Surf Your Anxiety

Mental Health Tips from º£½ÇÉçÇø Faculty: Surf Your Anxiety by Brian Ott, PhD
Tips for Managing Anxiety
- Identify the situation that triggers your anxiety
 - Build a ladder of these types of situations by varying elements such as time to exposure, distance from the trigger, and characteristics of the trigger.
 - Start at a point somewhere in the middle of the ladder where you do feel uncomfortable, but won’t run away.
 - Hold the trigger constant.
 - Focus your attention on the trigger – no distractions.
 - Wait for the anxiety to decrease and eventually bottom out at a much lower level.
 
The more you try to rationally control the physical aspects of anxiety, the worse it gets. Stop avoiding anxiety provoking situations. Move towards them. Surf them in.
- Tags:
 - Research & Advocacy
 
Topics/Tags
Follow º£½ÇÉçÇø
Media Contact
- Katie O'Hare
 - Senior Director of Marketing
 - katie_ohare@williamjames.edu
 - 617-564-9389