Practical Stress Management - Chapter 6: Coping with anxiety

Anxiety is an inevitable part of life. Two components of anxiety are inefficiency (the loss of one’s mental alertness) and fear (to imagine that one’s own actions always have a painful consequence). Generalized anxiety disorder and panic are associated with excessive anxiety. Other anxiety disorders include: specific phobias, social phobias, obsessive compulsive disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Anxiety is manifested as trait anxiety that is evidenced by physical and/or psychological symptoms, whereas state anxiety is temporary in nature and is usually associated with a stimulus. Depression is an illness that affects the whole body, mood, thoughts, and behavior. The chapter outlines worksheets for seven effective techniques to cope with anxiety: (1) rational emotive therapy essentially challenges or refutes self-talk that contributes to irrational thinking; (2) simplified kundalini yoga is based upon the principles of introspection regarding the degrees to which we worry; (3) gestalt emphasizes the unity of self-awareness, behavior, and experiences; (4) systematic desensitization that involves imagining or experiencing an anxiety-provoking scene while practicing relaxation; (5) cognitive behavioral therapy that emphasizes cognitive restructuring; (6) mindfulness that entails focusing on the present; and (7) optimism that requires focusing on the bright side of things. Important terms are defined along with five websites to explore.