Everyone experiences anxiety at some point or another. At times, anxiety can be protective and a sign that we need to be on high alert. Unfortunately, those with generalized anxiety disorder find themselves with anxiety and worry even when it is not beneficial to them. Continue reading this article if you are looking for ways to decrease anxiety.
Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by:
- Worry or excess anxiety that is difficult to control
- Fatigue
- Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep
- Impaired concentration
- Feeling restless, keyed up, or on edge
- Muscle tension or tension headaches
- Irritability
For most people with generalized anxiety disorder, the worry is about regular life stressors such as their finances, safety of loved ones, health, or job security. What makes it a disorder is that the worry about those things is excessive and beyond what is typical.
When these symptoms go untreated, they can start to interfere with functioning and cause problems in the workplace. Decreased productivity, difficulty interacting appropriately with others, trouble with multitasking, and difficulty handling the unexpected are all common effects of untreated anxiety.
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Ways to Decrease Anxiety
Those with anxiety often report having one anxious thought that just snowballs into another and another. Before they know it, they’ve lost significant chunks of time worrying.
This may lead to working later than peers or taking much longer than usual to complete a task. If worry plagues you, here are a few techniques that can be used to decrease anxiety and stop your thoughts from going on this continuous loop to nowhere.
Pick an object to focus on at your desk
It can be a paperclip, ink pen, stapler or whatever is handy. When you feel the worry thoughts starting focus on that object for a minute. Use your senses to pay close attention to the color, the texture. Think about its use.
