Occasional anxiety is common and rarely a cause for concern. If you're experiencing anxiety attacks frequently, however, you might be suffering from an anxiety disorder, which requires medical care and possibly medication. Understanding your own anxiety is essential to solving it, so start by paying attention to your life and how outside events affect you.
Step 1
Make a list of the things that cause you anxiety. Write not only big events, such as planning for the annual family vacation, but also everyday things such as balancing your budget, shopping with the kids or driving home in heavy traffic. Next to each event, put a number from 1 to 5, depending on how much anxiety it causes you.
Step 2
Keep a journal for at least a month if you can't clearly identify what's causing the anxiety. At the end of each week, go through the journal and see if you can identify patterns. You might find that you're more anxious in the evenings, after work, or more anxious on the evenings you don't go to the gym to release tension.
Step 3
Make a note of your eating, drinking and sleeping habits in the journal. An unbalanced diet heavy in sugars and fats can leave you drained of energy and stressed. Or you might experience anxiety due to drinking too much caffeine. Poor sleeping habits can increase your overall stress levels.
Step 4
Introduce one single change into your routine to see how it affects your anxiety levels. If you normally scream when anxious, try going for a walk and then examine how both activities, walking and screaming, affect your anxiety. If they have the same calming effect, choose the healthiest option, which in this case would be walking. Keep introducing new reactions every time anxiety hits so you can examine how different things affect your anxiety level. Note the activities that are more effective to lessen your anxiety.
