Effective Coping Skills for Anxiety

Written By Brittany Squillace

In any given year, 40 million American adults (18+) are affected by an anxiety disorder; that’s roughly 18% of the population. With this number of individuals impacted by anxiety, it’s worth exploring effective coping skills for anxiety. In order to know what type of anxiety coping skills you (or your loved one) would benefit from, it’s important to first understand how the anxiety you’re experiencing impacts/influences you.

Understanding Anxiety

While roughly 18% of adults in the US face anxiety in any given year, it’s still important to understand and recognize that each individual will experience that anxiety differently. There are many ways in which you can begin to understand the anxiety you’re battling:

The above points are all areas I explore with clients however, one of the first things I do with clients who are struggling with anxiety is guide them in identifying where they experience anxiety in their body (i.e. help them understand their somatic symptoms). If you want guidance in any of the above points, click below to schedule your FREE 15 minute phone consultation with me. If you’re not quite ready, continue reading to learn more about how you can begin to understand the physical impact of anxiety.

Coping Skills for Anxiety: Understanding Somatic Symptoms

Effective coping skills for anxiety in prior lake mn

When discussing mental health battles, it’s not uncommon for people to only think of psychological symptoms (such as ruminating thoughts that can show up when battling anxiety) or symptoms shifting mood (such as experiencing increased sadness that can be influenced by depression). However, a mental health battle like anxiety carries many physical symptoms as well. Usually, the physical symptoms are what people notice first; mistaking it for a physical issue rather than it being related to a mental battle. In order to effectively implement coping skills for anxiety, it’s important to first understand how it’s manifesting both physically and mentally. The most effective way I guide clients in understanding how anxiety impacts them physically is through asking them,

When anxiety is present, how do you feel it in your body?

Other questions to help explore this main question are:

  1. Where in your body do you feel the anxiety? For example, anxiety can often be experienced via tension or weight in the chest.

  2. How would you describe your physical sensation to someone else? I’ve had many clients described tension or weight in the chest as anxiety feeling like an elephant sitting on their chest.

In answering these questions, you will begin to understand how anxiety impacts you physically; allowing you to engage in exercises such as the Progressive Muscle Relaxation exercise to assist with reducing intensity of somatic symptoms.

Coping Skills for Anxiety: Identify Your Constants

In times when things are regularly changing in your life, or times when you have many different areas of your life going through change at once, it can leave you feeling like you don’t have a home base or a sense of control; running the risk for increased anxiety. A quick effective coping skill for this trigger to anxiety I commonly use is to

identify the constants you currently have in your life.

These can act as temporary pillars as you work on rebuilding your foundation. Constants may include:

I encourage you to lean into the constants as often and for as long as needed. When you feel grounded, you will be better able to engage in the next coping skill for anxiety; controlling your anxious thoughts.

Coping Skills for Anxiety: Control Anxious Thoughts

With many things in the mental health world, there are many different ways in which you can begin to control anxious thoughts. Below are just a few ideas:

  • Journaling: there are a handful of reasons journaling is utilized as a therapeutic exercise. When it comes to anxiety, one of the main reasons I encourage journaling is for the fact that it allows clients to feel as though they’ve regained control of their thoughts. Through the act of getting the thoughts out of your head and onto paper, you are better able to manage and navigate the thoughts; rather than it feeling as though they’re controlling you. For other benefits of journaling and various journaling exercises, check out the blog article “3 Journaling Exercises for Better Mental Health Processing”.

  • Observe the Facts: anxiety has an incredibly unhelpful power to convince you of things that aren’t always true. A great coping skill to offset this trait of anxiety is observing the facts; what facts do you have to support your thought/belief? For example, if anxiety is convincing you that no one likes you, this coping skill challenges you to look at the facts for and against this thought. Two questions you can ask yourself to prompt this coping skill are:

    • 1) what facts do I have that support this anxious thought (you may choose to ask the opposite; what facts do I have that DON’T support this anxious thought)?

    • 2) what do I know to be true today?

  • Thoughts AREN’T Facts: Just because you have the thought, it doesn’t mean it’s true. Remembering that thoughts are simply thoughts (not facts) may help prevent you from running with the thought; making it into a reality that’s not true.

    What above skill are you going to attempt to implement to begin coping with anxiety? If you’d like to work with me on overcoming anxiety and implementing effective coping skills for anxiety, click below to schedule your FREE 15 minute phone consultation. In this time, you will be able to share more about the struggle(s) you’re facing, I will provide you with an idea of what our time working together might look like, and leave room for any questions you might have.

Here’s to living a better life as your best self!

Brittany Squillace, MA, LMFT

Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist

Brittany Squillace
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Top Tips for Ultimate Mental Health Support in Daily Life: Part II