Manage Stress and Anxiety: Recognizing, Understanding, and Coping Strategies

Yesterday, when I came across a piece of news in the paper which states that “a Bollywood actor committed suicide because of stress and anxiety”. His family and friend are now mourning on his death. It is due to the reason that mental health problems are not taken seriously.

Stress and anxiety are now becoming a recognized mental health issue in the whole world. This mental health gradually consumes a person from inside and makes him do unthinkable things. These problems are widespread nowadays. Every other person is suffering from stress. The question here is how to manage these mental health issues? In this article, we will discuss how to manage stress and anxiety.

What are stress and anxiety?

Stress is an anxious feeling, which you feel when under any pressure, the pressure can of any type, for instance, financial problems, an argument with a friend, examination pressure, and so on.

These situations have cumulative effects on you, which leads you to a behavioral change, makes you feel upset or threatened. Ultimately create a stress response, which causes a lot of physical symptoms.

Symptoms:

Stress and anxiety cause several physical and mental changes in the body. These changes indicate that the person is suffering from anxiety or stress.  The following are the symptoms of stress and anxiety, which are needed to be identified and take precautions as these mental health problems affect the well-being of a person massively.

• Constantly thinking and worrying.
• Difficulty in focusing.
• Difficulty in sleeping.
• Digestive problems.
• Mood swings.

How to manage stress and anxiety:

Different techniques can manage stress and anxiety, but the first step is to take it seriously and recognize it as a medical issue.

Finding out the source:

Find out the source and triggers of the stress and anxiety and remove the source from your life. This technique is one of the most successful and best technique to say goodbye to these mental health issues.

Deep breathing:

Stress and anxiety can be triggered by quick breathing. When you breathe quickly (hyperventilation), oxygen accumulate in your body, and carbon dioxide is reduced to a lesser amount than the standard, which causes the symptoms of stress.  To regulate your body, you need standard oxygen, and deep breathing helps you in this process.

In this technique, you have to inhale for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds.

Muscle relaxation:

This technique is also called a body scan. This technique aims to completely concentrate on your body and remove all the tension from your body.

In this technique, you breathe in, tense the muscles on your face for five seconds, and then count to ten and gradually relax. After that, try this technique on your neck, shoulders, and rest of the body.

Concentrate on your present:

When you think about your past, mostly the mistakes you have made in the past, you experience stress. Concentrating on your present while trying to forget the past can help manage stress and anxiety.

Taking breaks in your busy life:

While scheduling your day, keep in mind to take short breaks (especially during work). This will always remind you of life other than the fast going world. Go on walks, go to some peaceful place like parks to get some fresh air, etc.

Talk to someone:

This is the most helpful technique, talk to someone you trust the most, and you think he will understand your situation. Just talking to someone that you are feeling and what is bugging you, gives you a big relief, it is like sharing all the stress and anxiety in your mind. However, if this doesn’t work out and the case is extreme, go to a psychiatrist and don’t feel ashamed.

Why is it so important to manage stress and anxiety?

Stress and anxiety have dangerous effects on one’s life. It causes physical and mental problems for a person. If a person is in stress and not taking it seriously, he is outing his life at risk. There are many suicides reported in the last few years, which are caused by stress. These mental health problems are recognized as medical problems, and one should take precautions if he notices any symptoms of stress and anxiety.

Conclusion:

Stress and anxiety are medical problems that are equally dangerous, like cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. These mental health problems have caused many deaths, like any other, sever medical disease. It’s high time we consider them as a deadly disease and try to manage them. In extreme cases, contact to psychiatrists.

The reason for writing this article was to discover how we can manage stress and anxiety, as these problems are widely spread in our society. I hope this article will be helpful to you. Please give us your feedback in the comment section.