You may already by now have some ideas about what is causing your anxiety. The following sections will give advice on how to break out of the vicious circle that keeps anxiety going. Before you can do this though, it is really useful for you to understand your own anxiety better. Is your anxiety related to certain situations, places or people, is it worse at particular times of the day, are there realistic worries you have that would make anyone anxious? The following two exercises should help you to understand your anxiety better.

A good way to begin is to write down a problem. Define it as clearly as you can, for example "I never have any money", is too vague, something like "I owe £3000 to different credit card companies". Next, write down as many possible solutions as you can. It doesn't matter how silly you may think the solutions are, the point is to think of as many as you can. Try to think how you have solved similar problems in the past. Ask a friend what they might do. Think to yourself what you might advise a friend to do if they had the same problem, eg possible solutions:

If you have a problem that may be making you anxious, try writing it below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Now list as many possible solutions as you can:

Choose what seems like the best solution and write down all the steps it would take to achieve that solution. Who might help?, what might go wrong?, often it is helpful to think "what is the worst thing that could happen?" If you can think of a plan to cope with this, your anxiety might reduce.

If you are trying to come up with a plan to tackle a problem that has been worrying you for some time, it is often helpful to discuss this with a friend or even your doctor.

Stressful lifestyle - general tips

Nowadays life is often stressful, and it is easy for pressures to build up. We can't always control the stress that comes from outside but we can find ways to reduce the pressure we put on ourselves:

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