LIVING in a constant state of dread and grinding our teeth down to stumps has become a modern-day curse for many of us.

A survey by the Mental Health Foundation claims anxiety is at an all-time high, with its survey revealing nearly three-quarters of people polled felt on edge at some point in the previous two weeks.

One in five admitted to feeling anxious most or all of the time.

Experts put the spike down to our ever-turbulent world.

“The pandemic saw a huge increase in anxiety, says clinical psychologist Dr Kirren Schnack.

“Fast forward to 2023 and there’s the cost-of-living crisis and climate change too.”

With two decades of experience working in mental health, she has more than half a million followers on social media (@drkirren on Tiktok).

Dr Schnack says: “What’s more, we are now constantly connected to all kinds of information – we have instant access to everything happening in the world at all times. This can be overwhelming, triggering anxiety. But with my help, you can feel 10 times calmer – and fast.”

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WHAT IS CALM?

Many people live in a state of constant fight or flight. Calming down is about tipping the scales back the other way.

When you’re calm, your body is in what we call the relaxation response. The anxious activity in your nervous system has switched off, you’re not producing stress hormones adrenaline or cortisol, and therefore not experiencing physical symptoms of anxiety, such as fast heart rate, feeling of dread and sweaty palms.

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HOW TO CHILL OUT Understand why you’re anxious

We may want to get rid of anxiety, but often it’s there for a legitimate reason. When it spikes, it’s about finding what the trigger was. It could be a thought, a sensation, a memory.

Get to the bottom of it. You can’t deal with a problem until you understand it.

Accept its presence

Don’t try to resist or fight anxiety. You can’t – and doing so will actually exacerbate it, creating ating a tug of war that will create eate secondary anxiety. Tell ell yourself: “I know this s will be with me – for now – until I can figure out what I’m going to do about it.”

Be flexible

Sometimes people e have one way of deal- ing with anxiety, like tapping or withdrawing from people. But doing the same thing again and again won’t help. What can you do instead?

Ask other people – more than one if possible – what would they do?

Change your “what ifs” to “even ifs” and come up instead with possible outcomes for your anxious thoughts. For example, instead of the open ended “what if they cancel canc my train?” say “even ev if they cancel my train, tr I will…”

Your answer could be b to get the next one.

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Relax R your body

When W we are anxious, we produce stress hormones, mon and engaging in calming, relaxing activities helps to switch this off. Find something you like, be it yoga, colouring, cooking, or organising a drawer. Do it at least once a day.

Focus on something else

If you’re scared or nervous about something you may think about it all the time. This could be a job interview, something your friend did or a symptom in your body. But becoming preoccupied with it worsens the experience of the problem.

As soon as you notice you’re doing this, remove yourself from the thought for 30 seconds. Open the window and listen to a sound you can hear. Your mind will develop the ability to become less selectively focused on anxiety y triggers. gg

Try: Deep breathing ing rebalances carbon dioxide levels in your body, which reduces stress hormones. Breathe in through your nose for five seconds, hold for five, then exhale out of your mouth for seven.

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Write it down

Anxiety is often predictive, it tells you this or that is going to happen or asks “what if?” So write down the thing you’re worried may happen.

A day or a week later come back to it and write next to it if it happened. Yes or no. Doing this helps your brain reprogram itself – it thinks, we worried about that but it didn’t happen. Next time you have the same anxiety, you’ll remember it worked out all right.

Build tolerance for uncertainty

The need to want to know everything thin all the time is a big part of anxiety. So try this simple exercise. e Next time you get the urge to check your phone because a notification no pops up – don’t. Resist. Start with two minutes then build b to 20 – even more. more

This will help build your tolerance for uncertainty.

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Be your own best friend

Anxiety brings with it lots of different emotions. If you have health anxiety and are anxious about dying, you may be feeling terror and sadness, for example. Take each of them in turn and work out what to do to soothe them.

What does sadness need? Understanding, perhaps, or compassion. Imagine it’s your inner best friend talking, what would they say to help? Say it to yourself.

Find an outlet

Physical movement three times a week for 30 minutes has a profound effect on anxiety, reducing cortisol and adrenaline.

It can be traditional exercise, like running or walking, or something like gardening or vacuuming the house. Whatever you choose – keep doing it. It will keep your resting level of anxiety much lower.

Sleep well

Sleep improves our ability to cope with whatever life throws our way. Routine is key to consistently good sleep. Go to bed within half an hour of a set time each day, waking up within a similar window too.

Write down your thoughts before bed so you can clear your head.

Try: If you can’t drift off, pick a number between 100 and 500 and count backwards. See if you can remember where you got to in the morning. Chances are you won’t have made it to zero.