Many of us lead pretty much stressful lives, so much so that anxiety has become a huge problem. We rake up huge sums in treating our anxiety levels with drugs and spend countless nights, suffering from bouts of insomnia. Positive thinking can help overcome the constant thoughts of worry that goes on in our heads. While the positive thinking method does not work for everyone in completely eliminating anxiety, the other helpful aspects make it well worth the effort to try.

One of the biggest issues many people have that directly relates to anxiety is self-esteem. When you are engaged in negative self beliefs, you think that you are not good or worthy enough. This can cause anxiety in those situations. Just imagine if the converse is true. You are positive and have confidence in your abilities. You see problems as challenges to overcome, rather than difficulties that you are already defeated over. Constantly reinforcing your own self worth will help you eliminate many anxiety issues in your life.

You can defeat anxiety by building your self esteem through different techniques of positive thinking. Surrounding yourself with positive friends is one of the best ways to improve your own self-esteem. Their positive energies and enthusiasm can rub off on you eventually.

If you suffer from low self esteem, then spend some time making a list of what you like about yourself and what you are good at. If you have problems writing this list, get a close friend to help you with it. Recording this list reaffirms the positive feelings that you have about yourself.

One of the biggest contributors to anxiety is stress. However, more often than not, stress is self-induced. You may blame it on the environment but if you cannot control an external factor. What you can do is to change your attitude towards how you handle stress. Positive thinking allows you to lower your stress levels, so that you become less anxious. When you are less anxious, you can also find that it is easier to deal with problems.

Instead of letting things get to you, break down your problems into easy to deal with steps. It is much easier to use positive thinking to encourage yourself to complete one step at a time than to try and tackle a huge problem all at once. Spending time being anxious and fretting over things is not productive and can cause energy leakage. Instead, you should be conserving and directing your energies to help you tackle your challenges.

It is up to you to take charge of how you feel. With positive thinking, you can improve many aspects of your life and be a much happier person. Arrest your anxiety levels and do not allow them to escalate. Learn to let go, if you have done your very best, in dealing with your problems at hand. Then, use your mind to think positively, for good outcomes.

When an individual begins to feel large amounts of anxiety about something they may be suffering a panic attack. These panic attacks come suddenly and are immensely overwhelming. Some sufferers of panic attacks feel like they may be having a heart attack, or that what is happening may lead to a heart attack. Some feel like they are dying, while they while not die normally the feelings that they will are very intense.

Panic attacks are sudden and do not require an instigator. Panic attacks can and will produce physical symptoms such as a racing or pounding heart, chest pains, difficult breathing, stomach upset, dizziness, nausea, numbness or tingling in the hands, lightheadedness, chills or hot flashes, and other symptoms produced by the uncontrollable fears. The mind may experience a dream like sensation, feeling terror, doing something embarrassing or the fear of losing control, the need to escape, or even the fear of dying.

The fear of having more panic attacks is one of the most common symptoms of panic disorders. Those who have one panic attack will more than likely experience another at some time. The fear produced by panic disorders can cause changes in behavior such as avoiding places and situations which caused or may cause another panic attack. The individual may very likely develop some phobia about those places and situations.

Panic attacks differ from other anxiety disorders because they can be sudden and unexpected, many times they do not require an instigator and can become disabling. The panic attack can actually be an anxiety disorder symptoms. Once there has been an established pattern of anxiety and avoidance, the person is said to have a panic disorder. Panic disorders can have a serious impact on an individual’s day to day life until they seek the necessary treatment. Panic attacks are serious health problems that 1.7% or 3 million of adult Americans will suffer from in their lives. Typically individual will experience their first panic attack is between the ages of 15 and 19 if they have the disorder.

A panic attack can last for several minutes and can be one of the most distressing things an individual can experience in their lives. Symptoms can closely mimic those of a heart attack, and the individual can begin to fear the attack thinking what is happening will lead to their death. Panic attacks have been known take place while an individual is sleeping these nocturnal panic attacks occur far less frequently than day panic attacks. Roughly 40%-70% of individuals who suffer from daytime panic attacks can and will have nocturnal panic attacks. These attacks will disturb an otherwise restful sleep and can carry with them all the symptoms of a daytime panic attack. Nocturnal panic attacks tend to last less than ten minutes the recovery time for the sufferer can be much longer.

While each individual sufferer may exhibit different symptoms of a panic attack never the less, they all have the same underlying uncontrollable fear.

General Anxiety Disorder, often referred to as “GAD”, is a very real anxiety disorder that can be very debilitating for many people. I personally was diagnosed with GAD in November of 2007, after a mental breakdown that was triggered by extreme stress. I remember attempting to go to work one day and not being able to walk through the door, I was paralyzed with the fear of doing my job. I stood on the sidewalk outside that office door for 20 minutes, my body shaking - and in tears, rationalizing to myself why I could not go in. I turned around, ran to my car and left.

As far back in my childhood as I can recall, my parents would tell me that I could “make a mountain out of a mole hill”. ?I never quite knew what they meant by that remark until I was diagnosed with GAD. I do remember worrying myself sick with thoughts about horrible things that “could” possibly happen to other people in my life. Even though everyone in my life was happy and healthy, the worry of something happening would consume me. Some nights racing thoughts would keeping me awake for hours just repeating until I was so fatigued I would simply pass out from sheer exhaustion.

Now, after being properly diagnosed and learning to recognize and deal with my symptoms, I am on a mild medication to help manage my GAD. With the help of my doctor and medication, I function as near to normal as is possible. However; several things that I have to do to keep myself in balance are:

• Get the proper amount of sleep each night - if I deviate from this, My behavior becomes irrational.
• Stick as closely to a strict written out schedule as I possibly can - I have to plan my day in advance and stick to it as closely as possible.
• Exercise daily, even if it is only a walk to clear my head - I walk a lot, even if it’s only around the block.
• Eat nutritionally, and be honest with myself about it - we all like to think we eat nutritionally, but you MUST be honest with yourself about it because it is only you that is being fooled when you lie about it.
• Avoid smoking and beverages with caffeine completely - I do not smoke, that is my personal decision, but I do get caught off guard at odd times having a soda or cup of coffee. When I do, I always notice it in the reaction in my body, it causes anxiety. So I usually stick to lemon lime flavored soda’s.
• Take my medication as prescribed - without fail, no excuses.?
• Keep a daily journal - this is also handy when you try to recall things that you felt at different times during the day. It has helped me to identify more than just my anxious feelings. This is a very useful tool for everyone to use.

As long as I stick to my prescribed treatment plan, I function normally. However; as with any schedule, there can be deviations with or without warning. On the days that I am unable to stick to my written out schedule, I have learned to just take things one moment at a time. I don’t allow the growing anxiety inside to cause me to panic, and I just let life flow. I deal with life as it comes along the best that I can on those days.

Don’t get me wrong, there are days that go horribly wrong. On horrible days, that is when I usually find myself reading over my daily journal to compare other bad days to see what I did to cope then. When I am referring back to other bad days and what I did to get through them, it allows me to recognize behavior patterns and correct them. I believe that recognizing a behavior and changing it helps work through the anxiety best for me.

I am lucky that I also have a very supportive family who understands me and what I deal with daily. I am also privileged to have wonderful friends to help me along the way. In moments where I do lose control, there is usually someone there to point it out to me. When I know it is happening, then I am able to understand what is going on and I pull myself back into place.

Dealing with GAD on a daily basis is sometimes very hard. But as long as I do what I can to help myself, and use the tools that I have at my disposal, I usually succeed at having one great day after another.