Anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness, nervousness, or worry. It is normal to experience anxiety and depression from time to time. It disrupts the normal functioning of life. The common thing about anxiety is to think in a way that may inhibit the ability to control it. Anxiety and depression often go in concordance. Anxiety is useful in a way when it occurs for a short time and can be controlled. However, when the feelings of anxiety don’t go away even if we want to overcome them, it needs to be catered with full conscious efforts.
Ahealo platform suggests 40 better ways to overcome anxiety and depression since anxiety is a significant symptom of depression. The following are useful ways for your reference: –
40 ways to battle anxiety and depression
To combat anxiety and fight depression, we have jotted down the points to help people move toward a healthy life.
Dietary Habits to improve anxiety and depression
1. Don't skip meals
Healthy meals are necessary for a healthy life. It is recommended for better health to take some good nutrient-rich food to boost the body’s energy level. Skipping meals result in tiredness and cause metabolism to slow down. It can cause fatigue. A regular healthy meal is a principal factor to be active and stress-free.
2. Eat nutritiously
Eating nutritious food improves well-being. It enhances the ability to fight off illness. The healthiest diets include more fruits, vegetables, grains, and fat-free products. It is substantial to limit alcohol and caffeine as it triggers anxiety and panic attacks.
Sleep Routine to improve anxiety and depression
3. Stick to your sleep cycle
It is essential to wake up and go to bed at a constant time to maintain and set the sleep cycle. It helps the body to set internal clocks and re-tune the body to get better rest. To keep the body in harmony, avoid taking naps at an irregular time.
4. Get enough sleep
Getting adequate sleep is very important for optimal health. It boosts people to battle anxiety and feeling out of depression. A good night’s sleep helps your brain work properly and increases the ability to take daily life challenges.
Focusing on self to improve anxiety and depression
5. Acknowledge your feelings
In everyday life routines, we keep ourselves in bondage and repress our true feelings. When we start taking responsibility for our conscious feelings and acknowledging the moment, we start getting relax and experience life freely. I want to quote Rumi’s quote here, “The cure for the pain is the pain.” The perfect life is not about always being happy and joyful. Try to allow yourself to feel negative feelings, sadness, or feeling pissed off. Let those feelings flow through you.
6. Take a time-out
Taking a time-out is merely removing yourself from a situation that is getting worse. Stepping back off your problems helps in clearing up your mind. The benefit is to help the mind and body switched off from mental pressures and start feeling relaxed. Anxiety and depression can be caused by too much work, so the thing is to exist mental stress from all worries and explore happiness.
7. Adopt a positive attitude
A positive attitude leads to positive results. So what is a positive attitude? It means being optimistic about surrounding situations, yourself, and others. We need to focus on the bright side of life and expect positivity around us. For example, if you think you cannot do this work. Nurture your attitude toward positivity and optimistically believe that “Yes, I can do this.”
8. Don't blame yourself
Are you the one who blame yourself when things go wrong? It is time to stop the habit of self-blame. If you are not performing too well at work, you don’t need to feel low or ashamed. Remind yourself that you are not perfect, but you can do your best. Negative thoughts about self lead to overthinking and excessive worry. If you feel so, then start taking responsibility and clear up your mind. Move on, learn more, and do more.
9. Live in the moment
Living in the moment allows you to be aware of each situation and find eternity in every single moment. The best option to minimize anxiety and depression is to stop worrying about what happened in the past and stop worrying about the future. Let nature take its course while you do your best.
10. Go easier on yourself
Excessive worry makes you feel hard toward yourself. You might put too much pressure without realization. Overwork gives you mental stress. By learning to go easy on yourself, you can let go of impossible standards. There are 3 tips to do:
- Make yourself best friend
- Stop worrying about others
- Re-examine your priorities.
11. Express gratitude
Gratitude is the state of feeling grateful or thankful. Do you feel difficulty in expressing gratitude? In this situation, you should start saying thank you for every little deed. The practice of gratitude involves focusing on the present moment and appreciating life.
12. Improve self-esteem
An anxious person is seen as low in self-esteem. If you are doing so, then challenge your negative beliefs and identify positive about yourself. We all feel nervous or afraid to do things at a time, but do not let these feelings stop you from taking new things.
13. Maintain a daily routine
Keeping a routine is a hard job, but having no routine drains the mind and body. A daily routine is an excellent way to keep yourself on task. Let me share my effort, and I felt difficulty in regulating my daily routine. Then I took a notepad and started making a ‘To-Do List.’ From the next day, I started pinpointing and following myself. Believe me, it works.
Relax Yourself to improve anxiety and depression
14. Take deep breaths
The quickest way to control yourself immediately is to take deep breaths. Close your eyes, and take a few big and deep breaths. Repeat a simple breathing exercise, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. Breathing exercise helps to slow down the heart rate, increase energy, and increase calmness.
15. Go for a walk
Go for a walk means to take walking exercise for a while on a local route. When you are feeling blue or anxious, give yourself a break. Get up and go for a walk. Many people practice walking meditation. It’s a simple walking exercise that calms your mind and loses some muscles
16. Get social
Having a positive interaction with other people enhances the ability to fight anxiety and depressive mood. Choose people with whom you can feel good and comfortable. Start opening up yourself and talk to them. It boosts your skills, confidence, and helps in getting rid of negative thoughts.
17. Check on your thoughts
Ask yourself what you are feeling and what you are thinking. For example, if you are anxious about your meeting. Write your negative thoughts, write what you need to do. Focus on improving your essential tasks. By monitoring your thoughts, you can choose reality checks and control your unwanted thoughts.
18. Follow the 3-3-3 rule
To combat unusual worries, think about how realistic they are. The 3-3-3 rule is a mental trick to help center your mind. Look around you and name three things you see. Then identify three sounds you hear. Finally, move three parts of your body, i.e., ankle, finger, or arm.
19. Read a meaningful book
Reading is proven to reduce stress and increase relaxation. It engages the mind and imagination. When you are reading a book, jot down motivational quotes and provide hope for the future.
20. Spend time with your loved one
Being physically present with your loved one creates strong emotional support to buoy you up through life’s challenges. It’s the time that you can feel love and enjoy the company of your loved one.
21. Give yourself an exit strategy
Sometimes, anxiety is due to feeling out of control. Don’t worry. Relax and keep calm. It is important to identify triggers and cope up with surroundings. Exit strategy helps you out of awkward situations. For example, if you have a lot of work to do. Get 5 minutes out of your work, and bring yourself to take coffee. The more in control you feel, the less anxiety and depression you will feel.
22. Stand up straight
The immediate relief from anxiety is to stand up. Pull your shoulder back, plant your feet widely apart, and open your chest. Then breathe deeply. This posture helps you remember that you are not helpless but in control
23. Be creative
Research provides evidence that engaging in artistic activities such as creative writing or visual art reduces stress and anxiety.
24. Make new goals
Setting goals gives life a sense of direction and boost motivation. Set your goals and note the steps toward achieving them. Reward yourself in achieving every step toward your goal and feel good about it.
25. Feel okay to say 'No.'
Saying no can be difficult for many of us. Why so? This is because we don’t want to appear as selfish people. Your happiness is dependent on the choice you made. If you are not sure about anything, say no to it, no matter what people think. It is your life. It is your decision, and be the one to own your choices.
26. Ask for a second opinion
Anxious people feel difficulty in clearing up mind. When you are going through excessive tension, sharing your thoughts with a trusted one and asking for their opinions can be a good source of affirmation of your decisions.
27. Watch something funny
Are you feeling depressed, anxious, or overwhelmed? Relax! We all have been in this situation sometimes. Watching a funny movie or video can divert your negativity and stress into positivity.
28. Tame tense muscle
Relaxing your muscles is a simple exercise. Choose a muscle group, tighten it for a few seconds. Count down 1, 2, and 3, and then let it go. It helps in muscle relaxation and let you feel right at the time.
29. Look for a trigger
Looking for triggers means searching for what is there that tease and make you feel tensed and worried. The causal factors can give directions in coping with anxiety and anxious feelings. After noting these triggers, you will find a similar pattern to the cause of your anxiety and depression. Face these triggers or find ways to stop them from taking control of your life.
30. Identify negative thoughts
Do you want to control anxiety, stop worrisome thoughts, and conquer fears? Start looking into your negative beliefs. When you identify these beliefs, you can change your thoughts into positivity.
31. Challenge negativity
Positive thinking can help you prevent or control anxiety. Negative thoughts increase worries and fears. Construct a mental shift to take small steps away from negativities and tackle worries.
32. Be realistic
Realistic emphasize a person to show a sensible and practical idea of what can be done or achieved. Grip on the situation and seek a way to get rid of depression. Be realistic about goals and achievements. Sometimes, being down to earth provides a sense of self-achievement and content with what you have.
Medications and Therapies to improve anxiety and depression
33. Anti-anxiety medications
For immediate relief, some of the anti-anxiety medicines are benzodiazepines, serotonin reuptake inhibitors. I suggest visiting a psychotherapist who can prescribe the right drug according to your mental health state.
34. Mood stabilizer
Mood stabilizers such as are drugs that can help control mood swings. The oldest and most studied of mood stabilizers is lithium. However, many medications that were first developed as anticonvulsants to treat epilepsy also act as mood stabilizers. These include Carbamazepine, Divalproex, and lamotrigine.
35. Cognitive-behavioral therapy
CBT is a psychological treatment that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave. Usually, CBT is conducted by a licensed psychotherapist, such as a psychologist or psychiatrist that employs therapeutic methods to focus on behavior, emotion, and thoughts.
36. Interpersonal therapy
Interpersonal therapy helps to focus on you and your relationship with others, emphasizing treating anxiety and depression. You can consult and make an appointment with a psychotherapist to better understand yourself and your mental health.
37. Problem-solving therapy
It involves providing people with tools to identify and solve problems that arise from life circumstances. It improves the ability to cope up with stressful life experiences.
38. Hypnosis
Hypnosis is a trance-like mental state in which people experience increased attention, concentration, and suggestibility.
39. Talk Therapy
Talk therapy is the best one to help mental health professionals to communicate with people. It helps in identifying issues that cause emotional stress.
40. Exposure therapy
Exposure therapy is a technique to treat anxiety disorder. It involves exposing the target patient to an anxiety source without any intention to cause danger. It helps in overcoming anxiety or distress.
Summary
Anxiety and depression can be frustrating when it starts affecting your daily life. You find it impossible to focus on anything. Hopefully, with the help of the methods mentioned above, you’ll be able to improve your thoughts, emotions, and behavior, and go back to feeling normal.
Moving forward with Psychotherapy
Fortunately, Ahealo.com offers a global ePsychotherapy platform that allows clients to book an online anonymous private appointment with a broad skill range of psychotherapists at an affordable cost and desired schedule.
Alternatively, if you need to seek psychotherapy, be sure to check out web.ahealo.com. Ahealo is an online psychotherapy platform with a diverse range of psychotherapists for many different fields of mental challenges. Ahealo provides ePsychotherapy at an affordable price, confidential, convenient (through a web page 1-1 private video call), and at your comfortable schedule.
With these options, we believe your insomnia can be resolved soon.
Take care and stay well.