Do you get anxious at times? Perhaps you have received a diagnosis for anxiety or you just feel stressed, it can impact your mental and emotional health. This is especially important if you have other diagnoses and take medications, such as OTC ADHD medications. Not understanding what causes your symptoms can make you feel out of control, so these are some strategies to help.
Self-Reflection
If your anxiety is new, a change in your life may be the culprit. Therefore, take some time to review your schedule, relationships and habits. Consider the last three or six months. Also, consider how much and the quality of your sleep.
When you begin to feel anxious, take a few minutes to identify triggers. Look for patterns in your symptoms. Also, have you had similar symptoms in the past? Do you remember the causes, and were they resolved?
Think about your home and professional life. When do you feel stressed? Do you have feelings of shame, ridicule or inadequacy? Explore your feelings about the different parts of your life.
Medical Checkup
Anxiety is not always psychological. Physical challenges, such as hormones, nutrition, electrolyte imbalances, environmental toxins, drugs and several diseases can also cause anxiety symptoms. Therefore, one of your first steps should include a full physical in addition to blood testing.
Share your anxiety symptoms and severity with your physician during the examination. Your doctor can then guide you about any testing, such as hormonal, heart rate and neurological tests.
Fear Investigation
As you search for non habit forming anti anxiety medications, consider conducting an investigation of your fears. Scary situations can often become triggers for anxiety. Some stress may be the result of consistently imagining bad outcomes to everyday or special circumstances. Other times, it can be a specific situation that can cause fear.
Avoid fixating on negative consequences and focusing on your fears. Identify your fears clearly, and investigate why you feel this way. Then, research the fear to learn more. You can also create challenges for yourself or seek therapy to overcome your fears.
Stress Recognition
Sometimes you can misidentify stress as anxiety. High-stress situations can have similar symptoms. Stress may have physical and mental symptoms. You may feel fatigue, digestion challenges, anger, irritability, muscle pain, insomnia and other symptoms. However, these symptoms often go away on their own once you reduce your stress.
Anxiety has persistent symptoms, starting with excessive worry. Your mind will focus on one or more things, and you won’t have the ability to get them out of your mind, even when you are not stressed. Although the symptoms of anxiety tend to be similar or the same, the mental component makes them very different.
Stress Assessment Tools
One tool to assess your stress is a perceived stress scale. You will rate several characteristics on a scale of zero to four. Then, you add up the scores to determine your stress level. You can also find stress screeners online that can assess your stress. You can also create a stress tracker, where you list the symptoms you feel, what the circumstances are and how long they last.
As you assess your anxiety and stress, consider your medications, such as ADHD stimulant vs non stimulant, and consult your physician if your symptoms persist.