7 Thoughts on How to Cope With Situational Anxiety

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Is it just me, or has the anxiety level around here suddenly risen dramatically?

I guess dealing with the realities of a world wide pandemic and suddenly being trapped in your house for long periods of time will do that.

In this wild, crazy, Lentiest Lent that ever did Lent that we suddenly find ourselves in, make sure that you're taking time to take care of your mental health.

I lived with an anxiety disorder for several years. I'm not a mental health professional, but these are some strategies that I've found personally helpful in getting through a time of increased mental stress.


1.) Redirect

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When you find yourself dwelling on current events or worrying about things you can't control, you need to redirect that nervous energy to something positive.

I know that it's difficult to do that. But it's pretty much impossible to just dismiss a thought or 'stop worrying'. You need to redirect that energy to something else, or it will just continually boomerang back to what you are trying not to think about.

To use a somewhat cliche example, don't think about elephants. Don't do it.
What are you picturing in your head right now?
Probably an elephant.

When you find yourself dwelling on the thing that you're worrying about, you need to find somewhere else to let your mind rest and focus on rather than trying not to think about whatever you're trying to avoid. Otherwise, you'll just get stuck in a never ending loop.

Perhaps the most commonly recommended way to redirect anxiety is...

2.) Physical activity.

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In the darkest days of my anxiety disorder, my swimming workout at the campus athletic center was the only time that I felt completely normal. While I was swimming I could direct my worry, and my frustration at not being able to stop worrying, into a more powerful swim stroke or kick. After I finished my workout, I felt a little more at peace too.

There is scientific evidence that the endorphins released by physical movement help re-establish some balance in your brain and help you cope with stress. It's worth trying to find a way to work some regular movement into your routine, even if you're cooped up in an apartment.

Work out with a video from YouTube in your living room, go for a brisk walk, or go outside and do some yard work like digging a garden bed or mowing the lawn with a push mower. Even vigorously scrubbing out a shower or bathtub can do the trick. It helps release a lot of that nervous energy, and you just might end up with a cleaner house too.

3.) Find a Creative Outlet

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Swimming helped a lot, but the other thing that got me through the darkest days of my anxiety was being able to focus on a creative outlet through the drawing and painting classes I took in college. The nervous thoughts didn't always go away, but they were much quieter and more manageable when I had something else in front of me to focus on.

Find something creative that you really enjoy doing; painting, writing, sewing, gardening, working on an old beater car, whatever. Make time to do that thing, or even just spend some time with a nice coloring book.

Or if you have small kids in the house and can't fathom getting out a 'grown-up' project, spread some newspaper on the floor and have a royally messy paint party (here's a recipe for kid friendly paint) or make paper-mache sculptures. If you enjoy baking or cooking, getting the kids involved making pretzels or gnocchi (a recipe surprisingly conducive towards kid helpers as long as you don't mind the pasta coming out uneven).

Making time to be creative, and even a little bit messy and silly, will go a long way towards keeping everyone sane.


4.) Limit your exposure to news coverage

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This one is just common sense- don't constantly check your phone for the latest news. It constantly puts the thing causing your anxiety front and center and doesn't give you a break from it.

Give yourself a certain time of day to check it, maybe just by watching your local news station's program in the evening, and keep it there. It's important to stay informed as to what you should or shouldn't be doing, but it's important to recognize that there is a lot of things outside of your control that will remain outside of your control even if you know about them. Knowing about them won't help the situation, nor will it help you.

Don't burden yourself unnecessarily, today's trials (looking at you, toddler who just put one of our last precious rolls of TP in the toilet ) are plenty enough to deal with on their own. If you feel the need to pray for others suffering, then by all means do so, but you don't need to know specifics to do that.


5.) Focus on your surroundings

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When I started therapy to actually address my anxiety, something my therapist taught me was "mindfulness", or heading off a panic attack by  taking a moment to focus on my senses-- what I could hear, see, touch, smell, and taste in that moment.

When you're caught in a particularly bad loop or feel a breakdown coming on, this can be helpful.

Stop whatever it is you're doing.

Take a deep breath. Close your eyes, and focus on all the things that you can hear. Name them.

Open your eyes. Name all the things that you can see. What color are they? What texture?

Name all the things you can feel. What does the top of the table feel like under your hand? What is the texture of your clothes like? How do your toes feel in your shoes or on the floor?

Do the same for what you can smell.

What this does is ground you in the moment, and give your brain permission to calm down your fight or flight response.

An extension of this is to give yourself permission to focus primarily on your own home and family right now. You can't directly affect anything going on in the 'grand scheme' of things, but  you can affect your family by the way you interact with them right now, and that's important. It's important for your well being, for theirs, and to some extent, to your community's. Focus on the battles that you can fight, and leave the rest to God.

6.) Find a way to help someone else

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One of the best ways to "get out of your head" is to focus on the wants or needs of another person.

If you have small children, now would be an excellent time to engage in some quality time-- sit down and read a book or do an art project with them, or go have a water fight outside.

Do a project or have a visit with your husband.

If you have an elderly relative trapped in a nursing home, give them a call or send them a card or letter.

Maybe you know of a neighbor that just lost their job and you could leave a meal on their doorstep, or you could arrange a 'social distance' visit with a friend and set out lawn chairs a safe distance apart.

If you're tech savy, you could even arrange a virtual game night with an online 'board' game and screen sharing through Zoom (we've really enjoyed this one, which is offered for free for three weeks right now) with a lonely friend or three.

Find a way to bless the people around you, and you'll find that your own troubles dissipate a little bit.

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7.) The "Jesus I Trust in You" prayer

This prayer has gotten me through a lot. 

At the end of the day, we can't control anything that happens to us and we're all in God's hands.

It can really help to remind yourself of that fact, and to turn over what you can't control to God. You'll have to do so repeatedly, like many things in life it's not a one time thing, but it will help in the long run.


I'm praying for you. Please say a prayer for me too.


Read the rest of this week's Quick Takes here.