If you have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), it is essential to learn how to cope with persistent anxiety and physical symptoms. While everyone’s experience with GAD is different, there are many common symptoms that almost everyone will experience to some degree.
These symptoms include physical symptoms (muscle tension, body aches, etc.), behavioral symptoms (procrastination, isolation, etc.), and emotional symptoms (intrusive thoughts, constant worry, etc.). Fortunately, there are various coping styles and strategies that can help you manage all of them.1
At a Glance
Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by physical, behavioral, and emotional symptoms that create distress and interfere with your ability to function. To cope, you can:
- Find social support
- Practice mindfulness
- Be aware of your anxiety triggers
- Eat a balanced diet
- Stay physically active
- Get plenty of sleep
- Reframe how you look at problems
- Practice gradual exposure to help confront your fears
Keep reading to learn more about tactics to help you cope with feelings of anxiety and worry and why it is so important to seek treatment for generalized anxiety disorder.
Social Coping Strategies for GAD
Social support is an essential part of dealing with a mental health condition like generalized anxiety disorder. For some people, social coping strategies can help manage symptoms, overcome fear, and even improve social life for an overall better quality of life. Effective options include the following.
Get Involved
When we feel anxious it is common to want to pull away from others and disconnect. This leads us to feeling removed from others, our family, and our community.
Finding events to participate in can help foster a sense of belonging and allow us to feel purposeful.
Not only are we keeping our bodies busy, but our minds as well. Instead of ruminating on worries, social activities give us something else to focus on. By taking our minds off of our worries, it can provide relief from some GAD symptoms.
Talk to Someone
Anxiety can lead us to believe that we are alone in our experience and no one will be able to relate. This is not true. Find a trusted person to talk with about your challenges. Share with important people in your life the experiences you are struggling with and don’t be afraid to open up conversation.
Being open about your challenges can also allow other people the space to share their struggles.
Recruit Support
Finding a support system is important when we are struggling with anxiety.2 There are a variety of support resources available, in-person and online, that can be of great help. A community of people who understand and can offer tips and suggestions for helpful coping strategies can be valuable.
Laugh
Anxiety tends to rob us of joy and gets in the way of us being able to have fun. Remember to nurture your longing to have fun and laugh. Research has found that humor can be an everyday tool to protect against anxiety and promote mental health.3
You can find humor in books, on television, or in online sources. Taking a moment to laugh and have fun can offer a gentle reminder that the anxiety is not in charge.
Emotional Coping Strategies for GAD
Emotional symptoms like worry, rumination, and intrusive thinking are also common for people with generalized anxiety disorder. Try these strategies for coping with intrusive thoughts, constant worry or fear, feelings of uncertainty, apprehension, dread, or overwhelm.
Mindfulness
There are varied practices of mindfulness that can help with anxiety. Using techniques like mindfulness, prayer, and deep breathing can help slow down our anxious processing of thoughts and emotions.4
Mindful Moment
Need a breather? Take this free 5-minute meditation focused on relieving anxiety—or choose from our guided meditation library to find another one that will help you feel your best.
By slowing down we are learning to be more present rather than hyper-focused on trying to anticipate and prepare for the future, which is what anxiety makes us focus on, even when there are no threats present.
Learn Your Triggers
As you practice slowing down and becoming more mindful, it will be helpful for you to pay attention to the situations that seem to trigger your anxiety. Although it won’t always be an option to avoid those triggers, being aware of them can help you gain clarity and take steps toward managing stress in those specific situations.
Learning cognitive ways to challenge your anxiety can help, such as diffusing anxious thoughts and calming the need to keep asking “what if.”
Practice Acceptance
Remember that anxiety is not something you are experiencing because you are flawed in any way. Anxiety is influenced by a host of factors such as genetics, neurobiology, family history, and life experiences. There is no one cause of GAD and it is something that many people experience.5
As impossible as it may seem, it can be helpful to learn to accept the journey and embrace it as an opportunity to learn and care for yourself in healthy ways. Accepting your emotions can improve your overall emotional health.6 Identifying the emotions is the first of multiple steps to achieving this.
Keep a Positive Attitude
There is no need to lose hope for better living. Many people challenged with anxiety, such as with generalized anxiety disorder, lead full, productive, and joyful lives.
The key is taking time to learn what strategies work well for you, stay connected to others, and remain positive.
Find inspiration through quotes, verses, music, nature, social connections, etc. We are surrounded by positive examples of hope and inspiration.
Physical Coping Strategies for GAD
Physical coping strategies, like eating well, exercising, breathing, and establishing a relaxing bedtime routine, can help with emotional symptoms as well.
Eat Well
What we put into our bodies can influence how we feel physically and emotionally. Although foods do not cause anxiety, they can impact our mood.
Some evidence does suggest that people who consume diets high in fat, sugar, and refined carbohydrates experience higher levels of anxiety, while those who consume diets higher in fruits, vegetables, and micronutrients have lower levels of anxiety.7
Eating things like sugary snacks and processed foods can lead to quick highs and lows in our blood sugar that can influence feelings of restlessness and fatigue.
Exercise
Research has shown that exercise can be an effective treatment for anxiety.8 Moving your body can be a great way to manage stress. Exercise helps to boost our endorphins and relieve tension.
The key is to find something you can do regularly. Try something new or go with an old favorite activity you enjoy. Any way that you choose to exercise will be of benefit.
Keep a consistent schedule and try to incorporate exercise three to four times per week or more. You may also try massage or progressive muscle relaxation to help ease muscle tension often experienced with anxiety.
Get Enough Sleep
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), only one in three adults in the United States get the recommended seven hours of sleep at night.
Although it can be difficult to sleep when we experience anxiety, creating a reliable nighttime routine can help us relax and prepare for quality sleep.
Things like progressive muscle relaxation, reading, journaling, and turning off electronics at least one hour before bed can help you prepare your mind and body for rest. Doing a “brain dump,” or writing a to-do list or worry log as part of your bedtime routine can also help if you struggle with racing thoughts and anxiety.
Breathing
Dysfunctional, shallow breathing is one of the common symptoms of anxiety. This quick, shallow breathing is often accompanied by chest tightness and muscle tension. In those moments, we often forget to breathe and take rapid, shallow breaths. Practicing how to take slow abdominal breaths can help.
Research has shown that breathwork interventions are an effective way to reduce feelings of anxiety.
Cognitive-Behavioral Coping Strategies for GAD
It can also be helpful to implement some of the strategies that are often used in cognitive-behavioral interventions for generalized anxiety disorder. Some tactics that can be helpful include:
Cognitive Reframing
Cognitive reframing involves changing how you view a situation to see it more realistically or positively. Shifting how you view situations can help reduce feelings of anxiety.11 For example, if you reframe a stressful situation at work as a potential learning opportunity, you might find it less stressful and overwhelming.
Problem-Solving
Generalized anxiety disorder is marked by constant worrying. A more effective way to cope is to engage in problem-solving to find solutions. That way, instead of worrying, you can take effective steps to address the problem.
Skills that can help stave off worry and rumination include:
- Learning how to identify a problem
- Trying to understand the problem
- Setting goals for how to deal with the issue
- Brainstorming potential solutions
- Choosing a plan to deal with the problem
- Implementing the plan
- Evaluating the effectiveness of the solution
Exposure
Exposure therapy is a treatment for anxiety that involves being progressively and systematically exposed to things that make you anxious. With repeated exposure, feelings of fear and worry gradually begin to fade.
Keep in Mind
Things to keep in mind as you walk through your journey with generalized anxiety disorder is that you are not alone and you can live a full life. Although anxiety and worry may be an obstacle for you now, and even feel uncontrollable at times, there are resources, trained professionals, and coping techniques available to help. Learning how to navigate your triggers, reaching out for help, and keeping a positive attitude all help.
Taking care of yourself also involves talking with a professional who can put a plan of treatment in place. Talking with a counselor or other mental health provider on a regular basis can be helpful as well, to know that someone understands your experience and can help you learn to effectively navigate challenges as they arise.