Anxiety

Are You Having Trouble Coping With Stress?

Do you often feel afraid, anxious, or panicked? You may be wondering how to deal with relationship anxiety or how to cope with workplace stress. A new pregnancy, divorce, family illness, or another major life change may also be causing problems.

Is your anxiety causing concentration problems, bad digestion, sweating, shaking, chest pains, or other symptoms? The quality of your sleep or diet may also have deteriorated. As a result, you might have noticed your health starting to worsen, especially if you’ve been turning to food, alcohol, or other substances to try to cope.

Does your current situation feel like more than you can handle? Maybe you aren’t sure what to do, despite having spent a lot of time ruminating about your predicament. Or perhaps you’re reluctant to make a change for fear of unknown consequences. Sometimes, you might feel like it’s you against the world. If so, you’re not alone.

Most People Don’t Know How To Cope With Anxiety Effectively

Adults today face many professional, personal, academic, and other responsibilities. Relationships are inherently problematic and require continual maintenance. Worse yet, life has a way of throwing a wrench into people’s plans, usually when they least expect it. Most of us are never taught healthy coping mechanisms for dealing with stress. In fact, many people grow up in abusive, toxic, or invalidating environments that set them up for stress later in life.

Modern technology is another common source of stress. Social media and other digital information sources have made it easier than ever before for us to compare ourselves to the idealized (and often fictitious) versions of others. So it’s no surprise that people often end up feeling like they are somehow lesser than their peers.

These factors are taking their toll, with nearly one in five adults in the U.S. suffering from chronic anxiety. For adults who are facing economic difficulties, discrimination, or other systemic barriers, these numbers are even higher. Fortunately, anxiety is very treatable.