Quick Tips To Try Right Now From An Anxiety Therapist
Having anxiety, depression, or even both, can be and feel debilitating. With depression, we’re often “stuck” in the past remembering when we didn’t feel sad or low and wishing we could go back to how it was before when we didn’t feel this way. With anxiety, we’re often afraid or fearful of the future which can make us reliant on old patterns. Even if those patterns aren’t good for us. What we often overlook is how to handle the present moment without letting our anxiety and depression consume us completely. Try these tips in the article to help manage some of those symptoms:
(Disclaimer: These tips are not meant to replace medication or therapy if you are also doing these things. However, these tips can help you to manage your depression and anxiety symptoms on your own outside of medication and therapy.)
5 Tips From an Anxiety Therapist in Miami
Think before you pour that cup of coffee!
For a lot of us, caffeine, especially coffee, is a morning staple. After all, that’s why there’s usually a coffee shop within 0.5 miles of each other, right? Caffeine in moderation is OK. But when we become reliant on caffeine, there are negative effects on our bodies. Caffeine can affect our sleep cycle as the stored energy in our bodies that naturally exist to regulate our sleep and wake cycles is now being replaced with caffeine. In response, our bodies don’t function properly on our normal sleep schedules.
Tips for regulating caffeine intake:
Don’t drink coffee every day – ween yourself off of your daily consumption of coffee by having coffee every other day or try decaf coffee if you still enjoy the flavor of coffee.
Switch out coffee with other caffeine options such as green tea and add honey, ginger, and/or lemon.
If you are having coffee, don’t drink coffee on a completely empty stomach (this will help with your digestion as well).
Try to develop a balanced sleep routine.
We’ve been told before that too little or too much of anything isn’t good for us. The same goes for sleep. Too little or too much sleep can lead to many different problems and can actually worsen anxiety and depression symptoms.
Tips for establishing a sleep routine:
Try to establish a sleep routine. Waking up and going to bed at the same time every day. You can also make this a ritual for yourself by incorporating relaxing activities to do before going to bed.
Be mindful of light and its effect. Light affects melatonin production, which is why we sleep in darkness and are awake during light. Try to maintain a balance. Stay off your phone an hour before bed. Also, be careful of how you use your blackout curtains. These are great for blocking out light to sleep in on the weekends but don’t use them the majority of the day. Your body needs light to regulate your natural cycle.
Get creative with breathing exercises and meditation.
In anxiety counseling, when we talk about ways to reduce stress and anxiety symptoms, oftentimes we talk about regulating breathing and even do exercises together to practice. We know the benefits this has such as slowing down our heart rates and decreasing a spike in cortisol levels that comes from stress. However, controlling anxiety, and controlling breathing when you’re anxious is often “easier said than done”. Especially when you don’t have your anxiety therapist there to do the exercises with you in a controlled environment. Instead, try practicing these things on your own and practice when you’re not experiencing stress symptoms so your body begins to automatically rely on these more adaptive methods.
Tips for using/incorporating breathing exercises and meditation:
If you aren’t ready to go join a yoga studio but would like to try yoga or meditation, try doing yoga at home by searching for free videos from instructors such as Yoga with Adrienne.
Save or bookmark on your phone a short (think 5 minutes or less) guided meditation video you enjoy to help you control and regulate your breathing when experiencing anxiety symptoms or when having a panic attack. It’s easier to listen to someone (such as a video) tell us what to do to breathe instead of us having to think about how to do it ourselves when we’re escalated and anxious.
Put down your phone!
Thanks to social media, we could spend hours mindlessly scrolling through different outlets. We might see some cool things friends and family, and even strangers, are doing that are more exciting than what we’re doing. It can make us feel and think negatively – “Why does it seem so easy for everyone else to be happy but me?” The problem with social media is it only shows the good, and even sometimes unrealistic, parts of human life.
Tips for regulating phone use:
For every 30 minutes, you spend on social media or on your phone, spend an hour doing something that isn’t on your phone.
Set application time limits.
Use the Do Not Disturb, Work, and Personal focus features on your phone to limit notifications from apps unrelated to what task you might be doing (such as working or personal, etc.)
Try essential oils.
Aromatherapy has been researched to help fight depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms by providing calming and relaxation effects. Scents are also one of the things that can lead to our development of aversions or attachments due to memories and associations we have from experiences. Scents travel from our nasal passage to the olfactory bulb which is connected to the amygdala and hippocampus. These are responsible for storing our memories in the centers that control our stress and stress management systems. Thus, scents with positive associations can trigger our stress management system to begin calming down and regulating. Whereas an aversion scent may increase our cortisol levels and trigger our fight, flight, or freeze responses. Try scents known to calm the body such as lavender, bergamot, eucalyptus, lemongrass, ylang-ylang, jasmine, and many others.
Tips for incorporating essential oils:
Use an oil diffuser (be careful if you have pets, however; oil diffusers have been known to be harmful to house pets).
Place drops of the scent on your pressure points, such as your wrists or the portion of the neck underneath your ears.
Apply a few drops of the oils to unscented lotions, body scrubs, shampoos, etc.
Reduce Your Stress Symptoms with the Support of an Anxiety Therapist in Miami
Remember that these tips are not meant to replace anxiety treatment such as therapy or medication but are meant to help you feel more in control of establishing and maintaining your daily routines. If you or someone you know is struggling with stress, depression, or anxiety, Miami Vibes Counseling Center can help. Start getting support by following these steps:
Schedule an appointment with one of our anxiety therapists.
Start addressing your stress and anxiety symptoms so you can feel in control again
Other Therapy Services we Offer in Miami
Miami Vibes Counseling Center offers support for children, adults, parents, couples, and families. This includes counseling for grief, life transitions, spirituality, trauma, and PTSD. Some of the techniques we use include ACT therapy, CBT therapy, and TF-CBT. All of these services are available both in person and through online therapy.
También ofrecemos estos servicios de terapia en español.