Stress & Anxiety

What is Stress? What is Anxiety exactly? What's the difference? I thought they were the same thing?!?!

“Anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread, and uneasiness. It might cause you to sweat, feel restless and tense, and have a rapid heartbeat. It can be a normal reaction to stress. For example, you might feel anxious when faced with a difficult problem at work, before taking a test, or before making an important decision.” Anxiety may look like/feel like a stomachache, a headache, sweatiness, pounding or racing heart, feeling of difficulty breathing, nausea, trembling or shaking, etc. It's different for everyone.


Sometimes, feelings can be confusing and hard to control. This video helps explain how the body responds to stress and how anxiety develops


Now that we know what anxiety is and how it develops . . . What do we DO about it! How can we cope? How do we deal with these uncomfortable feelings?

Take a look below for some easy tips and strategies!

What are some things you can do to manage your anxiety?? Try some of the things below:

  • Breathing exercises. Physical symptoms of anxiety include rapid, shallow breathing and hyperventilation

  • Going for a walk or doing light exercise. This can help to distract the mind and manage the physical symptoms of anxiety and stress.

  • Writing down worries.

  • Meditation and mindfulness.

Grounding

  • Fidgets, Drawing

Coping Skills for Anxiety

coping-skills-anxiety (1).pdf


Try using the skills in the worksheet to the left! Does it help?

If you need more help controlling your anxiety, reach out to your School Counselor, School Psychologist, or School Social Worker. You can also reach out to a community therapist to help work on coping outside of school.