Tips for Coping with Anxiety

Anxiety is a common problem faced by both the family and a person suffering from a terminal illness. Unfortunately, there’s no silver bullet that can cure anxiety and make it all go away, but there are a few tips that you can do to minimize it.

Anxiety causes overwhelming feelings of dread and panic, and it’s commonplace with illness. Here are some tips to help you or your loved one get through these times of angst.

1. Limit Caffeine

If you’re consuming a great deal of caffeine, it can cause you to experience more anxiety. Since caffeine is a stimulant, it can make your heart race and increase these uncomfortable feelings.

2. Move Your Body

While it’s challenging to move and exercise when you’re sick, there are some things you can do right in bed. Moving your body even a little bit gets those feel-good endorphins moving and will help to raise dopamine and serotonin levels.

3. Get Sufficient Rest

You may be anxious because you’re not getting enough rest. As a hospice patient, rest is an integral part of your journey. If you’re not sleeping, you need to talk to your doctor.

4. Use Deep Breathing Exercises

Deep breathing exercises are vital to releasing some pent-up feelings of angst. Meditation and these exercises can stop a panic attack in its tracks.

5. Rub Ice on Wrists and Neck

Ice is known to shock your system back to normal. If you can get a small piece of ice, it can work wonders to calm your panic by just rubbing it on your wrists and around the back of your neck. Just make sure this is okay with your medical provider.

6. Eat

Sometimes you don’t feel like eating, and there may be medications irritating your stomach. However, you need to eat to keep your strength up, and if you’re eating the wrong things, like junk foods, it will cause sugar fluctuations that can make you anxious.

7. Stay Positive

It’s not always easy to stay positive, especially when so many negative things are going on around you. However, you don’t want to spend your days dwelling on the negative things, as it will only make matters worse.

8. Schedule Time for Grief

It’s easy to worry and be upset when you’re faced with death and sickness. However, you need to schedule your worry sessions. First, only allow yourself short periods to get it all out. Then, once you’ve had this session, focus the rest of the day on remaining positive. Scheduling your grief will ensure that you don’t spend the entire day worrying and fretting over things you cannot control.

If you’re one of the 4.3 million people in this country suffering from anxiety, then you should utilize some of these tips to help minimize it.