Ride the Wave: In-the-Moment Ways to Manage Your Anxiety

Introduction

This May is Mental Health Month, and we wanted to spotlight the most common mental illness in the United States: anxiety. While there are numerous tools to bring down your overall anxiety, what do you do in the moments when your anxiety levels are off-the-charts?

Every year, anxiety disorders affect 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the entire U.S. population. Anxiety is highly treatable, yet only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment. In some of our previous blog posts, we have shared steps you can take to maintain a healthy mental state. However, in times when your emotional vulnerability is high and you may be too overwhelmed to problem-solve effectively, having some simple skills to bring that distress level down is imperative to living a mentally healthy life. 

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) was developed by psychologist Marsha Linehan, and is a type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy designed to work through the process of learning emotional and cognitive skills and applying those skills to your life. DBT helps those experiencing mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, and suicidal thoughts to improve their capacity for emotion regulation, mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, and crisis management. 

DBT is valuable for everyone, not just those with a mental health condition. It teaches you how to be mindful of your current emotions, and live a mentally happier and healthier life. 

TIP Skill and Crisis Survival

There are countless skills taught in DBT directly aimed at anxiety alleviation, but one especially helpful skill is called the “TIP” skill. The TIP skill is used to reduce extreme emotions, and fast. 

Here is an acronym to remember this skill in times of distress:

T Tip the Temperature of your face with cold water (to calm down fast)

•  Holding your breath, put your face in a bowl of cold water, or hold a cold pack (or zip-lock bag of cold water) on your eyes and cheeks. 

•  Hold for 30 seconds. Keep water above 50°F.

I Intense exercise (to calm down your body when it is revved up by emotion) 

• Engage in intense exercise, if only for a short while. 

• Expend your body’s stored up physical energy by running, walking fast, jumping, playing basketball, lifting weights, dancing, etc.

P Paced breathing (pace your breathing by slowing it down) 

• Breathe deeply into your belly. 

• Slow your pace of inhaling and exhaling way down (on average, five to six breaths per minute). 

• Breathe out more slowly than you breathe in (for example, 5 seconds in and 7 seconds out). 

Paired muscle relaxation (to calm down by pairing muscle relaxation with breathing out) 

• While breathing into your belly, deeply tense your body muscles (not so much as to cause a cramp). 

• Notice the tension in your body. 

• While breathing out, say the word “Relax” in your mind. 

•  Let go of the tension. 

Radical Acceptance

Another important and useful skill that falls under the umbrella of Crisis Management is called Radical Acceptance. 

In order to practice radical acceptance during a distressing moment or time in your life, it’s crucial to consider the following steps:

Consider the causes of the reality: 

• Observe that you are questioning or fighting reality (“It shouldn’t be this way”). 

• Remind yourself that the unpleasant reality is just as it is and cannot be changed (“This is what happened”). 

Practice with your whole self:

• Practice accepting with the whole self (mind, body, and spirit). 

• Use accepting self-talk—but also consider using relaxation, mindfulness of your breath, going to a place that helps bring you to acceptance, or imagery

Practice opposite action: 

• List all the behaviors you would do if you did accept the facts. Then act as if you have already accepted the facts. 

• Engage in the behaviors that you would do if you really had accepted.

Practice coping ahead: 

• Cope ahead with events that seem unacceptable. 

• Imagine (in your mind’s eye) believing what you don’t want to accept.

• Rehearse in your mind what you would do if you accepted what seems unacceptable. 

Allow yourself to feel disappointment/grief

Acknowledge life as worth living.

No matter what you're going through, Wave is here for you. Check out our other blog posts for more health management tips and resources!