Changing
behaviour related to anxiety- Try to recognise when you are avoiding things and wherever possible try to tackle these fears, not all at once but in a gradual way.
- Set yourself very small goals.
- Write down here goals that you would like to tackle.
- Start with the easiest first and tick off any activity you achieve.
- People often get into the habit of escaping from situations that make them anxious. Instead of escaping try gradually to increase how long you stay in a situation that makes you anxious. Anxiety often reaches a peak, then starts to go away naturally. If you stay in an anxious situation what do you predict will happen to your anxiety? People often think it will just keep getting worse and worse. This is not the case. It will start to come down.
- People not only avoid situations and try to escape, they also often do things to make themselves feel more safe, eg hanging on to a shopping trolley, lying down. These "safety behaviours" may help at the time, but they also help to keep the anxiety going because the anxious person never learns that nothing awful would have happened even if the trolley wasn't there. Also, imagine how frightening it would be if no trolley was available.
- Try to do things to test out whether your anxious thoughts are realistic?, eg "would I really faint if I didn't get out?"
It really is very important to recognise that the more you avoid something, the more difficult it will seem to overcome, which will in turn make you more anxious.