How to Overcome Anxiety in 5 Easy Steps

If anxiety attacks, fear and panic are ruining your everyday quality of life, I have some good news for you. It does not have to stay this way. You can overcome your anxiety and finally put your fears to rest. Fear is nothing more than an emotion and it can be controlled just like anger or any other human emotion for that matter. Living with an anxiety disorder can be one of the hardest things to deal with because of all of the symptoms that come with it. A person who suffers from extreme anxiety will have to tolerate both the emotional and physical symptoms that are usually present. What many people are unaware of is that one of the biggest obstacles to overcome when having anxiety is the amount of depression that comes with it as well. Let’s face it. When you are constantly feeling like you are having a mental breakdown and physically you feel beat up all the time, it is very difficult to feel anything but depressed. This is just a natural reaction to how you are feeling.

So how do I know so much about anxiety, attacks, fear, panic and depression? Because thirteen years ago I was sitting in the same situation that you are now looking for answers. The only difference between us is in 1999 there was not a lot of readily available information out there. And what I did find was usually doom and gloom kind of stuff. I would read articles that said I was mentally ill or I would have to see a doctor to get on some sort of medication. It seemed like as I was looking for solutions all I found was bad news. That in itself was depressing.

After struggling for almost 2 years with extreme anxiety, constant worry and panic attacks I finally got some answers. I was diagnosed with GAD and Panic Disorder. After several trips to the hospital, and my diagnosis confirmed by a doctor, I was told I would be prescribed medication and eventually my symptoms would subside. However, after 2 short attempts with 2 different medications my symptoms didn’t go away and I was having some side effects from them as well.

Once I figured out medication was not going to work for me I had to find another way. Unfortunately for me, the trial and error period of my first three years was the worst. I had so much anxiety and so many panic attacks that it almost became a routine for me. I got to the point where I just couldn’t take it anymore. Something had to give pretty quickly. Little did I know at the time, but I was actually refining the process that I would use to eventually overcome my anxiety. It was only out of pure desperation that I would accidently find techniques that would start making my anxiety and panic disorder less and less painful and easier to cope with.

Now I am going to share with you some of the methods that I came up with to overcome my anxiety and begin to start getting my life back in order. I’m going to call it my 5 easy steps for overcoming anxiety. I have other tips and tricks I share within this site as well for heading off an anxiety or panic attack. Some of my tips are unconventional, but they all helped me in my learning process. So let’s get to it.

5 Easy Steps for Overcoming Anxiety

Step1) Make a gratitude list

I would start each day by making a mental gratitude list. Even when difficult, I would make sure I found something that I was grateful for. Everyone has something. Sometimes you just have to dig a little. I found that this step would start me going in a forward direction and give my something to be happy about or to look forward to.

Step2) Take a few minutes each day for you.

Whether you like to exercise, meditate or just reflect, it is important to have some personal quite time for just you. I would find a quiet area no matter where I was and reflect a bit on my life and think about my future plans.

Step3) Find something funny or a reason to smile.

This step is more important than it seems. We all know how important and healthy it is for us to laugh. Without smiling or having something to laugh at makes it much harder for us as humans to be happy. I found that a good comedy on TV would not only make me laugh and as I was watching it, but also I would forget about my troubles for a couple hours. This is important because it gives your mind a break for a bit.

Step4) Make light of you situation compared to others

One of the ways that I subconsciously started to heal myself was by realizing how bad others have it in the world. It’s like the old saying, someone’s always worst off than you. I know it sounds kind of messed up, but it actually does build up your mind and will power. Here’s an example. I would tell myself that Hey, I only have an anxiety problem at the moment. Others may have lost their limbs or have had major life threatening surgery or may have been diagnosed as terminally ill. We are not to be happy about other people’s misfortune. It is just a way to play down our anxiety and help take away its importance or significance.

I hope this makes sense. All you are doing is taking away your anxiety’s power over you so you can return to life. In short, I would much rather have anxiety disorders than to be told I have 3 months to live. More gratitude. Make sense?

Step5) Do a self evaluation of your day and your happiness level.

At the end of your day reflect on it. Were you able to smile? Was your day productive? Were you able to reduce your anxiety level? Did you have a happy thought? You will find that as your days go by you will start to see improvement in your way of thinking and your anxiety levels. If you are following the above steps on a daily basis you are already reprogramming your subconscious mind without even knowing it. You are actually using you mind for other things instead of just focusing on your anxiety. Therefore you are shifting the power of your mind back to you and taking it away from your anxiety and fears. Once you have been able to do this, you will be in control and not your anxiety anymore. It is very liberating I can tell you.

So as you can see, following certain steps and reprogramming your mindset, it is much easier than people think to overcome your anxiety. Remember what I said in the beginning. Anxiety is nothing more than an emotion. We call all learn to control our emotions. If you suffer from an anxiety disorder or panic disorder, please read my pages on this. You will surely benefit from them.