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6 Simple Ways To Reduce Anxiety | Mark Tyrrell — Transcript

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0:00hi I'm Matt Terrell of uncommon
0:01knowledge and welcome to six behavioral
0:05interventions for anxiety simple things
0:08your clients can do to reduce anxiety
0:10quickly so anxiety like water takes many
0:22forms so water can just be water but
0:25that same h2o can manifest as steam or
0:28as ice it can be life-saving for a
0:31person who's dehydrated or fatal for a
0:34person who's lost at sea
0:35but what of anxiety anxiety - takes many
0:40forms it might raise its head as
0:42crushing panic it might manifest as the
0:45sickening flashbacks of post-traumatic
0:46stress disorder then again it might hang
0:49around like an unwelcome house guest as
0:51generalized anxiety or trip us up as a
0:55baffling yet powerful phobia depression
0:58- is often fueled by unresolved
1:01anxieties see reference 1 & 2 below the
1:04video and certainly anxiety seems to be
1:07at the root of obsessive-compulsive
1:09disorder and of at least some people's
1:12descent into addiction or compulsion as
1:15self medication so yes anxiety is a
1:18many-headed Hydra in this piece though I
1:21want to focus specifically on discrete
1:24episodes of heightened anxiety and I'll
1:28give you some really useful behavioral
1:30tips to help your clients minimize and
1:33control specific bursts of anxiety such
1:36as panic attacks so how can we best help
1:40our anxious clients the multi-pronged
1:43approach to treating anxiety so it goes
1:47without saying that anxious clients need
1:49to learn to relax deeply and often
1:53relaxation is the antidote to fear and
1:56stress and yes we can help clients
1:59challenge many of the catastrophic
2:01all-or-nothing thoughts produced by high
2:05anxiety but here I want to give you some
2:07really simple behavioral alterations
2:10that can help your anxious
2:12immediately our behavior is so often a
2:15reflection of what we feel and think but
2:18because we exist in feedback loops what
2:21we do also influences how we feel and
2:24think so there are many things we can do
2:27to help people overcome anxiety or at
2:29least align it so that it's only there
2:31when it needs to be to motivate us to
2:34fight or flee during an actual physical
2:37threat so here we'll focus on some
2:39behavioral interventions so what do I
2:42mean by a feedback loop when it comes to
2:45human anxiety the mysterious power of
2:48chewing-gum okay so years ago someone
2:52from across the ocean sent me a peculiar
2:55question that really got me thinking
2:58about the feedback loop of emotional
3:01instincts so why is it they wanted to
3:04know that when chewing gum they felt
3:07karma in situations that would usually
3:10send them into a spiral of panic and I
3:13thought about that and I football fear
3:15of course is a survival instinct so we
3:18need it to help protect us from physical
3:20threats so you don't cure anxiety you
3:23help align it so that it behaves itself
3:25and works for you only when it really
3:28really needs to so our instincts at
3:30least in part are blind you know they
3:33take their lead so to speak partly from
3:35what you do and what you experience to a
3:38degree we train our instincts the way we
3:40might train a pet or guard dog anything
3:44we do that sends the message to the fear
3:46instinct that we're not currently facing
3:49a present and immediate threat will
3:51cause the fear instinct to back down
3:53because your instincts don't want to
3:56waste energy fear is a big investment of
3:59energy and our bodies know that we need
4:01to conserve energy and not waste it so
4:04our answer for the friend who sent the
4:06chewing-gum question becomes clearer one
4:09of the first things to switch off when
4:10your flight or fight mode response kicks
4:13in is salivation because you don't need
4:15to be eating if you're trying not to be
4:16eating them okay so people get try a dry
4:18mouth where they're panicking if you're
4:21in a tricky situation and you chew gum
4:22the gum makes you salivate this
4:25celebration fee
4:26back to your fear instinct that all must
4:29be well and so all the other symptoms of
4:31fear get reduced as well in a kind of
4:33domino effect by a chewing-gum in a
4:36usually stressful situation our friend
4:39was sending the message to his
4:40instinctual mind that this is so
4:43unthreatening that I can afford to chew
4:45and salivate therefore it can't be a
4:47threatening situation any behavior that
4:49contradicts the theory of whether it's
4:51salivating talking acting normally or
4:54staying instead of running will start
4:56calming things down pretty quickly so
4:58let's look at what behaviors we can
5:00encourage in our anxious clients to help
5:02them tame their anxiety response tip
5:05number one name the anxiety a 2015 study
5:09found that putting feelings into words
5:12can reduce physiologic symptoms and
5:15anxiety see reference 3 below in fact
5:18the study found that the more words
5:19people used to describe their anxiety
5:22the more their symptoms of anxiety
5:24reduced and this is really interesting
5:27and something we can communicate to our
5:29clients we can also tell our clients
5:31that subjects in the research study
5:33didn't expect that putting their anxiety
5:36into words which reduce our anxiety so
5:39it wasn't really suggests ability but
5:40physiological testing showed that it
5:43reduced all the same yes really
5:46interesting I think what's more the
5:48reduction in anxiety occurred regardless
5:50of whether the labels people used for
5:52their anxiety was spoken or written down
5:55so we might ask our clients to write
5:58down in a notebook in some detail the
6:00way they are the way they're feeling
6:02when they become anxious okay and just
6:04doing that seems to greatly reduce the
6:08anxiety itself we can encourage them to
6:10use as many extreme even exaggerated
6:12fear words as possible with the
6:14assurance that this can help dilute the
6:17actual anxiety we human beings have an
6:20innate need to express ourselves so
6:23putting experience into words can dilute
6:25its impact as we have to use the left
6:28prefrontal lobe in the brain to
6:30verbalize what we're experiencing and
6:33since anxiety is essentially an emotion
6:35expressed through the right hemisphere
6:37in the brain this activation of the less
6:39left
6:39as fear can reduce the experience of
6:41anxiety this may be the way that it
6:43works but in order to show their
6:45instincts there's nothing to fear our
6:48clients need to do something else as
6:49well
6:50okay so tip to face the anxiety in
6:54nature we avoid what might be deadly but
6:57in a more complex world what we avoid
7:00starts to feel threatening because we're
7:03avoiding it even if it's most certainly
7:04not threatening to live a life of
7:06avoidance is to live a life of fear or
7:09no life at all a diminished life if you
7:12want to convince your fear instinct that
7:14something is dangerous it's simple just
7:16avoid it or flee it when you come across
7:18it and then the fear can build even more
7:21if you happen to panic for example in a
7:24particular store and then run from that
7:27store as far as far as your fear
7:29instinct is concerned there's something
7:31deadly in that store and it will stop
7:33you even wanting to go back in there in
7:35future now simply because you ran away
7:37from the story it might feel
7:38overwhelming or terrifying even to ever
7:41go back into that store had you stayed
7:43in the store until you calm down the
7:46instinctive conditioning might well have
7:47been different if nothing had happened
7:49in the store and you'd regained a sense
7:52of calm while you were still in the
7:54store then the fear instinct would have
7:56had no cause to tag that store as a
7:59deadly threat okay if you stay in a
8:01situation rather than run from it and
8:03eventually fear switches off because if
8:06the situation was really
8:07life-threatening you'd run away or you'd
8:10be killed you know in the situation so
8:12you train your instincts partly by how
8:15you behave what you go toward where you
8:17go away from run away and the fear bills
8:20stay and the fear diminishes and it
8:23works the other way around too you know
8:25people who make themselves go towards
8:27certain situations calmly and repeatedly
8:30doing something that is life threatening
8:32are communicating to the fear instinct
8:35that what they're doing isn't
8:36potentially deadly when it might be you
8:38know so if we think about the old-time
8:39lion tamers putting their heads in Lions
8:42mouths those fearless souls shooting
8:45themselves from the mouths of cannons or
8:46people repeatedly repeatedly doing BASE
8:48jumping okay because they're voluntarily
8:52going towards the
8:53experiences the theorists Ponce gets the
8:55fake message perhaps these experiences
8:58aren't threatening and the person
9:00becomes less anxious when they're doing
9:01that so we can describe this to our
9:03clients and suggest that although fear
9:05is their vital survival Drive we can
9:10help them tame it so that their they
9:13become the real boss of it so to speak
9:15of course staying in a situation when
9:16you're panicking or going towards a
9:18situation you're frightened of is much
9:20easier said than done but we can help
9:23our clients do this by firstly
9:26explaining why it's necessary to go
9:29towards what we fear not away from it
9:31teaching them the other feedback
9:33alteration strategies in this piece that
9:36I'll be talking about helping them visit
9:39the feared situation or place in their
9:41mind whilst they're relaxed and calm so
9:44as far as the fear instinct is concerned
9:46to imagine a feared place or time whilst
9:49feeling calm is to actually experience
9:51it for real and they can retag that as
9:53non-threatening if your client does
9:56start to panic they can instantly employ
9:58the next strategy so tip 3 breathe out
10:01the anxiety so your body
10:03everybody's body seeks balance or
10:07homeostasis it's positively looking for
10:10a reason to calm down again okay your
10:12body is looking for signs that it should
10:15become fear is essentially the exercise
10:18response you know if you're breathing
10:19hard sweating gasping and after a time
10:22shaking with exertion while on on the
10:25treadmill or the rowing machine and the
10:26gym we don't call that a panic attack we
10:29call it the exercise response but if
10:31your breaths are shallow your brow is
10:34sweaty in your hearts racing when you're
10:35safe sitting down during a meeting this
10:38we don't call the exercise response we
10:39call it a panic or panic attack so
10:43actually the second example is
10:44effectively the body preparing for
10:46exercise the symptoms of panic are so
10:49close to the symptoms of heavy exercise
10:51for a reason because panic wants you to
10:54act in purely physical ways okay once
10:58you've got past a freeze response then
11:00you become physical no one is attacked
11:02by panic which is why I don't like the
11:04disempowering metaphor of panic attacks
11:06and I didn't tend to use that metaphor
11:08with my clients rather I often talk to
11:10my clients in terms of an unnecessary or
11:12inappropriate exercise response okay
11:15need to tame that exercise response and
11:17again anything we do to let our
11:19instincts know that this is not actually
11:21a situation that requires a massive
11:23investment of our energy we don't need
11:25to exercise when in this situation we'll
11:27tend to balance out the feelings of
11:29anxiety pretty quickly so every breath
11:32you take symport in' now one of the
11:34first responses to shift when we tag
11:36something as threatening is our
11:38breathing we need to pump around more
11:40oxygen for all that heavy exercise our
11:43survival requires so what panic us or
11:46inappropriate exercise responders tend
11:49to do is to gulp air this is also what
11:52we do during heavy exercise because our
11:54muscles need extra oxygen to power them
11:57to do heavy exercise when we breathe in
12:00we activate the sympathetic nervous
12:02system that part that has to do with
12:04fight-or-flight heavy exercise and
12:06arousal but when we breathe out we
12:09activate the parasympathetic nervous
12:12system the part that relaxes and calms
12:14us people will often sigh slowly breathe
12:18out when they're stressed as their body
12:20seeks to balance out their arousal
12:23levels and calm them down looking for
12:25homeostasis we can teach our clients
12:277:11 breathing which they can do as soon
12:30as they feel at all anxious and this
12:33method involves breathing in to the
12:35quick count of seven not seven seconds
12:37which is one two three four five six
12:39seven like that pausing for a moment
12:41then breathing out to the quick count of
12:43eleven pausing for a moment and then
12:46repeating so the numbers don't matter so
12:48much it could be you know out to the
12:51seven and into five the important thing
12:52here is that the outbreak is slower and
12:54longer than the in-breath and this
12:57technique has a ripple effect there are
12:59benefits beyond just directly and
13:01quickly calming the person you know so
13:04other ripple effects of breathing in
13:06that way the focus on breathing as a
13:08distraction the fear response if it
13:10could think might conclude I wouldn't be
13:12focusing on my breathing if there was
13:13really an immediate threat you know if
13:14there was a lion in the room okay
13:16we can teach our clients to use 7-eleven
13:19breathing or 5/9 breathing while they
13:22imagine whatever it is they feel afraid
13:24of their trigger so in this way we start
13:27to change the physiological response
13:29associated with that trigger we do this
13:31v imagination but even before they focus
13:33on their exhalations we can ask our
13:35client to do something that will help
13:37them start to stand aside from the
13:39anxiety so tip for grade their anxiety
13:42okay
13:43so years ago I was I was just about to
13:46present to 150 people and I'd never
13:48presented to more than say 20 or 30
13:50people before that time and suddenly
13:52just before walking up on stage to speak
13:54I started to feel much more anxious than
13:57than was useful for the situation and I
13:59thought well I'm not having this you
14:00know so I decided to grade the anxiety
14:02on a scale from naught to 10 not being
14:04no anxiety at all which would be just
14:05plain silly before giving a big talk and
14:0810 being the most terror that I could
14:10possibly experience and I decided I was
14:12at a six which is way too high and
14:14already I had done a few things to
14:16dilute the anxiety I'd reframed it from
14:18a feeling to a number okay thinking
14:21about numbers is not nearly as scary as
14:23thinking about fear so this diluted the
14:26fear and also forced me to use the
14:28cognitive of thinking centers of my
14:30brain which so often become locked out
14:33or hijacked by fear I'd also put a limit
14:36on it you know rather than letting the
14:38fear escalate to terror are given the
14:40fear and upper limit I'd also take him
14:42back a sense of control I've gone into a
14:45mindful observing self state a part of
14:48me was outside of the anxiety watching
14:51it I was not in the anxiety now I was
14:53watching it I'm watching what number it
14:55was I then picked a number I'd be happy
14:57starting my talk at and I decided a
15:00three would be fine you know I could
15:01start the talk at 3 that's you know got
15:03enough vitality there I began to breathe
15:05out slowly and for a longer than I
15:07breathed in see tip 2 then when I'd
15:10breathed myself down to a three I walked
15:12on stage and began to talk this took
15:14perhaps 20 or 30 seconds as none of the
15:17audience tried to kill me you know
15:19amazingly enough or even screamed or
15:21yelled in my direction amazing my fear
15:24NSYNC soon got the message this wasn't
15:26in fact a deadly encounter this wasn't
15:28the deadly trip you know
15:29the natives were friendly I began to
15:31relax get into a flow and even enjoy the
15:34experience so our clients can get into
15:37the habit of creating anxiety in the
15:39moment then choosing a number they'd be
15:41happy with okay then they can breathe
15:43their way down to that number
15:45and this may seem like a really simple
15:47intervention but it can be incredibly
15:49effective the vast majority of panic
15:51errs can be helped through clinical
15:54hypnotic strategies and/or these
15:56behavioral strategies as well for some
16:00however discharging the energy might be
16:02the way forward so tip 5 discharge the
16:05anxiety
16:06apart from being a powerful
16:08antidepressant hard exercise is a way of
16:13switching off panic when we for example
16:15sprint or perform push-ups or squats to
16:19the point that we can't do anymore
16:20we have an effect completed the fight or
16:23flight response circuit the the cycle of
16:25the fight-or-flight a 2011 study found
16:28that people with high anxiety
16:29sensitivity as they put it an intense
16:31fear of the nausea racing heart
16:33dizziness and stomach aches and
16:35shortness of breath that accompany panic
16:37reacting with less anxiety to a panic
16:39inducing stressor if their been engaging
16:42in high levels of physical activity
16:43before that so see reference 5 so
16:47exercising more intensely more often
16:49will tend to lower anxiety generally
16:51because people are you know fulfilling
16:54the the circuit people who exercise
16:56regularly tend to be healthier mentally
16:58and less anxious than sedentary types
17:00anyway okay
17:01but sometimes we can prescribe some kind
17:04of exercise to do even as anxiety rises
17:07in the moment when I was inspired by a
17:09case study of dr. Milton Erickson in
17:12which he helped a TV presenter overcome
17:14panic just before he presented live by
17:17prescribing star jumps prior to going on
17:19there with time to get his breath back
17:21of course okay in a similar case a woman
17:24who felt unduly anxious before making a
17:26presentation at work was asked to do out
17:29of sight of her audience 50 star jumps
17:31as fast as she could okay she found that
17:33once she'd got a breath back she was
17:35ready to talk and felt weirdly calm
17:39so her body had gone through the whole
17:41cycle of intense exercise and it now
17:44felt like she had survived an emergency
17:46and she couldn't help but feel karma
17:48mm-hmm she felt like a victor now
17:51another victim and of course all the
17:53usual sensible checks into health need
17:55to apply here when prescribing exercise
17:57so if we exercise intensely to the point
18:00that we can't exercise anymore
18:02then as far as our instincts know we've
18:04gone into the fight-or-flight response
18:06and because we're alive at the end of it
18:08we have survived the threat as I said
18:10just now we have the victor not the
18:12victim and it can be really hard then to
18:14panic so it's it's making panic harder
18:17to do it's as though that some people
18:20need to complete the arousal circuit of
18:22fight-or-flight through exercise ok this
18:25kind of intervention certainly doesn't
18:26have to be as dramatic as the examples
18:29above you know simply doing a 20 star
18:32jumps or as many pushups as you can
18:34manage even if it's not quite one will
18:36help d potentiate panic or inappropriate
18:40exercise response and that can be
18:43effective even some hours before the
18:45feared situation your body remembers
18:48that and feels pretty good you know the
18:49endorphins have kicked in that dopamine
18:51is there ok lastly we can encourage our
18:54clients to be aware so tip 6 teach your
18:57clients the aware technique so I
18:59sometimes give anxious clients a little
19:01card they can get out and use as a
19:03prompt whenever they start to find
19:05themselves feeling panicky so aware of
19:08course is an acronym and the a stands
19:12for accept that you're feeling anxious
19:15and also name it see tip 1 as well that
19:18I have mentioned earlier watch the
19:20anxiety and even grade it act normal
19:25breathe as described in tip 3 and carry
19:28on acting as though there were
19:29absolutely no threat if you talk breathe
19:32calmly and stay in the situation you're
19:35showing your fear instinct it doesn't
19:37need to tag this situation as
19:39threatening and things will calm down
19:40our stands for repeat the previous three
19:43steps if necessary he stands for expect
19:47the best you're taking control of the
19:49fear instinct and taming and
19:51you can see that focusing on these steps
19:54by reading them from a small card if
19:56necessary incorporates many of the
19:58principles of the tips that I've just
20:01been talking about so in summary to
20:03reduce anxiety quickly and effectively
20:06teach your clients to number one
20:09understand how the fear instinct is led
20:12in part by what we do we can train this
20:15powerful guard dog avoidance will build
20:19fear while staying or approaching the
20:22feared situation will diminish fear
20:24remember this approach can be done
20:26psychologically during deep relaxation
20:28to quickly retake the situation as
20:30non-threatening to name the feeling
20:33either out loud if appropriate okay or
20:36internally or by writing it down
20:38explaining that this has been shown to
20:40lessen anxiety even in people who didn't
20:42believe it would work for them 3 breathe
20:46out longer and more slowly than they
20:48breathe in this will quickly turn off
20:50anxiety which requires that we breathe
20:52in rapidly in preparation for every
20:54heavy exercise so again we're showing
20:56the instinct it doesn't need to be there
20:58for create their anxiety then decide
21:02what number they would be happy with in
21:04this situation and it probably wouldn't
21:06be a naught wouldn't be completely
21:08relaxed you know and believe they're way
21:11down to that level 5 utilize regular
21:14exercise as a way of minimizing stress
21:16and anxiety you could even have them do
21:20short intense bursts of exercise before
21:22a stressful event if it's practical to
21:25do so and 6 use the aware technique and
21:29carry a card with the steps if need be
21:32anxiety is there as an occasional power
21:34to be utilized in the hopefully few
21:37times it might really be necessary in a
21:40physical situation to return to my water
21:43analogy we can learn to swim or even
21:46surf the ways of adaptive stress not
21:49sink into an abyss of fear just as we
21:52can use and harness water we can use the
21:55alternating currents of stress and
21:57relaxation to build satisfying and
21:59meaningful lives so I hope you found
22:01that useful and if you did please hit
22:03like and subscribe
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22:08bell below
22:09I'm mark Terrell of uncommon knowledge
22:11and if you'd like to subscribe to my
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22:25[Music]

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