Hello Whyville. This week I am going to write about anxiety. I personally have had anxiety for many years. Although I am getting better each day, it still is a big part of my life. I have never been to a sleep over or been dropped off at a friend's house without my parents staying. My anxiety is called "separation Anxiety". I will be talking about three different anxieties. I will also be talking about panic attacks, and how to prevent them.
Separation Anxiety: Separation anxiety, it brings back many memories. When you have this particular anxiety, you feel the need to always be by a person you have a very emotional relationship with. This could be your mom, your dad, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. You may have such and emotional tie with them, that you could be afraid to lose them. Even though you know the chances of that happening are one in a million.
What you can do to help separation anxiety without medication:
-Try going out of the house at least 30 minutes to 1 hour every other day. This can be bicycle riding, going to the beach, jogging, walking, running, etc.
- Have your parents (or whoever you feel the need to be attached to) go out to dinner and leave you at the house. Maybe, have your parents make a rule that you can only call them 1 time per every hour every or 2 hours.
- Try doing yoga, it will help relax your mind.
- If you have anxiety about going to school, ask your teacher or principal if you can bring your cell phone. And you can only call home when you feel you need to.
Test Anxiety: Yes, there is such a thing. I know you all have to know the meaning, but just in case you don't . . . Test Anxiety is when you experience distress before or after a test. This usually develops after you start getting poor grades even though you study a lot. When you're taking a test you may notice sweating, nausea, your mind goes and has a "black-out", and avoidance of the questions. Having test anxiety does not mean, what so ever, that you are unintelligent.
What you can do to help test anxiety without medication:
- On note cards, write down a few harder questions from either: Math, English, History, or Science.
- If you're struggling in some subjects, no matter how hard you try, ask your guardian for a tutor.
- Try putting some questions in a song. Or something easy that you will remember, such as a famous phrase.
- Make studying fun, by playing a board game, but instead of playing with dice to move along. If you get the answer right, then move 2 spaces.
Social Anxiety: It means that you're afraid you might embarrass yourself in public or be commented negatively by others. This is very common in everyone's life. The warning signs to knowing you have social anxiety are worrying about a social situation for weeks and/or months before time, always finding yourself canceling social situations, or fearing everyone will judge you negatively if you don't do well.
What you can do to help this social anxiety without medication:
- Look at yourself in the mirror while saying a book report or speech. Or whatever social situation you are worrying about.
- Do breathing exercises before going on stage or in front of the class. Example: breath in for 6 seconds and breath out for 6 seconds.
- Have the bathroom "off-limits" for a few hours while you relax in the bathtub.
- Hang out with your friends to get the social event off of your mind.
Anxiety Attacks: Having an anxiety attack is very disturbing. Your thoughts may pace in your mind, you can feel nauseous, dizziness, out of breath, and you may even feel you're crazy/dying. Some anxiety attacks can peak to 10 minutes. You may also be very afraid of one happening again. Anxiety attacks happen at random times.
What you can do to help anxiety attacks without medication:
- Always have a water bottle with you. Because when your throat is becoming dry and you think you may not produce enough saliva to swallow, having a water bottle will be nice and soothing.
- Always have your cellphone with you; or a phone nearby. If you're at a friend's house and start to panic about something, it's always good to call your guardians to come pick you up so that you can go home and relax.
- Yoga, this will help you just to relax your mind.
- Read a good book to take your mind off of anxiety attacks.
Hope you enjoyed this article and I hope it will help a lot of Whyvillians with anxiety. This is CupOfCake signing off.
~CupOfCake
"When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles." - Psalm 34:17.
Author's Note: Sources: http://www.whereisgod.net/stress.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seperation_anxiety
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_anxiety
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/anxiety_types_symptoms_treatment.htm
