Clearing the decks
Caffeine
Caffeine can help make you feel alert. It can help you concentrate. It can improve your reaction speed. It can help keep you going when you need to. But the effects of too much caffeine can be much the same as those of anxiety. It is a stimulant that affects the brain and central nervous system (CNS).
If you think caffeine does play a part in your stress, you should get your daily intake down as much as you can.
Alcohol
Many people with a drink problem start down that road by using alcohol to calm their nerves. Having a drink is fine but if you drink to cope with anxiety, you may start to depend on it. If you can't go to places or do things unless you have a drink inside you, you are on a slippery slope.
Symptoms such as nausea, sweating and shaking may be more to do with drink than stress. Drinking too much will mess up your sleep and make you more prone to stress the next day.
Drinking makes you more prone to panic attacks. Heavy drinking makes anxiety worse - Stop it now. If you think drink could be a problem, make sure you seek help from your GP.
The Miracle Cure
Sorry - it does not exist. Anxiety often takes a long time to build up so it is not going to clear up overnight. No-one else can control your anxiety. To get on top of it takes a great deal of hard work on your part.
This website aims to put you on the right lines. But, at the end of the day, it will be you, through your hard work, who controls the anxiety.
Though they can feel good at the time, there is no good evidence to show that hypnosis, acupuncture, aromatherapy, reflexology or homeopathy are of any use in the long run. You must learn to control the problems yourself.
These treatments don't teach you how to do this. This website does.
Reassurance
This may be nice in the short term but you can become dependent on it. If you ask 'Do I look all right', 'Do you think this OK?' and so on, people will quickly get fed up with you. It does not work in the long run as you know they are going to say what you want to hear in any case. This can lead to friction and, hence, more stress. You have to feel strong enough to supply your own answers.
Self-criticism
If people who are anxious have one great skill, it is this. Try to get away from beating yourself up. If things go wrong, accept them. Learn from your mistakes and then get on with things. You have to learn to pat yourself on the back every time you try to combat your stress. This will help your self-confidence to pick up.
Avoidance
Common sense says that if doing something makes you more tense, you should avoid it.
COMMON SENSE IS WRONG
Avoiding may help in the short term. In the long run, you just make the problems worse. You have to face up to worries in your life. This will be hard in the short term but, in the long run, will greatly help you get a grip on your anxiety.
So the next time you are at the crossroads, you have the two choices. There is the easy (and wrong) choice where you avoid facing the problem. There is the hard (and right) choice where you face the problem. Steel yourself and take the right road.
