These are painful jolts in the head that feel like shocks of electricity. Individuals planning to adjust their approach to treating anxiety disorders after a long period of taking antidepressants should consult their doctor about how best to move away from these medications.

If severe, adverse, or unexpected effects occur after taking any prescribed medications, a person should notify their doctor immediately. Learn more about anxiety medications. Treating an anxiety disorder focuses on psychological therapy, medication, and lifestyle adjustments.

Treatment will be different for each person depending on the type of anxiety disorder they have and the presence of any underlying conditions. Self-management is the first step toward addressing anxious feelings and often involves relaxation techniques , an active lifestyle, and effective time management.

If these measures do not bring anxious reactions under control, a person should consider speaking with a doctor and seek other avenues of treatment. If anxious reactions are severe from the outset — for example, manifesting as panic attacks — a person should seek treatment.

Psychological therapies, including CBT, can help individuals adjust the way they react to stressful life events and triggers. They can also help limit distorted thinking and replace negative thoughts.

Medications that can support treatment include tricyclic medications, antidepressants, beta-blockers, and benzodiazepines. A person should speak with a doctor about any severe side effects or withdrawal symptoms related to anxiety medication. Researchers do not quite know why this happens but theorize that it can have genetic, biological, or psychological causes.

To determine whether a person has anxiety, a doctor will assess for a range of cognitive, physical, and behavioral symptoms. To be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, a person needs to demonstrate specific symptoms, which are outlined in the DSM Depending on the specific type of anxiety disorder, the criteria for diagnosis vary.

An anxiety attack is a sudden worsening of symptoms of anxiety. It can be similar to a panic attack but is generally less intense. Anxiety is a mental health condition that causes people to feel heightened anxiety and possibly even panic attacks.

Breathing exercises may help…. Pathological anxiety is an intense form of anxiety, where a person may have irrational anxious reactions to certain situations that would not normally….

There are many ways to treat anxiety without medication, from various types of therapy to dietary and lifestyle factors. Learn more. New research suggests that taking psychedelics such as psilocybin or LSD may help improve sexual function — including arousal and satisfaction — up to….

This can be upsetting or stressful. If you learn to recognise what is making you anxious, it can help you deal with the uncertainty. Anxiety can also be part of stress. There are many things you can try to help you learn how to manage feelings of anxiety. Every day, for at least 2 weeks, make a note of how you are feeling at different times of the day.

This will help you see what situations are most likely to make you anxious. Think of anything you might be able to do to make these situations easier. Make a list of the things you are anxious about. If you think there are things you can do to help with them, write a plan.

If there are things you can do, do them as soon as possible or set a time for when you can. Start with the small or easiest ones first. Gradually build up to facing your bigger problems or fears. If the anxiety returns, remind yourself that you have either taken action or have a plan in place.

If you don't stick to your plan, don't be too disappointed. Focus on small achievements. Screen time is the time you spend looking at a device such as a phone, tablet, computer, games console or TV.

Screen time can take up time that could be spent outdoors, socialising or being physically active. It can also expose you to stress, bullying or negativity through social media.

Try 15 to 30 minutes each day to start with. When the time is up, focus your thoughts on other things until tomorrow. Negative thought patterns can make anxiety worse. They can lead to unhelpful feelings and actions. Try to change a negative thought for a more helpful one.

Sometimes you will be able to, but it is OK if you cannot. Change your thinking and improve your mental health. If you feel anxious, it can help to talk to a friend or family member about how you feel.

Telling someone about how you are feeling can help to make things clearer for you. It can help you understand why you are feeling anxious and to get help with how to manage it. How to talk to someone about what's troubling you.

Breathing exercises can help your mind and body get control of a difficult situation. They only take a few minutes to do and can help you manage strong emotions and reduce stress.

Relaxation tips and breathing exercises. Mindfulness teaches you to become aware of the present moment. This helps you enjoy things more. Instead, you notice your thoughts, feelings and sensations. How to practice mindfulness. Anxiety can make you feel more tired than usual. It can also make it more difficult to get or stay asleep.

Sleep is important for mental health. It helps you to think clearly and gives you the energy to deal with problems. Most people need 5 to 9 hours sleep a night. More than 7 hours is recommended for adults. The ideal amount is 8 hours, but everyone's different. Tips for better sleep.

What you eat can make a difference to your mental health. A diet rich in foods such as fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds can boost your energy and mental health.

Physical activity can help you sleep, relax and feel better. It can help reduce stress and burn off anxious energy. You can also try listening to this 6-minute anxiety control training audio guide. Drinking too much caffeine can make you more anxious than normal.

This is because caffeine can disrupt your sleep and also speed up your heartbeat. If you're tired, you're less likely to be able to control your anxious feelings. Avoiding drinks containing caffeine, such as coffee, tea, fizzy drinks and energy drinks, may help reduce your anxiety levels.

Taking steps to enjoy a healthier lifestyle can help boost both your physical and mental health which can also help combat feelings of anxiety. Support groups can often arrange face-to-face meetings, where you can talk about your difficulties and problems with other people.

Many support groups also provide support and guidance over the phone or in writing. Ask your GP about local support groups for anxiety in your area, or search online for mental health information and support services near you. Page last reviewed: 5 October Next review due: 5 October

Practising meditation can help. Find more relaxation exercises. Learn more about how a healthy lifestyle can help you stay mentally well. Try doing something that makes you anxious, even in a small way. For example, if public speaking makes you anxious, put together a small presentation for your friends or family.

Success with small acts of bravery can help you manage your anxious feelings for bigger acts of bravery. Avoiding anxiety triggers can make you feel better in the short term, but it can make you more anxious in the long term. Anxiety can make you overestimate the danger in a situation and underestimate your ability to handle it.

Practising self-compassion can help reduce your anxiety. We all deserve to be nurtured, even by ourselves. Find out how to develop a stay well plan.

This can help to stop your worries from taking over at other times. Keep a diary of when you feel calm or anxious. Try to identify what works to reduce your anxiety and what makes it worse. This can help you manage your anxiety. Learn about anxiety symptoms and treatments. Visit the Beyond Blue Forum anxiety discussions.

Avoiding drinks containing caffeine, such as coffee, tea, fizzy drinks and energy drinks, may help reduce your anxiety levels. Taking steps to enjoy a healthier lifestyle can help boost both your physical and mental health which can also help combat feelings of anxiety.

Support groups can often arrange face-to-face meetings, where you can talk about your difficulties and problems with other people. Many support groups also provide support and guidance over the phone or in writing.

Ask your GP about local support groups for anxiety in your area, or search online for mental health information and support services near you.

Page last reviewed: 5 October Next review due: 5 October Home Mental health Mental health conditions Generalised anxiety disorder in adults Back to Generalised anxiety disorder in adults. Self-help - Generalised anxiety disorder in adults. Try a book or online course There are lots of books and courses that can help you learn to cope with your anxiety.

Find out more about self-help for anxiety Exercise regularly Regular exercise, particularly aerobic exercise, may help you combat stress and release tension. Anxiety is a normal and adaptive emotional response, defined as feelings of distress, worry, and physiological symptoms in the context of apprehensively anticipating future danger or misfortune American Psychological Association, Although anxiety is a normal experience, it can become a problem when it exceeds the reality of potential danger.

Medical professionals can categorize these difficulties as anxiety disorders, such as panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder American Psychological Association, In this theory, negative cognitions e. Although safety behaviors alleviate anxiety in the short term, they can lead to anxious predictions never being challenged, which maintains or worsens anxiety in the long term Wells, Here are four steps for helping your clients cope with anxiety.

For further reading about psychoeducation, this article explains how to provide Psychoeducation in Groups , while our article Coaching for Anxiety offers podcasts and techniques that you can use with your clients.

Keeping track of experiences of anxiety can help clients identify patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. For example, the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy situational formulation cycle can be used as part of psychoeducation. Relaxation strategies calm bodily sensations, cognitive skills aim to shift anxious thinking, and behavioral strategies help to reduce safety behaviors.

Different tools work for different people in different situations. It can be helpful for clients to develop a written list or toolkit of strategies that work for them. Here are 10 evidence-based anxiety management tools adapted from Leahy et al.

Controlled breathing aims to reduce physiological symptoms of anxiety by regulating breathing. Controlled breathing involves breathing deeply into your lower abdomen for four counts and out for six counts, repeating for at least a few minutes.

Progressive muscle relaxation aims to relax the muscles to ease the bodily sensations of anxiety, such as muscle tension. You tense and relax each muscle group in turn, working progressively throughout the body.

Visualization is the idea of building an image in your mind of a calm, safe place e. This soothes the anxiety response and distracts from anxious thinking Hart, ; Welford, You can distract your brain from anxious thoughts by refocusing on another activity.

This strategy can also help clients feel empowered to use their existing strengths and interests as helpful anxiety tools, for example, doing an enjoyable hobby.

Thought challenging involves identifying evidence for and against anxious thoughts. The aim is to weigh up this evidence and then reframe the thought as a more balanced view of the situation, moving away from anxious predictions.

Use this Questions for Thought Challenging worksheet to get a balanced view on a situation. Anxiety partly stems from self-criticism, such as believing that you do not have the skills to cope Welford, Compassionate self-talk can help reduce anxiety and self-criticism.

This involves allocating specific worry time e. If worries pop up, these can be written down and saved until worry time. This reduces the amount of worrying and rumination. Use our Worry Bank worksheet for further practical guidance on this tool. These involve facing your fears by reducing safety behaviors.

Behavioral experiments involve writing down the initial anxious prediction, facing the feared situation, and then reflecting on what actually happened.

This often provides evidence against the initial anxious belief. Use this Behavioral Experiment to Test Beliefs worksheet to plan out experiments. Build up to facing fears through graded exposure by breaking down the task into small steps.

Physical activity can be an effective way to reduce anxiety levels. Feeling anxious can negatively impact sleep, and lack of sleep can mean a lower threshold for feeling anxious. Grounding tools can help when someone is feeling overwhelmed by anxiety about the past or future by bringing focus back to the present Peckham, Focusing on the breath can help to anchor you initially and lay the foundations for other grounding skills.

You can also have written reminders of other grounding skills. It is normal for your mind to wander during mindfulness and grounding techniques, and it is important not to fall into self-critical thinking.

We can use the mindfulness concepts of nonjudgmentally noticing when our mind wanders and refocusing back to the grounding exercise. It may help to use a cognitive defusion tool Harris, , such as seeing thoughts as leaves on a stream floating by while doing mindful grounding.

You can access the Leaves on a Stream exercise as part of this free Mindfulness Tools pack. Mindful breathing helps with the cognitive effects of anxiety. Instead of focusing on anxious thoughts, the mind focuses on the breath, helping to ground in the present and shift focus away from anxious thoughts about the past or future.

Focusing on the breath is core to compassion-focused strategies, such as soothing rhythm breathing Gilbert, This involves finding a breath rhythm that helps to self-soothe when feeling anxious Welford, , with a focus on using self-compassion if your mind wanders from the task. This helps to foster skills in both self-soothing and self-compassion.

The anxiety tools above are also effective for children. The key is to ensure that they are adapted for age and developmental stage, such as by using different creative formats like worksheets, videos, and apps.

Example ideas include our Deep Breathing for Kids worksheet, as well as this anxiety psychoeducation video for kids. When supporting children with anxiety, parents and carers play a vital role.

Parents can use tools such as graded exposure and set goals with their children to reduce safety behaviors. Children often seek reassurance from adults when feeling anxious. Instead of giving reassurance, it can help to empower the child to manage their anxiety by using strategies from their toolbox.

Parents can try to model to children how they positively manage day-to-day anxiety themselves. Parents can allocate a specific time to discuss worries with children.

This helps to reduce the amount of focus on worries and reassurance seeking, making them less dominant in day-to-day life. Parents can help children overcome anxiety by empowering them to manage and problem-solve anxiety-provoking situations themselves, to help build independent coping skills.

It is also important to reinforce positive and brave behaviors using praise and rewards. Download 3 Free Resilience Exercises PDF These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients to recover from personal challenges and turn setbacks into opportunities for growth.

These tools are open-access self-report questionnaires to assess for anxiety across different client groups, based on recommendations from Beidas et al.

Anxiety is a normal hard-wired threat response that our brain uses when it perceives danger.