When our ancestors were regularly coming face-to-face with dangerous predators, their brain’s automatic anxiety response helped them to make quick, life-saving decisions. Today, we are less likely to encounter hungry creatures that consider us lunch. Our anxiety can still come in handy sometimes when we need to manage our time carefully to make a deadline or swerve quickly to avoid a car accident, but for some people, it can become a problem because it interferes with their ability to live regular lives daily. At Highland Hospital Behavioral Health, in Charleston, West Virginia, we treat people with anxiety disorders and we want to give them as many tools as possible, to manage their mental health.
Symptoms of Anxiety
Several different disorders fall into the category of anxiety and they each have their own sets of symptoms. Also, how one person experiences a given anxiety disorder could be different from another person with that same diagnosis. Some of the more common symptoms of anxiety disorders include:
- Worrying excessively
- Having headaches, stomach aches, and/or nausea from stress
- Feeling compelled to follow certain rituals or routines that may not make sense
- Difficulty breathing
- Rapid heart rate
- Sweating
Grounding Exercises to Manage Anxiety
One way that people with anxiety can manage their symptoms is by using grounding exercises. These are techniques we can use to help our brains and bodies recognize that we are not in danger and to calm ourselves. There are numerous different grounding techniques people use to handle anxiety, for example:
- Body scans: Notice the sensations on the top of your head, then slowly work your way down to your body, to the bottoms of your feet, taking in every feeling along the way.
- 5-4-3-2-1 technique: Observe your surroundings and list
- 5 things you can see
- 4 things you can feel
- 3 things you can hear
- 2 things you can smell
- 1 thing you can taste
- Mindful walks: Take a walk and pay attention to the rhythm of your steps, the things you can see around you, what you can hear, textures, and smells in the environment. If your mind wanders, bring it back to your surroundings.
- The rainbow game: Look around and try to find items that correspond to the colors of the rainbow. Start with red and work to violet and repeat as many times as you need. You can skip colors if you aren’t able to find them.
- Breath observations: Wrap your arms around yourself and observe how it feels when your chest expands and contracts with each breath.
- Make lists: It doesn’t really matter what is on the list, just choose a category that could include many items. If you run out of ideas for one list, you can repeat with another list. Some ideas include dog breeds, types of dinosaurs, car models, cities, countries, types of flowers, and vegetables.
- Music: Whether you like to crank the radio, pull out a guitar, or sing, music is a great coping skill.
Benefits of Grounding Exercises
Any technique you utilize to manage your mental health will have different benefits. With grounding exercises, these include:
- Low risk: Worst case scenario, a specific grounding technique might not work for you, or you might feel silly doing it. You can try a different one instead.
- Useful at any age: Anyone can learn to use grounding exercises, from toddlers through octogenarians.
- Can be combined with other strategies: People who use medications and therapy to control their anxiety can add grounding techniques without fear that it will interfere with their other treatments.
- Portable: Many grounding exercises can be done in a public setting, without anyone around you realizing you’re doing them and they don’t generally require equipment, so you can do them wherever you happen to be.
- Helps co-occurring conditions: Although most people think of grounding strategies as something to use with anxiety, it can also be helpful for other problems, including:
- Depression
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Dissociation
- Shame
- Distress caused by nightmares
- Emotions caused by chronic pain
Additional Ways to Manage Anxiety
In addition to grounding techniques, many people with anxiety find therapy and anti-anxiety medications helpful. You can also improve your anxiety levels by:
- Avoiding alcohol
- Reducing caffeine intake
- Avoiding overly intense exercise
At Highland Hospital Behavioral Health, we offer personalized treatment for children, adolescents, and adults. We offer our patients a wide range of strategies that they can use to effectively manage their mental health.
