When it comes to being anxious a lot of the usual replies people give are “take a deep breath” or “get more sleep” but it really is not as helpful to say these things as one would think. It takes a lot more.

According to the article  “What is anxiety?” from the Mendantas website, true anxiety comes from the Amygdala. This is the area of the brain that sends distress signals to the hypothalamus and evokes the fight or flight response.

What it looks like/feels like

Having anxiety is okay, the main thing about having it is feeling overwhelmed and alone. When starting to feel anxious and overwhelmed it usually looks like sweating, heart racing, putting your head down in class, fidgeting etc. Traits from people with anxiety can look like overthinking, shaking, introversion, and feeling embarrassed. Johns Hopkins Medicine confirms that seeing someone sweating, looking for reassurance, second guessing, compulsive actions like  hoarding or harmful actions usually on their arms or legs etc. If seeing things like this on someone reminds them things will get better and let them know there are people that can help them. You can also pass this article to them as a guide. 

How to help someone with anxiety

Based on  The Mind’s “What can I do to help myself cope – Mind” if seeing someone with these symptoms then try calming them down by not pressuring them to feel comfortable but by being kind and not judgmental, reminding them to breathe. You can also help them by distracting them by with bringing bring other things to the conversation, “if you were to go to an ice cream shop right now, what flavor would you get?” or “what’s a core memory that explains your personality.” basically like questions that could distract them from the anxiety. 

What can you do to help yourself?

Enable to get yourself to calm down when you are feeling a lot of anxiety is to, yes, breathe but it may help to also ask to step out from wherever or whoever you are. Think about something that you are looking forward to or something good that is going to happen. https://www.helpguide.org/articles/anxiety/generalized-anxiety-disorder-gad.htm says ways to help yourself long-term and short-term is…. 

Long term

• Learn to control your breathing 
  • Try sitting comfortably , relaxed, head up, back straight, inhale and exhale slowly.

• Face your fears 
  • Push yourself everyday to do a little more like speaking, eating lunch with others, complimenting others, go out more

Short term 

• Try to feel less of smoking and put more time into other active things. 
  •  Reading books, taking a walk, picking flowers, coloring, finding ways to help the environment
• Get enough sleep 
  • Go to sleep early, spend less time on social media or technology 30 minutes – an hour before bed 
• Get active 
  • Spend at least 30 minutes doing small exercise or relaxing yoga out of your day, rather to get your day started