Anxiety has received much attention lately with youth anxiety rates over double pre-2010 levels.^1,2 Anxiety can come in many forms. It may be specific to something, such as taking tests or being in social situations. It may lie anywhere on the physical-mental spectrum. Anxiety can present as primarily physical, emotional, or cognitive. It may be chronic or acute. People describe their anxiety variously. For some, it is a feeling of “worry,” while to others, it means they “cannot relax.”

The root cause of anxiety may be physical, mental, or situational. Approximately 30-50% of anxiety disorders are attributable to genetics.³ It may have an entirely physiological cause, such as with drug side effects or overactive regions of the brain.⁴ It can stem from a particular situation or experience. It can also be based on fears or insecurities.⁵ Finally, anxiety may have no discernable cause.

The first step of managing anxiety is to seek out a cause or association. When did your issues with anxiety begin? Did something bad happen to you around that time? When you have a bout of anxiety, what is happening then? Are you thinking about something in particular? Is there a common factor for when you experience anxiety, such as a situation or activity?

If you are able to pinpoint a cause for your anxiety, you will then need to decide whether to avoid or engage with it. For example, if it is something work-related, you may be able to resolve it or get accustomed to it so that it no longer bothers you. If your anxiety results from the negativity you find on the television and Internet, you may be better off reducing your exposure to those sources.

Anxiety may be rooted in inner conflicts and longstanding personal issues — low self-esteem, personal insecurities, history of abuse, meaning of life issues, etc. It could be a highly troubling and repressed issue or memory. The sooner you identify the cause, the sooner you can begin working on the underlying issue.

However, you do not necessarily need to resolve the problem to resolve the anxiety. If your anxiety is related to a physical disability, for example, you can’t solve the underlying problem, but you can reduce (and potentially eliminate) the anxiety and mental distress that originated from it.

Chronic anxiety can be a symptom of a medical problem. Conditions of the heart, endocrine system, and nervous systems, among others, have been known to cause anxiety. Anxiety is a common symptom of Parkinson’s disease, for example.⁶ If you seem to have developed anxiety out of the blue, think about what other changes have occurred in your health. Have you had heart palpitations or felt confused lately? If nothing notable has happened in your life and you have started to feel anxiety along with other changes in your health, it could be worth a visit to the doctor to see if your anxiety has a medical basis.

This article describes various ways of treating and preventing anxiety. No technique works for everyone. Like everything in mental health, the most “effective,” “evidence-based” anxiety-relieving methods work for only a minority of people. You will have to experiment to see what works for you. Fortunately, there are many actions you can take that have shown statistically significant improvements in clinical trials on anxiety. Since you know yourself best, you can also come up with your own unique ways of managing or resolving your anxiety.

Anxiety is not in itself a medical disease. It has no set of ‘scientific treatments’ that must be administered for relief to occur. Any actions or mental habits that improve upon your happiness have potential to reduce your anxiety. For example, spending more time doing things that you enjoy is probably as effective a weapon against your anxiety as taking a pill or seeing a counselor.

Techniques and habits of the mind can help you deal with anxiety. Often, anxiety originates from what we think about. If we think about distressing issues or memories, anxiety naturally follows. Gently directing our attention towards a more positive area can prevent those negative thoughts from getting out of hand.

Cognitive methods can help with anxiety from any cause, however. Anxiety with a situational or physiological basis often incites negative thinking that in turn exacerbates the original anxiety. Being more intentional with your thoughts and attitude can prevent that destructive cycle from occurring. Cognitive mental health strategies can also mitigate the original anxiety. For example, if you tend to get anxious when it’s time to open your bills, you could practice cognitive methods so that it becomes less of a stressor for you. Furthermore, cognitive methods can help you to psychologically cope with physical or somatic anxiety.

Reframing refers to intentionally thinking differently about something in order to lessen the pain from it. If you have anxiety because of an unpleasant situation at home, maybe it won’t bother you as much if you think about it from a different angle. For example, if it brings you anxiety to think about the poor, small digs that you have, try reframing your humble abode as a smart move that lets you save up money.

Reframing can be applied to anything that bothers you to think about. If you frequently have troubling thoughts about being overweight, reframe your weight issue into something more benign. Rather than feeling inadequate when you think of your weight, tell yourself that your weight gain is an inevitable part of aging, or your white-collar lifestyle. The new frame doesn’t need to be literally true. It only needs to make you feel less pain when you think about the issue in question.

Often, an exploration into the offending thoughts will reveal them to be meritless. This is the basis of CBT. Use Socratic reasoning — asking yourself in series why you believe something or why something is important. Sometimes this results in the anxiety-producing thoughts being re-evaluated as not credible or important.

For instance, you may have anxiety regarding a romantic relationship which you don’t think is going very well. After devoting some time to thinking about your relationship, however, you realize that your relationship has many good aspects and is comparable to “happy” couples. Or possibly you have anxiety over the prospect of losing your job but after putting more thought into the issue you conclude that your job is, in fact, reasonably secure. Often our emotions get ahead of us and grow much larger than the problem warrants.

It is important to recognize that thoughts are just thoughts. You don’t need to listen to them or give them any credence.

Reframes are a vital tool in mental health. We all do it already, in fact. Ever been dumped, told yourself that you are “too good for [him or her]” and “can do so much better,” and immediately felt relief from your broken heart? That is reframing. But sometimes we need to be more deliberate or creative when we have something on our minds that has been causing us extensive distress.

Mental reframing need not involve a past event. It can also be future-directed. The rate of change in society has become exponential in the 2020s. With AI, human rights abuses, demographic recomposition, and other changes in society, it can be hard to plan for the future five years from now, yet alone for your retirement.

But there are always anxiety-reducing angles that can be taken for any stressor. For example, if you have robot or AI-related stress, you could try thinking about how everything will be so much cheaper in 15 years once robots are ‘doing everything.’ Perhaps the cheap-goods argument for AI will not ultimately prove to be accurate, but if it lowers your distress, it is an effective reframe of your anxiety.

Anxiety is often brought about by rumination on troubling issues. Thus, if you redirect your mind away from the troubling thoughts, your anxiety will probably be relieved. Trying to just ‘not think about it’ doesn’t work most of the time. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to halt a negative thought train or gently direct your mind away from the bothersome thoughts.

Turning your attention towards your physical senses can be an excellent way to ‘get out of your head.’ You can use your sense of touch and feel your back against your chair or your feet on the ground. You can focus on your sight. Look around and identify four objects. Or try sitting still and listening to the sounds around you. By intentionally placing your attention on your senses, you take attention away from your negative thoughts.

The distress brought about from our thoughts is largely based upon the validity that we give those thoughts. It is important to recognize that thoughts are just thoughts. You don’t need to listen to them or give them any credence.

For instance, you may feel anxiety or distress whenever you think about your finances. Perhaps you are in debt and trying to get out. Thinking of yourself as a financial failure for accumulating debt won’t do you any good. If you have recurring thoughts of inadequacy in the money department, recognize that these thoughts do not come from you. They come from the bully in your brain and you don’t have to listen to them. A lot of people have precarious finances. It doesn’t mean that you need to listen to the bully in your brain bug you about it all the time.

Unless you are directly dealing with a source of stress or brainstorming how to resolve it, thinking about an issue won’t do you any good. It is easy to get stuck in rumination in which you perpetually think about a troubling issue far more than is necessary or productive. One way of dealing with this is to name the bully in your head and politely tell him “Thank you, [name] but I am aware that I am in debt. I do not need you to remind me.” Or simply a Thank you or That’s enough. Many people find that their inner bully is more likely to leave them alone if they don’t get angry with him or her.

So many of the thoughts we have throughout the day are just our human brains overemphasizing threats in order to keep us safe. Some psychologists believe our brains evolved this way in order to protect us from harm and allow us to reproduce. In a cruel irony, the human proclivity for negative thoughts is what has allowed our species to survive for hundreds of thousands of years. But in modern society, threats to our lives are few. Our brains have yet to adapt to this new reality so it helps to be intentional in distancing yourself from excessive negative or fearful thinking.

Meta-cognition refers to the thoughts and feelings that we have about our thoughts and feelings. Much anxiety is indirect, caused by thinking about the original anxiety — we feel ashamed for having anxiety and thus develop anxiety about our anxiety. This can cause a downward spiral.

Negative meta-cognition is a major source of negative emotions and thoughts. It usually is not even apparent to the individual at first. In the 2020s, you may have come across mental health ads stating, “It’s okay not to be okay.” That is a reference to meta-cognition.

In Western society (and even more in non-Western societies), it is taboo to have anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, or any persistent mental calamity. In fact, only in the past three years or so has the taboo against men mentioning their emotions started to crack. Emotions are the medium through which humans exist.

There is nothing wrong with you for having anxiety or another emotional disturbance regularly other than the direct suffering that it causes you. In no way is someone lesser for having an anxiety problem. The people you respect the most could have more anxiety than you, just know how to hide it.

Recognize that your anxiety is normal and natural. It does not represent a failure on your part. Most people are able to function well despite their anxiety. For those that are not, it is still out of their control. Would you judge someone you loved for having severe anxiety? Almost everyone would say no. So how can you judge yourself?

When you accept that negative thoughts and emotions are ultimately beyond your control, and a natural part of life for everyone, you may start to see them decrease markedly. If that happens, it means that a large part of your emotions were due to negative meta-cognition about those emotions.

Quite possibly, ceasing judging yourself for your anxiety is the lowest hanging fruit for recovery. It can begin lowering your anxiety immediately. It may take time to get used to the idea that you are every bit as valid as a person for having your anxiety with nothing to feel ashamed about. It is a gradual process.

Not all anxiety sufferers have an issue with negative meta-cognition. In some people, especially from stoic cultures, most of their anxiety is anxiety about their anxiety. As mentioned above, it is often difficult to know which category you are in at first. However, reminding yourself It’s okay not to be okay and recognizing that your emotions are natural and not representative of personal shortcomings, is essential to managing any negative emotion.

Stress and tension are a part of anxiety. Many individuals’ struggle with anxiety is more about never being able to feel at ease more than ruminating on a specific issue. Learning to relax is therefore an important tool to deal with your anxiety. If you only feel anxious when thinking about certain things, relaxation can also help. Emotions do come from thoughts, but thoughts also come from mental and physical feelings. The more you are able to get into a tranquil state of mind, the less those negative thoughts will arise and the weaker they will be when they arise.

Breathing can be an effective way to relax. Breathing in for around 5 seconds followed by breathing out for 8 seconds is often a good place to start. Breathing slowly with longer exhalations than inhalations has been shown to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, your body’s relaxation software. Put your attention on your breath the next time you feel anxious. Some people find it helpful to imagine the air as energy entering and leaving the body.

Often, the best way to deal with any psychological problem is to talk it out. Relating our thoughts, feelings, and troubles to another is part of human nature. You may notice that your anxiety is considerably diminished once you start talking to someone about it.

The ‘someone’ can be a friend, relative, peer, or professional. There is ample research to demonstrate that people with very little counseling training are just as effective counselors as credentialed, licensed mental health professionals.^13,14

If you are subject to thoughts of inadequacy, you should write down a list of at least 10 things that make you feel like a valid, even exceptional, person.

What you talk about is up to you. You may want to describe your anxiety symptoms and triggers in detail. You may want to focus on your life problems rather than your symptoms. As a rule, if you feel like talking about it, you should. Of course, many counselors won’t permit that — they only allow their clients to answer narrow questions as per the CBT manual.

Talking about your problems or anxiety can have many benefits. You can release feelings that you may not have even known that you had. For instance, you may begin by discussing your current anxiety and find yourself crying about a past relationship that you thought had nothing to do with your current state of mental health.

Talking can also be a great way to think through your problems. Funny how you can ponder an issue privately for years yet make more progress on it after a few hours of talking to someone.

Sometimes, having a listener gives you that little oomph of self-honesty or discipline that can get you through a plateau of working out the issue.

Many people who have tried group therapy find it immensely rewarding. Like individual therapy, the degree to which group therapy is beneficial hinges on how well you get along with the counselor and other group members. Research shows that if you have an affinity with the other members and get along well with them, you will like group therapy and keep attending.¹⁵ If the group just doesn’t do it for you, you are unlikely to stay in the group for long. Group therapy is about the people in addition to the process.

A pragmatic way of dealing with negative thoughts is to challenge them with lists of countering information. If you are subject to thoughts of inadequacy, you should write down a list of at least 10 things that make you feel like a valid, even exceptional, person. Write down good qualities that you have, things you’ve done that give you pride, people who have liked you, and so on.

Take a look at the list occasionally — not only when you are feeling down. When the thoughts of inadequacy enter your mind, challenge them with the countering, corrective points that you have memorized or glance at the list. You may realize that the thoughts lack merit. If not, who cares if you have faults anyhow with so many good things to like about yourself? Do the people who have insulted you not have any faults?

Countering information can be used for any issue. If you worry about nefarious activity of your government, such as corruption or human rights abuses, make a list of things your government does that you like.

Even corporate-captured governments provide some public goods such as utilities and infrastructure. You can also make a list of why you shouldn’t care what the politicians are up to. For example, your life probably isn’t any different from before you heard the news; there is statistically nothing you can do about anything the government does; if the policy is really terrible, it will probably be reversed at some point, etc.

Make a list of your troubling thoughts and make lists for counterpoints for each one. Check out the lists regularly so that when the disturbing thoughts arise, you have a ready-made lawyer’s case against them. When you see how your negative thoughts are invalid or unimportant, they should lose their power and become less frequent.

As in sports, playing to your strengths is advantageous when dealing with anxiety.^16,17 An entire modality of counseling, solution-focused brief therapy, rests upon this principle. Utilizing your strengths and capabilities is a rational approach for any problem. Why should mental health be different?

The strengths could be personal qualities, successful coping strategies, physical or social resources, etc. If you have dealt with mental health issues successfully in the past, you could endeavor to apply those strategies towards your anxiety. For instance, you may be good at tackling negative thoughts with countering information.

A strength can also be a skill that you have, such as being organized. Perhaps you have been more organized in the past and currently find your anxiety is worse during your free time. You could try adding some structure to your day to see if it helps, even if it is just things that you do at home.

Marshalling your internal and external resources to fight your anxiety requires putting in some exploration time. Brainstorm what resources you have had in the past, possess currently, or could develop going forward. The discovery process can be fun and rewarding in itself.

Meditation involves sitting still with eyes closed and being intentional with your attention. You may try to think about something specific, such as a concept or part of your body, or you may try to not think about anything at all.

Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years in Asia, for spiritual and mental health reasons. Since the 1990s, meditation has become a very popular practice promoted by Western psychologists. There have been over 60 clinical trials examining the effectiveness of meditation on anxiety symptoms.¹⁸

A 2018 meta-analysis of meditation-based interventions for anxiety reported a medium level of improvement in symptoms initially with an insignificant effect upon follow-up.¹⁹ This corresponds with a 2012 meta-analysis which also found a medium effect size.²⁰ The 2018 analysis found significantly higher effectiveness in Asian rather than Western studies. The East-West difference is likely due to the high status of meditation in Asia and the strong stigma for being bad at meditating.

Acceptance means to mentally shut off the struggle switch in your head.

Both meta-analyses consisted primarily of psychotherapy that included mindfulness exercises. The sole meta-analysis for meditation as a stand-alone intervention calculated that meditation had a relatively small effect on anxiety symptoms.

Despite the apparent evidence that some people with anxiety benefit from meditation, there are many drawbacks to meditating. Many studies on meditation for mental health did not ask participants about any downsides of the practice. Probably owing to its religious foundations, it is taboo for one to say that he does not enjoy meditation, or is not good at meditating. There is strong social pressure (anywhere in the world) to report that you meditate well and love to meditate. For these reasons, self-reports on meditation are untrustworthy.

For many people, meditation does have a negative effect, adversely affecting their mental health, self-esteem, or physical health. A 2026 paper found that 25% to 87% of people practicing meditation reported adverse events.²¹ Not all adverse events are transitory experiences during meditation sittings. One observational study reported that 25% of subjects were adversely affected by meditation practice in their daily lives when they were not meditating.²¹

As with any anxiety-relieving strategy, only personal experimentation will determine if meditation will be a net benefit for you. According to a 2023 literature review on meditation for anxiety, expect to meditate for at least 8 weeks before experiencing a drop in anxiety.²²

Everyone hates to hear this, but developing greater gratitude is a key factor in mental health. Intentional appreciation and gratefulness for what you have can lower your anxiety.

Take an inventory of the things that you like in your life. Regularly think about how those things improve your life and how you would be worse off without them. They may be things that you have made a habit of taking for granted to the point where you don’t even think about them.

A 2023 meta-analysis of gratitude interventions calculated that it lowered anxiety ratings 7.76% further than control groups.²³ Another 2023 meta-analysis reviewed studies for gratitude’s effect on life satisfaction. It determined that there was a strong correlation between gratitude and life satisfaction.²⁴ The reviewed lab experiments on gratitude did not outperform other interventions involving positive thinking, however, the lab environment may not provide the best representation of the real world (i.e., in real life, you can practice gratitude and other types of positive thinking).

Western countries have been undergoing change at a very high rate in the past decade. It is easy to let these negative changes get you down and long for earlier days. However, Western countries still have many benefits that residents seldom discuss such as higher incomes or lower crime rates; that’s why everyone wants to move to them. If you are distressed over, for example, human rights abuses in your country, think about how worse they are in some countries, such as China or Afghanistan.

In addition to comparative gratitude, you can also look for positive aspects of things you dislike. Perhaps you have anxiety related to a mean, strict boss. As much as you dislike her, maybe there is something about her that you do like. For example, she might excel at making sure your team meets its deadlines. If you remind yourself regularly about that positive trait, you may think less (or care less) about her shrewd personality.

Gratitude is a skill that can be developed over time. At first, just the thought of dealing with your anxiety by making yourself feel more grateful for what you have is probably going to make you feel angry. Somehow, the mere idea feels like a slap in the face. It may seem unnatural and ingenuine in the beginning, but making a habit of thinking about the positive things in your life can be invaluable to a sustained peace of mind.

If there was one secret to mental health, I would say that it was acceptance. Anxiety comes about from an inner conflict — you don’t like how your life or world is, and you wished it were different. Wanting a better life and world are universal, so how come it causes perpetual distress in some people but not others with similar life situations? The answer, I believe, lies in acceptance.

Turning off the struggle switch is a good analogy for acceptance. It doesn’t mean that you have to like anything or feel that anything is okay. It also doesn’t mean that you don’t try to fix your personal problems. Acceptance means to mentally shut off the struggle switch in your head.

When your practice acceptance, you will still dislike the rush hour gridlock and want to avoid it, but you will turn off the mental resistance to it. Anxiety and mental distress don’t arise from problems so much as our desire to change the problem. The less desire you feel to change something, the lower will be your anxiety. If traffic bothers you, tell yourself that it’s how it is, there’s nothing you can do about it and that it’s okay. That should lower your distress relative to telling yourself that the traffic shouldn’t be like this and it is unacceptable.

Acceptance is also effective when applied directly to your mental health. If you feel anxious with no discernible cause, actively apply acceptance. Tell yourself that your emotions are natural. Everyone has them. Let go of the desire for the anxiety to go away.

This doesn’t mean stop wanting to get rid of the anxiety intellectually. That’s impossible. Of course, you don’t want to feel a negative emotion, but as much as you can, flex the muscle of letting go of the desire to be free of the anxiety. It may help to playfully make a game of it: “Hey, Anxiety. Nice to see you again. Where have you been all day? I’ve missed you.”

Once your struggle against the emotion loosens, the emotion tends to slip away. Like a Chinese finger trap, the more you struggle with your anxiety, the tighter its grip on you will become. By relinquishing your desire for your anxiety, or its related problems, to go away, they paradoxically tend to go away.

In many ways, self-compassion is even more fundamental to mental health than acceptance. Learning to love and accept yourself is the foundation of dealing with anxiety that is related to how you feel about yourself. When you really love and feel compassion for yourself — as you would your children or romantic partner — how can you feel distressed over minor things? Even for issues that you feel are major, would you judge someone you loved so harshly?

Developing a greater sense of self-compassion can be difficult but there are ways to encourage it. Looking at yourself as if you were someone else is one way. Think of yourself as a child and focus on how much you want that child to be happy. Imagine yourself talking to, comforting, and hugging the child. Now think about how you are that child now. How dare you treat that young girl or boy harshly, even though they are now grown up?

Imagine that someone you care about, such as a spouse, child, or close friend, was hurting. How would you feel about that? Probably, you would be strongly against it. Now imagine that their pain was self-inflicted. Do you feel any differently? In all likelihood, you would be equally opposed to them suffering.

Meaning is inseparable from mental health. It determines how we interpret situations, events, thoughts, and feelings.

Next, ask yourself how that person would feel if you were in self-inflicted pain? Most likely, they would also be strongly opposed to seeing you in pain. Finally, ask yourself what gives you the right to hurt yourself with your self-criticism. You are hurting someone that your loved ones care about. Taken from another angle, the best thing you can do for someone who loves you is to be happy yourself.

Self-compassion is inextricably linked with acceptance. Loving yourself involves accepting that you have faults — many faults — but you’re still very special anyhow. It involves accepting that many things are outside of your control and are therefore not worth worrying or feeling bad about.

Growing your self-love and self-compassion is a lifelong process. These were just a few tips to give it a boost.

Embracing the mystery of life is a way of dealing with anxiety that has been lost in modern times. Today, if you don’t act like an expert on every arbitrary topic, you will be accused of being stupid and pathologically unconfident! That contrasts with the historic norm in which people were mainly expected to know their trade, role in the community, and religion.

Worrying about the unknown is a major source of anxiety. Why is society changing so quickly? When will I find a job? How come my cousin stopped calling? Not knowing something that you really want to know is inherently stressful. However, a shift in perspective regarding unknowns can contribute to your enjoyment of life.

For instance, rapid social change could be seen as making life more unpredictable and exciting. Unemployment is certainly difficult, but it also means that your life could radically change for the better at any time when you do find a good job. Ironically, people who appear to have picture-perfect lives are often not very happy. Many of them find their lives rather monotonous and long for the excitement and mystery of less ‘successful’ people.

Some faiths, such as Orthodox Christianity and Zen Buddhism, recommend embracing the mysteries of existence rather than trying to find answers to every spiritual question. Mystery is like an advanced form of acceptance. With acceptance, you tolerate things that you don’t like. With mystery, you derive fulfillment from things that you don’t know. Don’t you enjoy a movie more the first time you watch it when you don’t know what will happen next?

If you worry excessively about what will happen in the future or what others think about you, try thinking of yourself as the main character in a thriller or take a step back and revel in the grand enigma of the world.

It could help to look at life from the opposite direction: imagine that you were omniscient. You know everything that is happening and everything that will ever happen in the world, including everyone’s thoughts and feelings. Take a minute to imagine what that would be like. Wouldn’t it kinda suck in some ways? Who would want that? How boring would your life be if it had absolutely no mystery?

Anxiety often arises when your life does not meet your expectations. If everyone treated you well, you succeeded in all of your pursuits, your society was exactly how you wanted it to be, and your self-esteem was sky high, you would probably have very little anxiety.

Prior to the modern era, there was no science. The fields of psychology and medicine did not exist. The problem of life dissatisfaction was treated as a philosophical problem. Secular and religious pontification on the deeper meanings behind human life provided the remedy for poor mental health.

Today, we do have various spheres of research for mental health, allowing us to empirically search for ways to lower anxiety. However, our humanity is the same as it was thousands of years ago. Our experience of life is largely a product of the value and meaning that we project onto our inner and outer experiences.

To some people, singlehood is something entirely negative, even something that warrants shame. To other people, being single, while not ideal, is at least an opportunity to grow and exercise a high degree of freedom. Same situation — different experience. The latter case will likely derive less distress from having no romantic partner.

It can be deeply rewarding to hold a light of meaning to your problems. Whether it is a situational life problem or a purely mental issue, diving into the philosophical side of the issue can provide an opportunity for mental adjustment. If you have anxiety related to online bullying, for example, take a step back and ask yourself if spending hours per day on social media is the best use of your time. Clarify with yourself what has value and meaning to you personally. Perhaps you will decide that the opinions of a few mean people are not important anyhow.

The question of meaning can help you deal with your anxiety itself, especially with meta-cognition. If you have guilt surrounding the anxiety, ask yourself if having anxiety makes you a lesser person. Is it okay to feel down sometimes as everyone does? Perhaps your anxiety has a spiritual significance to you, like it is showing you that you need to attend your place of worship more often.

Meaning is inseparable from mental health. It determines how we interpret situations, events, thoughts, and feelings. Having anxiety can be an opportunity to reevaluate and explore what you value and what you want out of life. Taking a big step back can make it possible to restructure your mental world into one with greater peace.

Changing how you spend your time has the potential to lower anxiety levels. Some activities tend to raise anxiety, while others tend to lower it. Take care of your body. Seek out positive social environments. Use the Internet responsibly. Make time for rewarding hobbies. Being intentional with how you spend your time fosters a peaceful mind.

A trigger is something that results in you experiencing a negative emotion. Anxiety can be general with little relation to triggers. However, most people have triggers that give them anxiety or make their anxiety worse.

The trigger could be mental. Thinking about anything that you find disturbing can cause anxiety. The thoughts could be about a person you don’t like, a bad memory, uncertainty about the future, cultural dislikes, or something about yourself. Intentionally not thinking about the things that bother you often backfires and results in you thinking about them more. However, experimenting with the cognitive approaches outlined above can help to keep your thoughts more positive.

When you start feeling anxious, think about what is happening at the time. In the past couple of years, more people have started to notice that using social media gives them anxiety. Mainstream, alternative, and social media are notorious for their negativity. More and more people are drastically reducing their exposure to the media or sticking to the more constructive channels.

Even something as simple as being in your home too much can cause anxiety. If you find that your mental health suffers after being in your home for a few hours, identify a few low-cost ways of resolving that. Go for a walk; make smaller, more frequent grocery trips; watch the game at your friend’s place; hang out in your backyard.

You may also be able to identify ways of making your home life better. For instance, spending more time cooking or talking on the phone can be good ways of staying in a positive mood at home. Idleness and isolation tend to breed anxiety and depression.

Many triggers are difficult to avoid, or best to not avoid. If you are a student, there is no getting around writing tests and submitting assignments if you want to graduate. If you’re single, it is inherently nerve-wracking meeting new people and going on dates, but you can’t find a partner by avoiding those things. There can be ways to lower the stress that the events cause, however. For instance, academic stress is probably considerably less when you plan your time well and do not cram at the last minute.

Admittedly, you won’t find an article from a licensed head wizard recommending avoiding any trigger. Licensed counselors know that they have nothing of value to offer. They can only get business by resorting to shame tactics, including shaming people for avoiding triggers or disturbing thoughts, using recreational drugs, and literally doing anything that could make your mental health better.

A lack of positive, in-person social interaction is a risk factor for anxiety at any age. Perhaps it is the unfulfilled desire to have a better social life that creates the anxiety. Perhaps interpersonal communication is such an innate human need that our brains will experience distress without sufficient social stimulation. Researchers have also documented that a low level of socialization is associated with poor coping skills and heightened reactions to stress exposure.

If you struggle with both anxiety and loneliness, increasing your level of socialization could prove to be of immense benefit to your anxiety. Decreasing loneliness is good for your mental health in many ways. In addition to its link with anxiety, loneliness is associated with depression, hopelessness, low self-esteem, and negativity.

Developing your social life is not always easy. The lowest hanging fruit would be to not let yourself withdraw socially, which is common among people dealing with anxiety. Allowing yourself to withdraw often results in the anxiety getting worse.

In general, the older you get, the more intentional you need to be with your social life. A teenager can simply talk to his classmates more in the halls of his high school. Twentysomethings have nightlife and athletics for social structure.

Middle-aged people usually do not attend school, and are often not interested in nightlife or sports. For that age group, work connections often take on increasing importance. Seniors have many barriers to having a social life. They are often retired and have physical or cognitive limitations. However, there are organizations that provide activities specifically to seniors, such as group exercise classes or playing cards.

Regular socialization is not a luxury — it is a pillar of mental health! If you are prone to lonesomeness, you should try different ways of getting more social interaction. You may not necessarily get exactly the social life that you want, but hopefully you can improve upon your present social situation and see improvements in your anxiety.

There is moderate evidence for exercise as an anxiety treatment. A 2023 BMJ paper evaluated 97 systematic reviews for physical activity interventions for anxiety, depression, and distress. It concluded that low-impact exercise had a small beneficial effect, and moderate-to-high intensity-exercise had a medium effect on reducing anxiety.²⁵

A 2024 systematic review of exercise as an anxiety treatment stated that only 2 of the 13 trials assessed unequivocally demonstrated that it was effective.²⁶ The paper concluded that there was uncertainty about the impact of exercise on anxiety, partly owing to the poor quality of the studies.

A number of theories have been proposed to explain how exercise can reduce anxiety.²⁷ Exercise:

1. provides a distraction from rumination
2. confers opportunities for socialization
3. lowers sensitivity to anxiety symptoms
4. improves self-efficacy
5. lowers inflammation and oxidative stress
6. releases endorphins, which improve mood
7. improves physical health, making your body more resilient to symptoms of anxiety
8. modifies noradrenergic and serotonergic pathways

Trials of L-lysine + L-arginine combination supplementation for people with anxiety have found the supplement to reduce anxiety more than in subjects taking placebo.

Increasing physical activity isn’t as critical to managing anxiety as it is to depression, but it has helped some people with their anxiety symptoms. Higher intensity activity, such as weightlifting or cardio, usually performed better than lower intensity activity in anxiety treatment trials.^28,29

Seniors receive significant reduction in anxiety from any type of physical activity, according to a 2024 meta-analysis, provided it is continued for at least 10 weeks.³¹

There is a small amount of peer reviewed literature relating to the effect of diet or nutritional supplementation on anxiety. Higher quality diets are associated with better mental health in large part due to the fact that people with worse mental health tend to maintain less healthy diets.

A survey in Switzerland of anxiety and diet quality found that people with an anxiety disorder had lower quality diets.³⁰ One study in Iran found that people with the top quartile of healthy diets had a 41% lower risk of having an anxiety disorder than those in the bottom quartile.³¹ Despite the correlation, there is little empirical evidence that improving one’s diet lowers anxiety.

A 2019 meta-analysis of clinical trials of diet and anxiety discovered that over 11 trials, diet interventions had no effect on anxiety.³² Nevertheless, with healthy, Mediterranean-style diets associated with positive mental health, improving diet quality could mitigate symptoms in some individuals suffering from anxiety.³³

Trials of L-lysine + L-arginine combination supplementation for people with anxiety have found the supplement to reduce anxiety more than in subjects taking placebo.³⁴ A Japanese trial of 108 healthy subjects given L-lysine + L-arginine found a significant decrease in both state anxiety and trait anxiety.³⁵ Zinc deficiency is more common in people with anxiety. A 70-day trial of 30 mg/day zinc supplementation in the elderly found that anxiety scores decreased a little more for those taking the zinc pills rather than the placebo.³⁶

How you spend your time effects your mental health.³⁷ An activity may raise, lower, or not affect your level of anxiety. Consuming the news, using social media, and excessive time indoors or sitting, are a few ways of spending time that are known to elevate anxiety in many people. By contrast, time spent in a pleasant outdoor setting, associating with kind people in person, engaged in artistic endeavors, or engaged in pastimes, have the potential to lower levels of anxiety.

Anxiety is not a medical disorder, though it can be a symptom of one. Any steps you take that add happiness to your life are likely to result in less anxiety.

Try not to withdraw from your hobbies or social life due to your anxiety. That tends to lead to greater anxiety. In fact, lack of happiness is itself a cause of anxiety.

Just going to work and doing errands everyday without spending any significant time on fun or relaxing activities, is a recipe for poor mental health. Human brains innately seek happiness. Failure or difficulty in that process often leads to anxiety and depression, especially in youth. Perhaps ‘emotional disorders’ are our brains’ way of telling us, “Stop neglecting me. I deserve to be happy!”

Activities which get one into a flow state have been known to improve mental health. A flow state is one in which you feel immersed in an activity such that your mind does not wander. Sense of time may be altered while in a flow state. It may feel like time is going by at a faster or slower pace. Any type of activity — physical, social, intellectual — has potential to put you in a flow state. One may enter a flow state reading, driving, listening to music, watching a sunset, or doing cardio, for instance.

Leisure may hold particular importance among seniors in preventing or treating anxiety. A survey of 225 retirees in the U.S. found that greater participation and satisfaction in leisure pursuits were correlated with lower levels of anxiety.³⁸ A large survey of 9,859 seniors in China found leisure to be associated with lower levels of anxiety and depression.³⁹ The Chinese study included social, physical, cognitive, and intellectual activities. Some studies have found that greater cultural engagement is associated with lower levels of depression and anxiety in seniors, but others have not.⁴¹

If you suffer from anxiety, you may need to be more intentional regarding your time. You may have bad habits which sustain your anxiety. Making a list of activities that you think would be good for your anxiety can be helpful. Scheduling can also help. If you have low motivation, try penning into your planner little things like going to the gym or taking a bath. After some time, the new activities will become habits, so you won’t need much motivation to do them.

The road to mental health and overcoming anxiety is as much about adding positive things to your life as it is about cognitive coping and managing triggers. How to walk that road is highly individual. Some people thrive best when they work long hours and are always ‘too busy.’ Others can benefit from a slower pace. Frequently, anxiety is not so much a disorder in itself but a warning from your brain that you have unmet needs and desires in your life.

The honeymoon with social media is over. Once hailed as the embodiment of social, democratic, and technological progress, awareness is growing on its true effects on our lives. Numerous studies have linked social media use to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and loneliness.^40,41,42 Greater time spent on social media is associated with increased psychological distress.⁴³ Some researchers have gone as far as to identify social media and smartphone use as the source of the current youth anxiety epidemic.^44,45,46

Research reveals a nuanced picture for social media and anxiety. Causation is likely bidirectional.⁴⁷ Social media use can cause anxiety and people with anxiety tend to use it more. Not all forms of use are associated with anxiety.⁴⁷ For some people, social media is a net positive and provides valued interpersonal communication and auxiliary social support.

If you use social media, notice how it makes you feel. Do you feel peaceful and happy when you use social media, or angry and distressed? When you feel distressed, ask yourself if it is related to something that you saw on social media.

If social media appears to cause you anxiety, you may consider using it differently. That could mean decreasing or ceasing its use, or changing how you use it. For instance, opting to view posts by one channel at a time, rather than looking at your app-determined feed, can weed out a lot of negative content. Refraining from reading comments on posts can also make social media a more positive experience. Active use of social media (posting, rather than only reading) is associated with better psychological well-being than passive use.

Use of social media can be harmful indirectly, as well as directly. It is not uncommon for people to spend a few hours everyday on social media. Are there other activities that you could do instead that would be better for your mental health? People don’t spend as much time on the phone as they have in prior decades. Perhaps exchanging half an hour of your daily social media/messaging time for phone or video calls, for example, would improve your anxiety.

An excellent question to ask yourself regarding your sedentary activities is, Am I doing this because it is the thing I most want to do at this moment, or am I doing this just to use up time?

Inhalation of certain essential oils has demonstrated anxiolytic properties in many clinical trials. Pooled results from a 2020 meta-analysis of trials of aromatherapy for inhalation and massage showed that anxiety levels were significantly reduced.⁴⁸ No side effects were mentioned in any of the 32 included studies.

A 2023 meta-analysis of essential oils inhaled for anxiety found that the oils could effectively reduce anxiety.⁴⁹ Jasmine had the greatest efficacy, followed by citrus aurantium L., then damask rose. Cumulative duration of 30 to 100 minutes was optimal for inhaling jasmine, while 10 to 30 minutes was optimal for the other studied oils.

A 2022 meta-analysis of aromatherapy in the treatment of anxiety in cancer patients stated that aromatherapy was effective, particularly when using lavender.⁵⁰ A 2018 paper on Citrus aurantium and Citrus sinensis found that inhaling each of them had beneficial effects on anxiety.⁵¹

Lavender is probably the most researched essential oil used as aromatherapy. A 2023 systematic review looked at lavender inhalation as a treatment for anxiety. It concluded that inhaling lavender significantly decreases anxiety regardless of which species is used.⁵² A 2019 systematic review of clinical trials on lavender in anxiety treatment found that inhaled lavender was effective in lowering anxiety.⁵³ The paper highlighted the benefits of lavender aromatherapy for its simplicity, safety, and affordability.

There are many essential oils that are used in aromatherapy. Try a few different oils to see which ones you like the best.

Disclaimer: Any medication, drug, herb, or medical procedure can have side effects. Psychelics carry major risks not mentioned in clinical trials including overdose, panic attacks, and nightmarishly bad trips. Do thorough research for yourself on the potential side effects for the specific product or procedure that you are considering. Do not rely on your doctor or pharmacist for informed consent. Effectiveness and side effects vary greatly from person to person.

In the medical industry, anxiety is typically treated with medication. Antidepressants (SSRIs and SNRIs) are usually the first line of medical treatment. If little improvement is seen, quetiapine (an antipsychotic) or buspirone may be added to the antidepressant regimen, or your doctor could transition to a benzodiazepine.

Many herbs have clinical evidence of effectiveness in the treatment of anxiety. In clinical trials, saffron and Silexan have demonstrated effectiveness equivalent to that of SSRIs. Herbs generally carry little to no side effects. Therefore, they should be the first line of medical treatment. There is no reason to suffer from the side effects of medications when lavender essential oil (Silexan) works just as well and is essentially side effect-free.

Antidepressants

SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) and SNRIs (serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) are often collectively referred to as ‘antidepressants’ even though they are also commonly prescribed for anxiety. This is the first class of drugs that a doctor would consider prescribing for anxiety.

One can expect to begin to see improvement within one month and the full effect 2 or 3 months after beginning treatment. SSRIs tend to have better efficacy with higher doses, while dose bears little effect on the efficacy of SNRIs.^54,55 This class of drugs can have considerable side effects, such as weight gain and nausea.

Tricyclic antidepressants are first-generation psychiatric drugs sometimes still used in the treatment of anxiety. They are not often prescribed because they carry significantly worse side effects than SSRIs and SNRIs.

Benzodiazepines

Benzodiazepines are sometimes prescribed for anxiety in cases where antidepressants have not worked sufficiently. This class of anxiolytics has greater efficacy than antidepressants and effects can be felt within an hour of taking a dose.⁵⁶ The fast onset of action allows them to be used to treat panic attacks as they occur.⁵⁷ Benzos are not only effective for psychological relief, but also physical relief. They treat insomnia, catatonia, and somatic symptoms of anxiety.^58,59

Benzodiazepines were once doctors’ first choice for the treatment of anxiety. Unfortunately, their use makes one highly susceptible to sedation, addiction, and tolerance.⁵² For these reasons (addictability paramount), regular use is not recommended for more than a few weeks at a time, and usually only after antidepressants have failed to control symptoms.⁶⁰

Other Medications

Buspirone has similar effectiveness in treating anxiety as benzodiazepines, but without the sedation, tolerance, and addiction.⁶¹ It takes a few weeks to begin working. Buspirone is often added to a SSRI/SNRI treatment to increase efficacy.⁵⁶ It is not usually used by itself, although some researchers consider it a viable first-line alternative to SSRIs for anxiety.⁵²

This drug is relatively side effect friendly. Over 10% of users experience dizziness, but the weight gain and sexual side effects of antidepressants are absent.⁶² Since it is safer than benzos, it is often prescribed before starting benzos.

The antipsychotic and insomnia medication, quetiapine, is sometimes used as a second-line monotherapy for anxiety. Its effectiveness is roughly equivalent to SSRIs albeit with markedly worse side effects and potential for abuse.^63,64 Given its low tolerability, quetiapine is usually prescribed only when antidepressants have not improved anxiety.

Building upon the striking potential shown in trials for depression, psychedelic drugs are now starting to be researched for their effect on anxiety. To date, only psilocybin has been investigated in multiple human trials as an anxiety treatment.

A 2025 meta-analysis determined that Silexan is a superior anxiolytic than 19 popular anxiolytic medications.

Psilocybin

A very small number of clinical trials have investigated the impact of psilocybin (the active substance in ‘magic mushrooms’) on anxiety. The evidence base is currently small but promising. A 2020 psilocybin meta-analysis found large improvements for both depression and anxiety.⁶⁵ A 2023 meta-analysis also concluded that psilocybin had statistically significant effects on depression and anxiety.⁶⁶

Adverse effects are low with this substance.⁶⁷ Anxiety, headache, nausea, dizziness, and elevated blood pressure are the most common side effects.⁶⁸ They are mild and generally resolve within 48 hours of psilocybin administration.⁶⁹ Serious side effects are very rare.⁶³ The potential for addiction is also quite low.

There is currently no consensus on effect duration with this drug. It is not a medication you would take everyday like an SSRI. Some studies report that the improvement in anxiety after one dose lasts approximately one month, while other studies have found the improvement to still be significant at a 6-month follow-up.⁷⁰

Psilocybin is particularly suited to seniors. Anxiolytic medications (i.e., SSRIs, benzodiazepines) tend to have worse side effects in the elderly than in younger age groups. Seniors are also more frail and less physically resilient, making it more difficult to cope with the side effects. A meta-analysis of psilocybin in end-of-life patients found that discontinuation, serious side effects, and heart rates were the same for psilocybin users as for control groups.⁶⁸

Anxiolytic medications are typically taken daily, whereas psilocybin need only be taken every few weeks to maintain lower levels of anxiety. The side effects of psilocybin usually last only a number of hours. That makes it superior from a safety point of view to standard anxiety medications — a critical advantage for the frail elderly.

There are many herbs that are reputed to offer anxiolytic effects. With the exception of traditional Chinese preparations, herbs carry very little, if any, side effects. Kava has shown good efficacy in trials on anxiety but is banned in a few countries for the rare adverse effect of acute liver damage. Most anxiolytic herbs do not cause drowsiness — a common side effect of anxiolytic medications.

Silexan, a form of lavender essential oil for oral intake, has the most evidence for an anxiety treatment. A 2025 meta-analysis determined that Silexan is a superior anxiolytic than 19 popular anxiolytic medications.⁷¹ Passionflower and saffron have also performed well in clinical trials for anxiety.⁷²

Unlike with medications, there are generally no contraindications to combining herbs. You can start off by taking one herb for a few weeks and add a second to see if your anxiety decreases further. In China, where herbal medicine has been practiced for centuries, consuming combinations of herbs is the norm.

Traditional Chinese Medicine has many herbs and herbal combinations that are still popular today in treating anxiety throughout East Asia. Xiao Yao San is one. In a 2023 meta-analysis looked at 14 clinical trials of this famous remedy of 8 Chinese herbs. The authors found it to have equal efficacy to synthetic anxiolytics.⁷³ However, it also carries almost as many side effects as anxiolytics. A meta-analysis of Jiu Wei Zhen Xin Granula placed its effectiveness below that of SSRIs but on par with azapirones (SSRI add-ons).⁷⁴ Unfortunately, it also had side effects equivalent to its synthetic comparator (azapirones).

A few herbs for which evidence exists of efficacy in treating anxiety include:^56,70,75,76

• Galphimine-B (G-B)
• Kava
• Chamomile
• Lavender
• Passionflower
• Saffron
• Valerian
• Lemon balm
• Ginkgo biloba
• Ashwagandha
• Galphimia glauca
• Manasamitra Vataka
• St. John’s wort
• black cohosh
• chasteberry

Passionflower

Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) is a perennial plant that has been documented to lower the stress response and subsequently help deal with depression, anxiety, restlessness, and insomnia. A number of clinical trials have assessed the effectiveness of passionflower supplements in the treatment of anxiety. Most have found the herb to be superior to placebo and recommended it for anxiety treatment, though the effects for mild anxiety are smaller.^76,77 Some studies have found that passionflower reduces anxiety as well as the popular anxiety drug, oxazepam.⁷⁸ All studies considered it a side effect-friendly alternative to prescription anxiety drugs.^75,76,79

Saffron

Saffron (Crocus sativus) is a Middle Eastern spice that is also used as a health supplement. Clinical trials of saffron have discovered a large positive effect on anxiety relative to placebo.⁸⁰ A number of trials found that saffron had a statistically equivalent effect on anxiety as common SSRIs prescribed for anxiety.⁸¹ It is rare to experience any side effects and significant side effects are non-existent.^82,83 Saffron is also very effective for depression, which is common among people with anxiety.⁸⁴

Silexan

Silexan is a proprietary form of lavender (genus Lavandula) essential oil produced by a German company. It has had outstanding performance in clinical trials for anxiety treatment. In fact, Silexan has consistently performed as well as common medications (i.e., SSRIs, benzodiazepines) prescribed for anxiety — and with virtually no side effects.

A 2025 meta-analysis of 19 of the most common anxiety medications, plus Silexan, concluded that Silexan had the best combination of efficacy and safety.⁷¹ Silexan was the only herb included in the meta-analysis. Five medications in the paper had higher efficacy than Silexan, but they all carried significant side effects. The authors concluded that Silexan had the “optimal benefit” for treating anxiety disorders among the 20 oral products evaluated.

A 2017 meta-analysis calculated Silexan’s Number Needed to Treat (NNT) for >50% reduction in subthreshold anxiety scores at 6.⁸⁵ That means that for every 6 people with mild anxiety who take it, one person experiences a reduction in symptoms of at least 50%. Intuitively, that doesn’t seem like much. However, a NNT of 6 makes it on par with second-generation antipsychotics, according to the authors. A 12-week 2023 “real-world” study of 50 individuals prescribed Silexan for anxiety found that Silexan effectively resolved symptoms of anxiety in 35 of them.⁸⁶

A meta-analysis published in 2019 found Silexan 80 mg to have similar anxiolytic effectiveness to 20 mg paroxetine, a popular SSRI prescribed for anxiety. 160 mg Silexan was even more effective than 80 mg, according to the authors.⁸⁷

Silexan has been noted to affect all types of anxiety (i.e., subclinical, general anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, phobias), a claim that can’t be made about all anxiolytic drugs.⁸⁸ It also effectively treats insomnia and depression without causing drowsiness.⁸⁹ In trials utilizing general physical and mental health questionnaires, such as the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), significant improvements for all areas of health have been noted for participants receiving Silexan.⁹⁰

In trials that have had arms for both 80 mg/day and 160 mg/day of Silexan, the 160 mg dose has had considerably higher efficacy.^83,85 Since lavender is basically free of side effects, except for occasional GI symptoms,⁸⁵ the only disadvantage of the higher dose would appear to be the increased cost. It would be prudent to begin with one 80 mg pill per day and add a second daily dose after a few weeks if you are not satisfied with the reduction in anxiety. If your anxiety is severe and you don’t mind the extra cost, starting with 160 mg is advisable.

Silexan is produced using a proprietary process using steam distillation on Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender) flowers. The results of Silexan trials therefore shouldn’t necessarily be inferred to any oral preparations of lavender oil. It is possible that other preparations could have similar (or potentially greater) effectiveness in lowering anxiety, but they have not yet been investigated in clinical trials.

Products containing Silexan are available over-the-counter in many countries. In the U.S. and Canada, Nature’s Way Calm-Aid contains the standard 80 mg dose of Silexan. Non-Silexan pills of lavender essential oil are also available, but not necessarily cheaper.

Over a dozen individual herbs have demonstrated greater than placebo effects on anxiety in clinical trials. Lavender essential oil (at least that prepared as Silexan) has ample evidence for being safer than anxiolytic medication yet just as effective. Unlike with medications, herbs can be safely combined for a synergetic effect.⁹¹

Before taking the SSRI plunge for your anxiety, experiment with herbs first. Give each herb about two months to feel the full effects. Like SSRIs, it often takes a few weeks before effects begin. Traditional Chinese medicine also has numerous herbal blends you can try. However, Chinese anxiolytic herbs have lower efficacy and similar rates of side effects as SSRIs, making them less than ideal for first-line treatment.^92,93

There are many evidence-based cognitive, lifestyle, and herbal means of lowering, or potentially curing, persistent anxiety. Cognitive techniques may work immediately, or they may require several weeks of practice before becoming beneficial. Lifestyle strategies are highly individual. Some people thrive best by staying busy, for instance, while others will have better results by simplifying and relaxing more.

Talking to a trusted friend or a counselor can help if you have the opportunity. Anxiolytic medications can be a good option for people who continue to have anxiety after having tried herbs and other forms of self-help.