Everyone experiences anxiety or fear from time to time. This is normal, but only if fear and anxiety do not follow too often and for any reason. In this case, a person cannot lead a normal life, because negative emotions don't let him live in peace. Let's see what needs to be done to get rid of fear and anxiety, and what psychologists say about this.

Anxiety and fear are natural emotions that nature has given to man. In a difficult situation, they help him by mobilizing physical and mental resources, and in a moment of danger they can even save his life.

But in some people, these negative states appear as if for no reason. In fact, there is a reason, it's just hidden deep in the subconscious. For example, people who have experienced severe hardship or severe shocks begin to fear that a similar situation may repeat itself in the future.

Pessimists are also often anxious and afraid. A negative outlook on life makes a person expect a bad outcome of almost any event. And if this really happens, the pessimist is even more established in the correctness of his way of thinking, thereby strengthening his tendency to negative experiences.

Symptoms of anxiety and fear

When a person begins to worry or be afraid of something, he experiences not only negative emotions, but also certain physiological reactions. His muscles tighten, his heart rate and pulse quicken, there is a feeling of chills and lack of air in his chest. Hands begin to tremble, sweating intensifies. At the same time, obsessive thoughts swarm in the head, the imagination draws all sorts of unpleasant pictures, reinforcing the feeling of anxiety.

It is often difficult for a person to determine exactly what emotions he is experiencing. Anxiety is characterized by an unpleasant painful feeling in the chest, in the region of the heart, the expectation of trouble. Fear leads to a state of panic, in which a person turns off rational thinking. He cannot calmly sit down and analyze the situation, he is simply afraid and panicking.

If experiences do not leave a person for a long time, his appetite worsens or completely disappears, sleep becomes superficial and intermittent, he wakes up at night and cannot fall asleep for a long time. Some people, on the contrary, increase their appetite, and they try to "seize" their negative emotions.

The state of chronic stress takes away strength, so a person feels exhausted and tired. All this cannot but affect his life. If you do not get rid of the feeling of fear and anxiety in a timely manner, there is a danger that they will develop into a real mental disorder. Therefore, psychologists advise learning to cope with negative experiences on your own.

Ways to deal with fear and anxiety

Almost every person is able to overcome fears and anxiety, negative emotions and experiences. This is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. You just need to set a goal and follow the advice of psychologists. So let's take a look at the most effective recommendations professionals that can be applied at home.

  • Find the reason for your feelings. If you want to get rid of anxiety and worry, be sure to find their cause. Think about the exact situation that scares you. Maybe you are afraid of heights, crowds, communication with strangers or speaking in front of an audience. Remember when your fear first manifested itself, in what situation it happened.
  • Don't hide from your fear, don't deny it. If you honestly acknowledge his presence in your life, it will become easier to deal with him.
  • Learn to relax. Anxiety makes you feel constant voltage, take energy and strength. Therefore, it is very important to learn how to relax. To do this, you can use any methods: a warm bath, a walk in the park, an evening run in the fresh air, yoga or meditation, breathing exercises listening to pleasant, soothing music. Try to distract yourself from the experiences that torment you and give yourself up to the chosen occupation.
  • Discuss your fears with a loved one. There is nothing better than talking about your worries to someone you trust. It could be close relative or a friend to whom you can open your soul. Tell what worries and worries you and listen to the opinion of the interlocutor. Very often, after such a conversation, a person begins to treat his problem more calmly, and feelings lose their sharpness.
  • Put your thoughts on paper. If you don't have someone you can trust, don't despair. Keep a diary and write down all your negative experiences. So it will be easier for you to understand yourself and understand what exactly worries you and in what situations fear manifests itself most strongly.
  • Laugh and smile more often. Bring more humor into your life. Watch comedies or humorous shows, read jokes, search the Internet for different funny jokes. It's good to do this with friends. So you can laugh a lot, relieve stress and forget about your worries for a while.
  • Don't sit idle. When a person is not busy with anything, negative experiences begin to attack him, and gloomy thoughts spin in his head and do not allow him to relax. The best thing to do in a situation like this is to get busy. Do whatever you want: clean the apartment, cook a delicious dinner, pay attention to your husband or wife, play with your child, go to the store.
  • Set aside time for fear and anxiety. Most likely, you will not be able to constantly keep your experiences under control. This is not necessary. Set aside 20-30 minutes a day for them. At this time, let your imagination draw the most scary pictures. Give free rein to your anxiety, give in to it completely. Don't analyze your emotions, just experience them. When the allotted time is over, return to your normal activities. If anxiety begins to overcome you during the day, simply write down the thoughts that disturb you on paper, and in the allotted time you can worry.
  • Don't dwell on the past. If you have had unpleasant situations in the past that caused inner fear or anxiety, your thoughts may often return to these events. Don't let them. The past has already passed and it is not at all a fact that the negative scenario will repeat itself again. Relax, calm your nerves and live in the moment.
  • Get into visualization. As soon as your imagination begins to draw scary pictures of possible events for you, immediately, by an effort of will, switch it to a positive direction. Brightly and in detail imagine the most successful outcome of the situation that worries you. Visualize until you feel that the anxiety has left you or at least significantly decreased. Psychologists and esotericists claim that regular positive visualization can influence life circumstances, turning them in the desired direction.
  • Don't plan ahead. Usually, before an important event, people think over their every step, rehearse actions and words. If you are very anxious, then let your actions be spontaneous. Very often they turn out to be much more effective than planned. Trust the situation and act according to the circumstances.
  • Don't feed your fears. If you have a tendency to over-anxiety, try to read or watch news, crime reports and other information on TV as little as possible, which will only exacerbate existing fears and create fertile ground for the emergence of new ones.
  • Change your eating habits. Some foods that you eat tend to exacerbate anxiety. This includes tea, coffee and alcohol. Reduce the amount of these foods in your diet or eliminate them altogether. By the way, an excessive passion for sweets also increases anxiety, because with an increase in blood sugar, a person has an unreasonable feeling of anxiety.
  • Communicate with people. If you feel that you are beginning to be overwhelmed by anxiety, do not sit alone. Go to a crowded place - cinema, theater, concert or exhibition. Meet your friends more often. Give preference to live communication, but if this is not possible, do not neglect talking on the phone, Skype, correspondence on the Internet.
  • Use affirmations, mantras, mudras. In esoteric literature, you can find many effective means to combat negative experiences. One of the most popular are Sytin's moods. You can use ready-made texts or create your own based on them.

Helping a Psychologist to Deal with Anxiety

If you've tried all of the above methods of dealing with anxiety, but have not achieved anything, don't get discouraged. It is better to seek help from a psychologist or psychotherapist.

Often the roots of increased anxiety lie so deep in the subconscious that a person cannot find them on his own. The task of a psychologist is to help a person understand the causes of fear, remove them from the subconscious and teach him to overcome anxiety.

Some people are embarrassed to seek help from a psychologist. Do not do this. After all, you are not shy about a therapist or dentist, and a psychologist is the same specialist, only in the field of mental, not bodily problems. He will help you deal with your fears and give useful recommendations.

If you can't manage your anxiety, ask your therapist to prescribe anti-anxiety medication for you. You can also use folk remedies. Drink decoctions of medicinal herbs that have a sedative effect. This includes mint, lemon balm, valerian root, motherwort, chamomile.

Overcoming fears and anxiety - a step to victory

If you have anxiety or fear, don't be ashamed of it. Many people are afraid of something, but most of them try to overcome and remove their fears and, as a rule, they manage to win. Try it too.

Remember that negative emotions such as anxiety and fear can be turned into a positive direction by making them work for you. Many famous people succeeded in life precisely because of their fear, which mobilized them, forcing them to work and go to new heights.

Doctors, scientists, athletes, poets, writers, artists and representatives of many other professions were afraid of being unrecognized, they were afraid of defeat and ridicule from other people, and these experiences helped them overcome difficulties and go towards their goal, making every effort to achieve it.

As you can see, anxiety and fear can be turned from enemies into your allies. Work on yourself, and you will definitely cope with your negative experiences.

It often happens: it’s night, all the work is done, a person is tossing and turning in bed, something that prevents him from falling asleep.

And, it seems, the dishes are washed, the children are fed, the shirts are ironed - in general, the conscience is clear.

But something else gnaws at a person - some kind of unconscious anxiety, or a premonition, or a sediment, or two-in-one.

And the morning of such a person, who on the eve of grief still fell asleep in half, will begin with the same thing that ended the evening: with incomprehensible anxious feelings. And there is no end to them.

Familiar story?

How to get rid of anxiety: causes

Jokes are jokes, but, apart from the explanation “I am such an anxious and suspicious person” and “I now have a black streak in my life”, the causes of anxiety states can be phenomena less harmless than simple excuses and everyday interpretations.

From a psychological point of view, your anxiety can be explained by:

Stress (say, an anxiety neurosis can form due to fear of changing jobs, housing, partners; uncertainty, danger);

Deep emotional drives activated under the influence of certain factors different origin, including sex.

From a physiological point of view, your anxiety can be explained by:

Violation in the endocrine system and, accordingly, hormonal failure in the adrenal glands and some parts of the brain, whose products - hormones - are responsible for fear and anxiety;

Severe disease.

If you feel that your anxiety state does not lend itself to your own tricks and self-persuasion, then a visit to the doctor is inevitable.

Only one specialist, a psychiatrist, can diagnose such a condition. Often, the very word "psychiatrist" makes the layman feel that he is about to be "packed" in Kashchenko, and there will be no turning back. But the devil is not so terrible as the consequences of neglected anxiety states. Try to check yourself before contacting a professional.

Check and remember:

How “persistent” are your symptoms: increased anxiety, fear, disturbances, etc.;

How long the symptoms persist: if several weeks or longer, it is best to “surrender” to the doctor

Did the symptoms “grow up” from scratch: nothing threatens your life and health, your loved ones are in order, there is no war nearby;

Do you have angina attacks along with anxiety (they are easily confused with a panic attack);

How long have you been examined by a doctor? general practice;

In what conditions does anxiety appear, what provokes it, what foods or drinks do you eat.

Diagnosing anxiety disorders is usually not a very difficult task. An experienced psychiatrist will easily determine its presence, variety and prescribe the right treatment.

How to Get Rid of Anxiety: Professional Treatment for the Disorder

Anxiety is treated with both rational persuasion and drugs, and sometimes with a combination of the first and second.

Psychotherapy helps to understand the causes and teaches you to gradually deal with them. Any means are used: relaxation, biological Feedback, meditation.

Psychotherapy anxiety states allows you to detect real reason development of the disorder. Special techniques developed by psychiatrists reduce sensitivity to factors that provoke an exacerbation of anxiety, and the effectiveness of treatment directly depends on the patient's desire to correct the situation.

The medical treatment includes various drugs, including those widely advertised on TV. In this case, TV advertising can harm the patient with a real, not far-fetched problem. Drugs that help a person get rid of extreme fussiness, muscle tension, or an inability to sleep can be safe and effective when prescribed by a qualified doctor. The same remedies will only exacerbate the problem if taken on the advice of neighbors, passers-by, and television "doctors."

A number of medicines that you won’t see in advertisements and won’t be sold in pharmacies just like that, when self-medicated, can make a relatively healthy person deeply ill: at least addicted to pills. Therefore, antidepressants, tranquilizers and adrenoblockers, which are designed to save your sleep, soul and quiet life, should also be prescribed to you by your doctor, and not a neighbor from the second floor or a colleague from the office opposite.

If not thousands, then certainly hundreds of books have been written on the topic of getting rid of anxiety. These are the works of experienced psychologists and people who have gone through various stages similar disorders and made useful experience.

Book Andrew Page "Anxiety and Fear... How to Overcome" teaches "alarmists" and "alarmists" to cope on their own with obsessive anxiety. Here the reader finds clear and consistent instructions for following the slow breathing technique, which has already helped many to cope with the disorder without drugs and doctors.

Lifelong student of game psychology Stuart Brown, I am convinced: only the game will save your sound sleep and a positive daytime mood. He believes that even physical exercise should be not work for a person, but a game, he advises to play with friends more often, get off the Internet, turn off the computer and phone.

Canadian writer Robert Sawyer believes that news is one of the main sources of anxiety. News, reality shows, horror films deposit an information “seed” in our subconscious, which later gives unprecedented and dangerous sprouts. Yes, and our Russian literature in the person of the great Professor Preobrazhensky in "Heart of a Dog" voices the opinion of the writer Mikhail Bulgakov: "Do not read Soviet newspapers before dinner."

Psychologists advise:

Get more sleep.

Ventilate the room: the air in the room should be fresh, and best temperature- 20 degrees.

Draw curtains, put on a sleep mask - provide darkness that will help you fall asleep.

Limit yourself to alcohol, nicotine and other addictive nervous system substances.

How to get rid of anxiety: non-traditional methods and means

Have you tried becoming your own psychologist?

Sometimes an alarming residue remains after recent unpleasant events that ended happily. Play projectionist: rewind today like a movie reel.

It happens like this: the unpleasant news received in the morning disturbed you all day. In the evening, you found that everything was decided in your favor, your head calmed down, and the nerves stretched during the day continue to maintain an alarming “lump” in your throat and chest. Moreover, you have no obvious reasons for worrying.

Having rewound the “film” back until the morning, remember the whole day every minute, and Special attention take a moment when the issue was resolved positively. Perhaps this technique will save you from many hours of causeless insomnia.

How to get rid of anxiety: not without meaning, but sometimes conflicting advice that you can hear from neighbors, colleagues, acquaintances

Stop thinking and planning too much. Imagine that everything you feared has already happened a long time ago.

Calm down, take a deep breath and imagine that everything that happens around you is for your own good.

Do something household: cleaning, washing dishes, sewing, knitting. Buy some old groceries for your neighbor.

Give up meat for a month or two. Many vegetarians are very laid back.

Read How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Dale Carnegie

Do more physical activity, walk.

Try to drink green tea or mate - helps a lot.

Check the heart, blood vessels and thyroid gland.

"Drink" the course of "Afobazole".

Do not drink "Afobazol" - it helps for a short time.

Go to a dating site to find yourself a new partner.

Go to gym.

Suffering is natural for a woman.

How to get rid of anxiety and no longer worry

Psychologists advise:

1. "Speak" the problem out loud or "to yourself."

This method is called affirmation. Its essence is a short life-affirming statement, not including particles "not". Affirmation directs thinking in a positive direction and calms well. Psychologists recommend repeating any affirmation for three weeks, so the statement will become your good habit.

2. Breathing practices and muscle relaxation.

During an anxiety attack, a person breathes quickly and shallowly. Breathe slowly and deeply, so you will quickly relax and find peace. Perform the following exercise: inhale slowly, hold your breath, count to ten and exhale for a long time, twice as long as the inhale. Massaging tired muscles during the day will enhance the effect.

3. Take a break to drive away anxiety.

Focus on something positive, read good literature (Anna Karenina or any Poe book won't work), or watch an entertainment show. If you combine this technique with affirmations and breathing practice, the effect will not be long in coming.

4. Relax!

We are always running somewhere, “launching” our health, nutrition and psychological condition. The bustle generates stress and tension, which, without quality sleep and rest, become the masters of the situation, developing into anxiety disorders.

Go in for sports, go to the theater or cinema, walk more often before going to bed.

Anxiety will recede if you wish to get rid of it. Be healthy and don't worry!

Ecology of life: Constant anxiety is a symptom of the dysfunction of the nervous system. Take control of your emotions, don't let them ruin your life

Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

Constant anxiety is a symptom of the dysfunction of the nervous system. Take control of your emotions, don't let them ruin your life.

Coping with anxiety and worry is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance.

Try to figure out what exactly is bothering you. Most likely, many of your fears are far-fetched and do not have sufficient grounds. For example, you are worried about your career, about being demoted at work, despite the fact that you are probably doing your professional duties well and that you are appreciated and respected by your superiors.

Imagine the worst

Let's say you've been demoted, or worse, laid off. Is your life going to end there? Surely you can always find another - equivalent, and maybe more highly paid and interesting work. Sometimes even the most negative events happen for good.

Let's get down to business

Let it be something interesting for you, something that will bring you pleasure. Immerse yourself in joyful emotions, crowd out all your fears with them. Psychologists have long used occupational therapy as the best cure for anxiety.

Let's remember those who are worse

Start helping someone, do not dwell on your own experiences, because there are so many people around who have much more serious problems than you. Visit an orphanage or hospice, share your smile, your warmth with others, and you will see that your anxiety disappears completely or becomes much weaker.

Let's leave the past in the past

Don't worry about past events. People tend to experience anxiety and anxiety because of those situations that are deposited in the memory. Often a person remembers for a long time an event that once happened to him, which caused a vivid emotional response, and re-experiences unpleasant emotions. Clearly separate the present, past and future. Do not worry about what has long passed, as well as about what is not yet and, perhaps, never will be, live here and now.

Laugh at the trouble

Learn to be happy man optimistically looking at the world. In any situation, you can see both positive and negative sides. Develop a sense of humor, joke and laugh more often.

Let's not make it worse

Remember about negative consequences to which constant anxiety leads: these are diseases of the heart and blood vessels, gastritis and stomach ulcers, diabetes, arthritis, rheumatism, etc.

Take control of your emotions

Watch your thoughts, emotions and words, abandon the usual word forms: “I am worried about this and that”, “I am afraid”, “I am worried”, etc. If disturbing thoughts begin to overwhelm you, watch them as if from the side: where do they come from? What reactions do you get? Don't let them get you, let negative thoughts go as if through your brain, without lingering in it.

Let's record success

Keep a personal diary, write down in it all your fears, the reasons for your anxiety and indicate what you have done in order to get rid of them. Remember, only your active actions aimed at improving the quality own life can help you get peace of mind and harmony.

See a psychologist or therapist if your own efforts are not helping you get rid of your anxiety. Your doctor may prescribe you something drug treatment aimed at eliminating the physiological problems in your body that provoke anxiety. Such problems include hormonal imbalance, problems in the functioning of the thyroid gland, vegetative-vascular dystonia, etc.

In a relationship between a man and a woman, the main fears relate to difficulties in communication. Why are men afraid of women and women of men? Let's watch the video!

Very often, after getting out of binge, my patients complain of anxiety. Yes, anxiety is a normal reaction to stress or a dangerous situation. Anxiety becomes a problem when the condition occurs for no reason, emotional balance is not restored even when the factors that provoked it disappear. And here anxiety, fear joining it, begin to literally “gnaw” a person from the inside. All this ends with panic attacks, which simply do not allow a person to live normally. I already wrote about this. But today we’ll talk about how to get rid of feelings of anxiety and fear ourselves, at home.

Remember!

Increase anxiety: stress, alcohol abuse, emotional trauma, hyper- or hypothyroidism, goiter, serotonin deficiency, excess caffeine and sugar.

Anxiety disorders are classified into the following types:

  • generalized - anxiety in this case is not associated with any situations or objects. Pursued by fear of illness, injury, bad forebodings;
  • obsessive-compulsive - manifested by constantly circulating obsessive thoughts, memories, repetitive movements (washing hands, shifting objects), phobias;
  • social - this type of disorder is characterized by a feeling of inferiority, increased sensitivity to the opinions of others, refusal of social contacts;
  • panic - a mental disorder characterized by panic attacks and their expectation.

Anxiety often becomes the cause of other painful conditions.

Anxiety is manifested by such physiological and psychological symptoms:

  • muscle tension;
  • rapid heartbeat;
  • insomnia;
  • hypertension;
  • digestive problems;
  • panic attacks;
  • irritability;
  • loss of concentration;
  • increased sweating;
  • loss of communication skills.

Traditional Treatment for Anxiety

Anxiety disorders are treated with a combination of psychotropic drugs, cognitive and behavioral therapy.

Psychotropic drugs for anxiety

Antidepressants

They block or slow down the reuptake of neurotransmitters (norepinephrine and serotonin). They are also used in the treatment of depression, fibromyalgia, panic disorder. Side effects:

  • weight loss,
  • insomnia,
  • nausea,
  • dizziness,
  • constipation,
  • headache,
  • erectile dysfunction,
  • drowsiness,
  • decreased vision.

Benzodiazepines

Used to stimulate GABA receptors - neurotransmitters that reduce the activity of neurons that provoke anxiety. Benzodiazepines are also used in the treatment of insomnia, alcoholism, and seizures.

Side effects:

  • lack of coordination
  • risk of falls (especially in the elderly),
  • headaches,
  • increased sweating,
  • sleep problems.

Means that reduce anxiety

Diet

The psychological, physiological state, behavior depend on the substances entering the body with food and their quantity. Eating anti-inflammatory foods can naturally reduce anxiety by increasing the concentration of neurotransmitters that affect mood and stress levels.

Mandatory components of the menu should be:

  • proteins,
  • unrefined carbohydrates,
  • healthy fats
  • b vitamins,
  • magnesium and calcium.

Products with high glycemic index On the contrary, they increase anxiety.

Therefore, sugar, sweetened drinks, baked goods, fast food, fried foods, processed meats, and refined grains should be avoided.

It is also necessary to limit caffeine (consuming no more than one cup of black tea or coffee per day) and alcohol (up to three servings per week, but no more than one per day).

You will find detailed information on how to eat with stress and anxiety.

Adaptogens

  1. Ashwagandha. Stabilizes the body's response to stress, destroys free radicals, protecting the brain from degenerative changes, improves concentration, reduces anxiety and fatigue.
  2. Kava kava. A natural anxiolytic that reduces anxiety, improves communication skills, mood, and, unlike tranquilizers, is not addictive. Stimulates dopamine receptors, causing a feeling of euphoria.
  3. 5-hydroxytryptophan. The amino acid is synthesized from tryptophan (one of the mood regulators). By increasing the production of serotonin, it helps to fall asleep, reduces irritability, and is effective for headaches. Hydroxytryptophan should not be taken with prescription antidepressants.
  4. Gamma-aminobutyric acid. Relaxes muscles, helps with insomnia, PMS, attention deficit, hypertension, anesthetizes, has a sedative effect.
  5. Magnesium. Calms the nervous system, relaxes, relieves spasms, improves digestion. The body absorbs magnesium citrate, chelate and chloride better. When taking supplements, start with the lowest dose to avoid side effects(allergic reactions, diarrhea, flatulence, nausea).
  6. Vitamins of group B. Increase mood, concentration, energy level. Symptoms of pyridoxine (B6) deficiency include anxiety, irritability, and depression. Cobalamins (B12) are effective against depression, affective disorders.

Essential oils

  • lavender - reduces nervousness, relieves headache and muscle pain;
  • chamomile - works as an emotional trigger, affecting the brain, reduces anxiety;
  • citrus oil - improves mood, invigorates;
  • juniper, cypress, bergamot, sandalwood - increase energy levels;
  • melaleuca, violet, rose - relieve obsessive thoughts;
  • frankincense, vanilla, ylang-ylang - have a strong relaxing effect.

Physical activity

Improves the quality of sleep, increases self-confidence, helps relieve stress and tension. With increased anxiety, aerobic exercise is useful. Promote relaxation yoga, taijiquan.

quality sleep

Lack of sleep stimulates areas of the brain associated with emotional experiences. Quality rest normalizes the production of hormones, allows the body to recover, reduces anxiety.

Meditation

Increases stress reactivity, reduces cortisol levels, helps to cope with anxiety.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Its goal is to change stereotypes, restructure thinking, consolidate through the promotion of new forms of behavior that allow you to get rid of anxiety.

The necessary help in overcoming anxiety and fixing new attitudes can be obtained not only from a psychologist or psychotherapist, but also from family and friends.

Be sure to watch this video to the end. It helped a lot:

In short, anxiety disorders require professional treatment. You can supplement the therapy (with the permission of the doctor) with the listed natural remedies. Reestablish emotional health a balanced diet, avoidance of foods that increase anxiety, regular physical exercise. And no alcohol! I hope you understand how to get rid of feelings of anxiety and fear? I look forward to your questions in the comments.