Inspired by Anxiety: Thinking Over Overthinking
/I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again because I firmly believe it: Everything. Is. Connected. If you can try to embrace that idea, then the solution to any particular source of anxiety may not come from just one area of our lives, but be pieced together by taking action in many other areas. While each post in this series is devoted to a particular dimension of health, there will inevitably be some overlap, which I’ll acknowledge as well. With that said, on to the next dimension:
Thinking Over Overthinking
(Intellectual Health)
Have you ever tried to think yourself out of an anxious moment?
Maybe you used a particular reassuring phrase like, “you’re going to be ok.” Maybe you took a deep breath and counted to ten. There are many techniques we can use to calm our anxiety and sometimes counting or reciting a mantra does the trick. If these work for you, that’s pretty awesome— it’s great to be able to identify effective anxiety management techniques for ourselves that we can go to when we need them most.
But sometimes, managing anxiety isn’t quite that straightforward. Sometimes our mantra starts out fine but eventually slips back into the nagging anxious thoughts we were having in the first place. Sometimes those thoughts have no problem waiting until after we reach our ten count to resurface just as intensely as they were at one. These techniques, though effective for some, may be equally as ineffective for others, serving only as a momentary distraction or detour in our thought process but never actually making the anxiety in our brain go away.
I’d be lying if I said that I have one particular anxiety management technique that works for me because I don’t. The reality is that sometimes attempting to use intellect and thinking about not being anxious only makes me more anxious because, why can’t I talk myself out of feeling this way? (Because often times, anxiety isn’t rational and doesn’t care about logic). There are times when what worked for you yesterday ends up being completely useless to you, today depending on the cause and severity of the anxiety.
Needless to say, that kind of makes choosing three things to highlight here a bit challenging. What I’ve realized for myself (and coincidentally, what Chris Kulmann also brought up in his mini-series, “Anxiety: An Examination”) is that anxiety management techniques tend to fall into a few different categories. In this case, I’ll focus on the more intellectually-based techniques: distraction, relaxation, and (sort of) therapy.
Now, of course, it’s important to acknowledge that everyone’s brain is wired differently and that some of these suggestions may have the opposite effect on you in an anxious moment, so take these with a grain of salt:
Distraction/Hobbies
As someone prone to procrastination, I’m no stranger to distractions as an alternative to attending to what’s causing me anxiety. Of course, if you’re anxious about something that needs to be done, not doing that thing only works in the short-term; likely, you’ll still have to do whatever it is you were avoiding once the distractions have come and gone. Distractions, though, don’t necessarily have to be unproductive.
Yes, distractions for the sake of distractions have their place. I’d be willing to bet that most of us have had our fair share of days binge watching our shows on Netflix after a particularly overwhelming week. Since intellectual health relates to activities which stimulate the mind, though, it’s worth pointing out that taking interest in a new hobby can be a great way to manage your anxiety.
The hobby is largely up to you, really, depending on what you’re interested in. It could be something as simple as carving out a little time during the week to read, work on a puzzle, or practice meditation. If you’re looking for something to get your creativity going, taking up photography, attending a pottery class, or going geocaching might be the way to go. You might enjoy taking an educational course in history or science, learning how things are made, or cooking your way through some new recipes. The point is, stimulating your mind by attending to a hobby or learning something new requires focus that may take your mind off of whatever it is that’s causing your anxiety.
For other hobby suggestions, here are a couple more sites that might help you get started:
http://discoverahobby.com/listofhobbies
https://hobbylark.com/misc/How-to-Choose-a-Hobby
Relaxation/Musical Mantras
I mentioned earlier that some people use mantras as a way to manage their anxiety. I’ve never had much success with a mantra, but for me, music has always been prevalent in my family. The great thing about music is that the words are already there for you. It’s also no secret that music can play a significant role in altering our mood, and so using music as a way to manage anxiety makes a lot of sense.
As a kid growing up with OCD, I experienced intensely anxious thoughts that something bad would happen to me or my family. One of the most frequent instances of this was the fear that my dad would get into an accident on his drive home from work, or that my mom would get into an accident on her drive home from running her errands. Thankfully, neither of my parents got into an accident and they always made it home safely, but still, any time my parents were supposed to be coming home, my anxiety would skyrocket.
About 10 minutes before they were expected home I would look out the window hoping to see their car turning the corner onto our street. As each minute passed, my anxiety would build, and if they were late, I became borderline inconsolable. I would pace back and forth at the window, incessantly asking whoever was home for reassurance— Why aren’t they home yet? Do you think they’re OK? When do you think they’ll be home?— every 30 seconds.
As I grew older, I began to realize that in these instances, my anxiety was largely caused by fear. These fears were mostly irrational. More often then not, my anxiety was largely fueled my imagination running wild. Once I was aware of my irrational anxiety, the song “Just My Imagination” by The Temptations became a sort of mantra for me. Singing along with “Just My Imagination” helped ease my anxiety because as the song said, “well it’s just my imagination running away with me.”
Of course, it doesn’t have to be that song in particular. Sometimes when I’m anxious about getting work done I like to listen to something without the distraction of lyrics, like songs by Vitamin String Quartet or The Piano Guys. Whatever the song or whoever the artist, a relaxation track or playlist can go a long way.
“Therapy”/Therapeutic Writing
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been hesitant to write because I don’t even know where to begin, or that I’m unsure of what will come out, but while the other suggestions in this post were more about diverting from the anxiety, this one is more about meeting the source more head-on. If you let yourself give in and embrace it a bit, something inevitably comes out on paper (and yes, I suggest pen and paper, not computer or smartphone). It doesn’t have to be anything extensive, maybe just a couple of sentences or even a bullet point list of thoughts, but you’d be surprised by what might come out if you let it.
Long before I started this mental health blog for Whatismyhealth, I used to write, and with a purpose. Going back to the first week I was diagnosed with OCD, I found writing to be extremely therapeutic. As a kid, wherever my parents would take me, I used to carry around something to write with and a legal pad with me almost everywhere I went. Sometimes I would just write the alphabet in cursive, other times I would write letters to baseball players (I never really sent them). I didn’t always use the things I brought with me, but just having them accessible was comforting in itself and the act of writing alone was therapeutic for me.
As I got older I started to write from a more personal place. I wasn’t very good at regularly maintaining a journal, but I do have several diaries from my childhood with about 5 pages of writing and the rest blank. More successfully though, I would write poetry or what I intended to be songs. Often, the poems I wrote wound up being about nagging thoughts that were stuck in my head, and even though they weren’t always about anxiety (sometimes they were about a girl I had a crush on), they were a great way for me to take what was going on inside my head and get it out.
The best part about writing, especially as a means of managing anxiety, is that there are no real “rules.” Whatever is on your mind, whatever thoughts you’re having, you can just write. You can share it if you want to, or if you don’t, nobody ever has to see it— it can just be for you. You might be surprised how the simple act of taking a thought that’s weighing heavily on your mind and making it tangible on paper can lift some of that heaviness.
As I mentioned when I began this mini-series, lately, my lifestyle hasn’t lent itself very well to writing other than what I do here for WIMH. That said, I can understand if your lifestyle isn’t conducive to writing, either. What I can say, though, is that many of us probably could make time for it, and doing so could very well be worthwhile.
I honestly believe that there is no perfect blueprint for managing anxiety. We experience it differently, we handle it differently, and what works for you depends largely on who you are and the way you are. What we do have in common, though, is that anxiety can be a very isolating experience that “traps” the mind, and as much as we might want to convince ourselves to snap out of it, it’s not always that easy to break that anxious spell just because we said so.
If you notice that one of these suggestions work, that’s great! If distracting yourself does the trick, by all means, do something to take your mind off of whatever is bothering you. In other cases, it may be useful to at the very least acknowledge what’s causing the anxiety, if not doing something to attend to it directly like writing it down and owning it, rather than letting it own you. And, if you notice that none of these are helpful, I understand. Try something different until you find what works for you, and whichever approach you take, remember that self-awareness is key.
“Inspired By Anxiety” continues on August 8th, 2018.
What mind-stimulating activities best help you manage your anxiety?
Share your comments at the bottom of the page.
Whatismyhealth © 2018
Special thanks to our resources:
http://discoverahobby.com/listofhobbies
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