Dealing with fears

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dealing with fears

Anxiety is generally not a bad thing. It puts our body on alert, which can enable it to perform at its best. Mild anxiety can therefore lead to better performance and learning endurance and improve concentration and effort.

However, if anxiety becomes a constant companion or occurs to a very high degree, it can be paralyzing. Anxiety disorders then lead to restrictions in everyday life and constant worry. Strong nervousness and tension are the consequences. In 2018, a good 16% of RPTU students were reported to be affected by a generalized anxiety disorder.

The good news is that there are ways to face your fears and prevent them from taking over your life. You can find out some tips below.

Typical thinking errors with anxiety

Anxiety disorders are usually caused by an overestimation of situations or feelings. Classic anxiety thinking errors occur. See if any of the points sound familiar.

- The situation is generalized and exaggerated.exaggerated: Words like "always" or "never" or phrases like "I can't do this" are often used.

- Panic plans your day: All plans are made using only safety and avoidance tactics.

- Misjudgements occur: The danger of situations is greatly overestimated and, at the same time, your own ability to help yourself is greatly underestimated.

- The connection to reality is lost: The perceived danger is taken for granted and no attempt is made to counteract it.

Tools against fear

Give your day structure

To give your anxiety less space, it helps if you structure your day. Think about what you want to do during the day or week and write it down, not forgetting to plan time for exercise in the fresh air and with friends. These two factors can also reduce your anxiety.

Live a healthy life

A healthy lifestyle can also help you feel less anxious: Therefore, try to avoid nicotine and caffeine, eat a healthy diet, be physically active and get enough sleep. If you have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, take a look at our tips for improving your sleep patterns.

Experience beautiful things

Treat yourself to something! You deserve to be happy. Think about what you enjoy and plan activities. It's best to take your best friends or roommates with you, because it's even more fun with others.

Turn up the music

A study has investigated how music therapy in combination with aromatherapy affects the anxiety of clinical nursing staff. Both the music therapy itself and the aromatherapy were able to reduce the subjects' feelings of anxiety. The combination of both measures was even more effective than the measures alone.

Relax

Yoga and meditation can reduce students' stress and anxiety levels. And relaxation techniques can also help to reduce anxiety. So try to make time for this regularly.

Shift your focus

Are you in an acute anxiety situation? Then try to shift your concentration to other things.

  • For example, observe your surroundings: which style of clothing of the people around you do you like and which do you dislike?
  • Or notice sounds around you: what exactly do you hear? Can you hear someone laughing or arguing?
  • You can also smell food or try to eat an apple slice as slowly as possible. Does the taste change?
What else you can do

If you want to find a good way of dealing with your fears in the long term, you can develop strategies to train your perception of yourself and your fears.

One option is to train your perception of fear. You can do this by documenting your fears in detail. When do they occur? What do you think during them? How does the fear feel? What strategies help me? This documentation can help you to look at the anxiety situation from the outside and thus exclude the emotional component of the situation. This will train you to keep a cool head in anxiety situations.

Another building block is to instruct yourself. You can increase your motivation by saying things like "I want this and I can do this!". You can also go through anxiety situations in your mind and think about possible strategies for certain situations.

In the long term, you should try to change your fearful thoughts. A reality check can help with this. To do this, make a note of your typical anxiety thoughts and think about what you could think of instead. Like this, for example:

Situation: oral exam

Anxiety thoughts: "The examiner is looking at me the whole time, he's probably onto me. I'll probably black out in a minute and that'll be it."

Better thoughts: "It's normal for the examiner to look at me, after all, he wants to talk to me. I've prepared myself well and if I can't answer a question, it's no big deal. I'll just take a deep breath now."

  • Blaszcyk, W., Lesener, T., Müller, J., Neben, D., Sprenger, M., Dastan, B., Diering, L.-E., Jochmann, A., Juchem, C., Stammkötter, K., Stauch, M., Wolter, C., & Gusy, B. (2022). How healthy are students at the University of Kaiserslautern? Results of the survey 06/21 (Publication series of the AB Public Health: Prevention and Psychosocial Health Research: No. 04/P21). Berlin: Free University of Berlin.
  • Lemay, V., Hoolahan, J. & Buchanan, A. (2019). Impact of a Yoga and Meditation Intervention on Students' Stress and Anxiety Levels. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 83 (5): 7001.
  • Lesener, T., Blaszcyk, W., Gusy, B. & Sprenger, M. (2018). How healthy are students at the University of Kaiserslautern? Results of the survey 06/18 (Publication series of the AB Public Health: Prevention and Psychosocial Health Research: No. 02/P18). Berlin: Free University of Berlin.
  • Müller, C. (2020). A systematic review and meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies on the relationship between physical activity and mental health in students. In: Göring, A., Mayer, J. & Jetzke, M. (Eds.). Sport and academic success. Analyses of the importance of sporting activity in the university setting. College sports: education and science, vol. 4. pp. 87-114.
  • Piyanee Klainin-Yobas, Win Nuang Oo, Pey Ying Suzanne Yew & Ying Lau (2015) Effects of relaxation interventions on depression and anxiety among older adults: a systematic review, Aging & Mental Health, 19:12, 1043-1055, DOI: 10.1080/13607863.2014.997191
  • Schmidt-Traub, S. (2013) Coping with anxiety. Self-help for panic and agoraphobia. Avoiding the relapse. Case studies and concrete tips. 5th fully revised edition. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
  • Zamanifar S, Bagheri-Saveh MI, Nezakati A, Mohammadi R, Seidi J. The Effect of Music Therapy and Aromatherapy with Chamomile-Lavender Essential Oil on the Anxiety of Clinical Nurses: A Randomized and Double-Blind Clinical Trial. J Med Life,13(1):87-93. doi: 10.25122/jml-2019-0105.