October 8th was National Depression Screening Day. It is well known that creatives tend to have higher chances of depression and social anxiety orders. For this reason, I want to talk about this taboo subject.

Is your anxiety overwhelming?

With stress and anxiety, I normally assume the symptoms I feel (tiredness, lack of focus, etc.) are related to being sick or lazy. It is hard to imagine how our minds affect our physical bodies.

Some symptoms of stress:

• Low energy
• Headaches
• Upset stomach
  (including diarrhea, constipation, and nausea)
• Aches, pains, and tense muscles
• Chest pain and rapid heartbeat
• Insomnia
• Frequent colds and infections
• more

You might want to see a medical professional if you feel symptoms over a period of several days.

In this article, you will be able to learn a variety of ways on how to treat anxiety. However, seeing a doctor is always your best option.

To help manage your anxiety, consider meeting with a therapist who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy. This kind of therapy can help you attack specific fears or worries by identifying and changing distorted patterns in your thinking. By looking at the full picture of how your concerns affect you, you can hopefully decrease your overall anxiety when those thinking patterns are eliminated.

Learn calming techniques to get you through anxiety. It can be deep breathing, mental exercises or quiet music. Be aware of what works for you when you feel overwhelmed by anxiety so that you can address it in when you feel overwhelmed. This will help you get some much-needed control.

Try not to watch the news often. Many times, the news is filled with negative stories about occurrences in your town and around the world. When dealing with anxiety, you do not need to feed the anxiety any more negative issues to dwell on. Turn off the TV, pick up a lighthearted book to read instead.

Planning ahead is a great way to reduce stress on a daily basis. Instead of waiting until the last minute for projects at work or school, start in advance to eliminate any hassle when you face crunch time. This will help to put you in the best position to maintain a positive mindset.

Exercise is always a great way to reduce your anxiety. When you exercise, your brain releases specific endorphins. These endorphins promote a healthy and happy mind, which battles your anxiety wonderfully. Exercise in the morning to start your day is ideal. If you can find the time.

When you feel overly anxious, get outside. The exercise has many benefits for your whole body, and a good workout can clear your head and help improve your mood. Just being in a new environment has shown to help reset the mind in creativity and to reduce stress. Take a walk around the block if you need it.

Another tip to help control your anxiety is to try to find the things or people that make you laugh the most. This includes watching a comedy movie, reading a funny book, or telling jokes with friends. You will find your anxiety to be much more controlled when you feel more joyful.

Find people to be around. Make sure that you are not alone in your room for long periods of time. One of the best things that you can do is to go out with friends and share time with the people that you love. This helps you to reduce anxiety and inject fun into your day.

Try to minimize the amount of negative words that you use or negative comments that you are making. The more negative talk, the more negative thoughts and anxiety that can come creeping into your head, causing you unneeded health issues that will affect your life in some very bad ways.

If you are a big coffee or soda drinker you should do yourself a huge favor and limit your caffeine intake. I am doing this right now by putting a time limit on when I can have anything with caffeine or energy drinks.

Many people that suffer from anxiety do not realize the negative effects that these chemicals can have on their moods. Switching to decaf is a good idea, if you do not want to stop drinking coffee altogether.

By now, you should realize that severe anxiety problems need effective treatments. You shouldn’t ignore anxiety or try to solve it without help. There are effective treatments that you can use to help overcome anxiety.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

-Jason Love