Hi all,
Fellow anxiety person here. I am with all of you and totally get it. I have also dealt with it for years. I am an MSW student and recently just came across some interventions for anxiety that I would be helpful to share. It was actually for adolescents, but as someone with anxiety, I thought these tips might still be applicable to our age group. A lot of the tips surround recognizing the anxiety, acknowledging it, and reframing it.
Some common mindsets some of us may get stuck in include:
-All or nothing thinking (I do this all the time: If I don’t work out in the AM, I cannot work out at all!)
-Disqualifying the positive
-Jumping to conclusions/mind-reading
-“Should” thinking
-Labeling/mislabeling situations before they even happen
-Blaming
-Catastrophizing (thinking of the worst thing that could happen)
Two possible ways to reframe our anxiety:
Think about the STOP method
-S: Am I scared or nervous about a certain situation
-T: What thoughts am I having in this situation
-O: What other, more realistic, thoughts can I have
-P: Praise myself for thinking more realistic thoughts.
Do your detective work:
-What is the evidence leading you to feel this way?
-How do I know this would happen?
-How else could I explain the situation?
-What is the worst thing that could happen?
-What else might happen?
-What has happened to me before in this situation?
-Is worrying about this situation helpful or just making me feel worse?
-Is this thought helpful?
Also for those of you who find yourself unable to say no to friends, found this article this morning that I thought was wonderful: How to Get Your Friends to Stop Treating you Like a Therapist – New York Times