7 Ways Older Populations Can Manage Anxiety

Everyone has feelings of anxiousness or nervousness. However, when these feelings become overwhelming and affect your everyday life, it could be classified as an anxiety disorder. People of all ages may experience signs of anxiety, however, older adults may experience symptoms that look different from the general population. Studies show that anxiety disorders affect 10-20% of older adults. As you age, more anxiety increases. With that said, many of these anxiety disorders go undiagnosed.

With older adults, anxiety is found more often than cognitive disorders and depression. When diagnosed, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is more commonly associated with this population. Following this diagnosis are phobias, panic disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Anxiety for older adults can look like

·         Racing thoughts

·         Constant worrying

·         Feelings of hopelessness

·         Sleep apnea

·         Difficulty concentrating

·         Nausea

·         Hot flashes

·         Shortness of breath

·         Greater frequency in using the restroom

·         Eye and vision problems

·         Dizziness

·         Chest pain

·         Heart palpitations

·         Forgetfulness

·         Withdrawal

·         Change in weight, appetite, or eating habits

How Can Older Adults Manage Their Anxiety?

1. Recognize triggers. Anxiety can come regardless of triggers. It can come because of environmental and situational factors. Since older adults typically deal with frequent change, it can cause more anxiety in their everyday life. Some triggers can include:

·         Financial insecurity

·         Health problems

·         Dementia

·         Loss of independence

·         Feelings of isolation

·         End of life planning

·         Grief and loss 

Recognition of triggers can help in processing how to move forward when helping your loved ones.

2. Educate yourself.  Having an understanding of not only what the triggers are as well as how to cope with them helps to recognize when you feel out of control. Therapy is an avenue you can take to learn how to cope with your anxiety. Through therapy, you can also learn relaxation methods that you can utilize when handling other stressors. You can also learn to recognize how to respond to anxiety when you recognize that the symptoms are beginning.

3. Build your tribe. Family, friends, and connections geographically near you that you trust are helpful resources to turn to when you feel like you are losing control. These connections can also help identify stressful situations and note when you are going in the wrong direction. Your tribe can bring you from a place of feeling helpless to feeling hopeful.

4. Integrate including a healthy balanced lifestyle. Paying attention to how well you sleep as well as the length of time you are rested, eating a balanced meal, and exercising help manage stress levels. In addition, taking active steps to have social interactions and doing activities that you love can also reduce stress in your life. Finding ways to volunteer and giving back can also bring balance and help to lower the stress and anxiety that you may be experiencing. A walk in the neighborhood or in the park should suffice when integrating exercise into your life.

5. Rule out that the problem isn’t biological. If the anxiety issue becomes diagnosed, it can be effectively managed with the combination of counseling, medication, and relaxation techniques.

6. Develop a plan. Developing a plan and sticking to it can alter the feeling of being out of control to being in control. These skills are learned through therapy.

7. Spend time in prayer and other spiritual practices. Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Studying Scripture and having a consistent prayer life can help to alleviate stress and anxiety.

Get Help Today

Getting the proper help and counseling support needed can help you have a better quality of life. Call 443-860-6870 today to make an appointment.

Habits and Anxiety

Can the simple act of thinking about a new project coming up or preparing for a holiday dinner lead to shortness of breath, heart palpitations, or panic attacks? Habits, whether good or bad play a huge role in our mental and physical health, success, and quality of our relationships. Our habits affect every area of our lives. Acts of anxiety can be embedded in your habits. Avoiding or pretending that you aren’t having these experiences doesn’t help. In fact, it only makes things worse. Physical signs of anxiety in everyday life can look like you are sweating, shaking, experiencing nausea, having to use the restroom more frequently, exhaustion, muscle weakness, dizziness, or irregular body temperature. Is this you?

In our society, we have learned how to cope with adversity and uncertainty. We take on risks in an overly apprehensive manner instead of processing what is happening and dealing with the anxiety of what has come before us. After a while, these apprehensive feelings begin to feel natural and normal. Therefore, unhealthy coping mechanisms become a habit resulting in unconscious behaviors. These behaviors can be embedded in our personalities. These habits can look like nail-biting, skin picking, hair pulling, cleaning too much or too little, hand washing, or substance addiction. This shows insecurity within the anxiety you are experiencing. Is this you?

This can be overcome by learning to cope with risk, uncertainty, and adversity in healthy ways. Recovering involves identifying and exchanging coping behaviors with healthy coping behaviors. Anxiety exists inside your habits that make up your everyday life. Habits are sticky. They don’t just go away. Depression and anxiety can show in our habits within our interactions. Anxiety habits can be prevalent in smoking, eating disorders, financial mismanagement, and much more. Many find as they overcome these bad habits and replace them with good habits, their lives change. How can you make healthy changes?

Become Self Aware

Pay attention to how you are responding to different scenarios and recognize potential triggers. While also paying attention to different scenarios, also pay attention to how your body is responding to the situations where you are feeling anxiety. The following are some potential examples:

·         Perhaps you are unmotivated to do a task, you review your social media, you feel more anxious

·         Perhaps you have an upcoming assignment or deadline coming up at work, you grab a snack to eat to distract the anxiety you feel.

·         When you experience anxiety, you become more worried about it, then you feel more anxious

Proverbs 14:8 says, “The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving. Keeping an account of triggers helps to recognize potential triggers and will help to enable you to live a more peaceful life.

Plan

Learn about and create new coping mechanisms so that you have a catalog of additional coping behaviors to replace the unhealthy ones. Exercising mindfulness can be a healthy way to overcome the worry and anxiety you are feeling. Have patience with yourself and repeat the healthy behaviors until it becomes normal. Healthy habits can look like cooking, learning to cook healthy meals, spending time outside, reading, prayer, devotions, meditating, cleaning, and journaling. It may feel different but it will feel more normal over time.

Remove Negative Self-Talk

Proverbs 23:7 says, “So as a man thinketh, so is He.”  Life and death are in the power of the tongue. Therefore, while being organic about your situation, it is also important to speak life into what you desire to change. Affirmations are a powerful tool in assisting with changing the narrative.

Reward Milestones

Don’t look at the end goal but reward the milestones that you make along the way. Reward yourself as you become more self-aware

Counseling Support Can Help

If you or someone you know needs a safe place to develop healthy habits and form strategies to remove bad anxiety-filled habits in your life and live a healthier lifestyle, counseling support is available. Call 443-860-6870 to schedule an appointment or review the calendar to schedule an appointment today.