The Ultimate Anxiety GuideTABLE OF CONTENTSAbout The GuideAbout Anxious Like YouAbout Micheline + NadiaWhat Is Anxiety10 Tips For Managing Anxiety5 Exercises For AnxietyThank You3457112228Welcome to the Ultimate Anxiety Guide! If you have anxiety, good news! You’re in the right place. As two licensed mental health professionals, Micheline and Nadia wanted to provide you with tried-and-true ways of managing your mental health. That way, you can take the tools of this document and learn to face your anxiety with confidence! In this guide, they’re breaking down what anxiety is, giving you 10 tips to manage it, and providing 5 exercises to help you get through your hardest moments. You’re going to walk away feeling like a mental health professional, yourself! Well, maybe not. But you’re going to love what’s inside!Disclaimer Anxious Like You is pleased to provide you with this document for your personal education and informational purposes. Nothing found in this document is intended to substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric, or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. You are encouraged to confirm any information obtained through this document with other sources and review all information regarding any medical condition or treatment with your physician. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking medical treatment because of something you have read or accessed through this document. Anxious Like You and DiveThru are not responsible or liable for any advice, course of treatment, diagnosis, or any other information, services, or products that you obtain through this document.3As human beings and therapists, our podcast hosts, Nadia Addesi and Micheline Maalouf, understand how anxiety can consume someone’s whole world. On Anxious Like You, our hosts pull from their expertise and personal experience to interview guests about their experiences with anxiety. Each episode is structured to remind you and anyone battling anxiety that you’re not alone. Plus, Nadia and Micheline make sure that our listeners are not left hanging! They give you actionable takeaways each time so that you can face your anxiety with confidence.4Micheline Maalouf is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor from Orlando, Florida. She’s the owner of Serein Counseling and specializes in the treatment of Complex PTSD and anxiety. She’s also a mental health social media influencer, advocate, and speaker. Micheline is a third culture kid who loves traveling, learning new languages, and trying the diverse cuisines of the world! She speaks 4.25 languages including Arabic, Spanish, Italian, and some Portuguese. In Micheline’s free time, you’ll find her learning about trauma, making TikTok videos, hanging out with her family, and playing with her awesome Cocker Spaniel, Norman!5Micheline MaaloufNadia Addesi is the founder of Evolve and Bloom, a boutique wellness centre to help transform people’s lives through a number of different modalities.Nadia is a registered social worker and psychotherapist who works with clients in a supportive, compassionate, and nurturing way. She helps them identify their strengths and increase their self-love by defining goals through a process of active listening, deep empathy, non-judgment, and acceptance. Nadia is extremely passionate about helping her clients recognize, understand, and manage their emotions. Whether you’re feeling depressed, anxious, or stressed about life’s changes, overwhelmed with the many demands that have been placed on you, or simply just need someone to talk to, Nadia is here to listen and help!Nadia Addesi6If you're reading this, you probably have a bit of an idea what anxiety is and what it feels like. But we’re going to give you the rundown on this bothersome mental health struggle just in case! We all gotta be on the same page, right? Anxiety is our body’s natural response to stress. It developed as humans evolved in order to keep us safe and find solutions to possible threats. We all experience anxiety and it’s necessary for survival; however, we can sometimes get stuck in a stress response and experience elevated amounts of anxiety for long periods of time. If this happens consistently, is intense enough, and impacts our day to day functioning, it may have become an anxiety disorder. 78Anxiety is unfortunately one mental health struggle that feels extremelyyy physical, but it stems from the brain and it’s response to a trigger or stressor. Here are just some of the mental or cognitive symptoms of anxiety: There are various types of anxiety disorders such as generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder – all of which may have different types of intrusive or overthinking thoughts that are usually accompanied by compulsions or avoidance. Mental (Cognitive) Symptoms• Excessive worrying that is difficult or impossible to control or reduce.• The feeling like there is always something to worry about or fear in many or all aspects of your life.• You may have racing thoughts about things that can feel overwhelming and you may even suffer with unwanted intrusive thoughts that can be scary, shameful, and difficult to let go of.9Even though anxiety comes from the mind, it isn’t all in your head! It’s actually very physical. This is because when we experience anxiety, our body is gearing us up for the fight or flight response. Our brain signals that there’s a threat and our body responds by trying to protect us. This is really sweet of our brain, but when this protection results in a panic attack, we don’t love it so much! Physical SymptomsWhen we have anxiety, the hormones cortisol and adrenaline are released into our body. Because of this we feel shaky, dizzy, restless, and agitated. These are all adaptive responses that make it possible for us to take on or run away from our threat. When these symptoms get severe enough, they turn into what we call a panic attack which can be pretty dang scary! • Racing heart• Hyperventilation• Shaking• Dizziness• Nausea/vomiting• Body chills or sweats• Body numbness • Feeling like you are about to faint and even fainting Some of the most common symptoms of a panic attack include:10People can experience a panic attack for any number of reasons and everyone responds differently to different stimuli. For example, we might experience a passing thought, or smell something that reminds us of a traumatic experience