“Coping with anxiety would be the same as coping with stress.” JoAnna Dickinson, MSW, Counselor at Church on the Ridge, is back for week two of “Let’s Talk Anxiety.”
On how to cope with anxiety: “You’ve got to find ways to take care of yourself… by practicing self care which might look like focusing on your breathing and being mindful of what your body’s telling you. And what your thoughts are and paying attention to your senses. And paying attention to the breathing that helps calm your body down when you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed or anxious. It also helps to journal. Journaling is a great way to get out what those feelings are and what’s going on in your mind and sometimes even through journaling you can find great relief and be surprised what’s revealed in writing, at what might be triggering that anxiety or stress. Then you can actually do something different about it so that you can bring about awareness.”
Some practical steps to take include: “Journaling, talking to a trusted person, exercise and getting outside, positive self-talk, writing out negative thoughts and replacing them with positive thoughts, [and], if you’re a person of faith, using prayer and reading the Bible, listening to worship music, [and] doing things that are going to be uplifting and help you actually release some of that stress. And then having an attitude of gratitude is actually really helpful too and thinking about things that you’re thankful for and the positive things in your life because then it helps you not to focus so much on all [of] the things that aren’t going right. And it releases endorphins that help you feel better and actually combat anxiety and depression.”
“It’s really a process,” Dickinson said. “It’s a process of learning to identify what you’re feeling, being aware of your thoughts and being aware of your triggers so that then you can do things differently. It takes about 21 days to break a habit or to make a new habit and oftentimes these patterns that we have [have] been going on for a long time, even as far back as childhood. If [anxiety] comes on suddenly then it is a good idea to see a medical doctor in case there’s any medical reason for the anxiety.”
When asked if there is hope or an end in sight with anxiety, Dickinson said “There’s always hope. Especially in seeing a counselor [and] in walking and talking through things and knowing that [you’re] not alone in this. And that we can give it to God through prayer and we can lean on Him and He can take it and He can handle it so we don’t have to carry these worries and burdens on our own. So we’re not alone in this and that is definitely something that’s very hopeful. There’s always hope for anxiety and getting better. It all comes down to if you’re willing to do the work.”
Ending on this note, Dickinson thoughtfully spoke that “To be able to do something differently is to first be aware of it.”
EMILY DICKINSON 