Mom, Are You Feeling Anxious? 5 Resources to Help You

Being a mother is an incredibly stressful responsibility and has led to many mothers dealing with anxious thoughts. While anxious thoughts can be part of anxiety, general anxiety is a diagnosable condition that can be helped by counseling and medication. Because anxiety can contribute to depression, getting help for your anxiety is critical.

Private Study

For many of us, getting help is more effective if we have done some private study. There are many counselors who offer great books on managing anxiety. You can also follow the blogs of folks who have approached their anxiety from many different directions and built new routes to train their brain out of anxious spinning.

Take care to avoid textbooks on treating anxiety. You want a book or a blog that can teach you

• what triggers your anxiety
• what happens when anxious thoughts get rolling
• how to redirect anxious thoughts
• the connection between mind and body

Once you know what is happening when the anxious thought cycle starts, you can take disruptive action. You may need to move your body, drink some water, or message a friend to get your brain and body out of the loop of anxiety.

Focus on Intuition

Anxiety sets up a spinning wheel of unhelpful thoughts that can create a constant state of agitation. When you feel this agitation building up, consider focusing instead on your intuition. If you are not sure which one is speaking to you, consider that

• anxiety tells you what to worry about in the future
• intuition is focused on the now

Acting on your intuition will get easier if you choose motion and movement. If anxiety has long been rolling along in your head, your neural pathways are all mapped out for those ideas to have an easy groove to travel in. Instead of allowing those thoughts to keep moving along the track, take action on an intuitive thought to knock the anxious thought out of the groove. Understand that listening to your intuition is a habit that you will need to build, as anxious thoughts have become an unfortunate habit.

It is important to note that anxiety is extremely personal. The condition can run the gamut from occasional insomnia to crippling anxiety that makes it impossible to act to improve your life or even do what you need to do to sustain your existence. Keep looking until you find something that works. Be the expert on your own anxiety.

Counseling

One of the most important things to realize is that you are not alone. Rates of diagnosed anxiety are climbing across the world.

If you are getting back into the world, you might seek a support group for the condition. For those who prefer private help, consider seeking out professional help in your area. If you can’t meet in person you can also look for online counselling. For example, you can find online counselling in Canada or a private therapist who can help you to get on top of anxious thoughts that are limiting your life.

Holistic Therapies

A popular blogger who has long struggled to holistically manage her own anxiety and depression, Therese Borchard offers terrific tools for herbs that can help you break the cycle of anxious thoughts.

Holistic anxiety treatments run the gamut from a cup of fresh chamomile key to calm your gut, as well as your mind, to lavender essential oil in a diffuser to give you the chance to relax and inhale a calming, lovely fragrance. If you aren’t sure where to start, treat yourself to a small amount of lavender essential oil and put a drop on your wrists. When anxious thoughts get cranking, use the motion of sniffing your wrist to change up the pathways of those thoughts.

Medication

Finally, there is no shame in needing medication when you are faced with a condition that may be otherwise uncontrollable. Many people find that medications can do a terrific job of helping to manage their anxiety. Be aware that these medications can interact with other medications you are taking and should only be prescribed by a licensed psychiatrist. If you choose to try supplementation first, connect with your physician to ensure you don’t have a dangerous interaction.

Talk to your doctor if you feel you may need professional help so that you can be referred and connected to those who are in a better position to evaluate and diagnose your condition.

By Tracie Johnson

Tracie is a New Jersey native and an alum of Penn State University. She is passionate about writing, reading, and living a healthy lifestyle. She feels happiest when around a campfire surrounded by friends, family, and her Dachshund named Rufus