Ten Top Tips for Anxiety

1. Self care
   • Diet: AVOID/LIMIT caffeine, alcohol, sugar, drugs
   • Pay attention to sleep regularity
   • Use relaxation techniques
2. Doing things
   • Be active
   • Use exercise
   • Focus on others
3. Make your anxiety concrete
   • Turn anxiety into a problem with a possible solution
   • Make it present, not past or future
4. Talk to someone: professional or personal
5. Avoid stimuli:
   • notice how you might feed your potential anxiety
6. 'Feel the fear and do it anyway':
   • What’s the worst thing that could happen?
7. Use a journal, use your creativity
8. Play, laugh
9. Use awareness
   • Focusing, mindfulness, meditation
10. Re-frame your anxiety
    • Anxiety can be reframed as excitement, being on the edge of newness, growth
    • Note your negative thought habits.  Reframe negative thoughts, test the reality

Resources

Webpages

• Living Life to the Full:  www.livinglifetothefull.com
• Mind : www.mind.org.uk
  Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Stress, Worry
• Royal College of Psychiatrists: www.rcpsych.ac.uk
  Anxiety, Panic and Phobias, Shyness and Social Phobia
• BBC Health pages: www.bbc.co.uk/health
  Understanding stress, Anxiety, Panic and Phobia
• Social Anxiety UK: www.social-anxiety.org.uk

      Support network for those experiencing social anxiety

Books

• Bourne, E.J. (2005) The Anxiety and Panic Workbook
• Flowers, S.H. (2009) The Mindful Path through Shyness: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Help Free You From Social Anxiety, Fear and Avoidance
• Jeffers, S. (1981) Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway 
• Kennerley, H. (2009) Overcoming Anxiety