The Ultimate Anxiety Guide TABLE OF CONTENTS About The Guide About Anxious Like You About Micheline Nadia What Is Anxiety 10 Tips For Managing Anxiety 5 Exercises For Anxiety Thank You 3 4 5 7 11 22 28 Welcome 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 3 As 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 4 Micheline Maalouf Micheline 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 5 Nadia Addesi Nadia 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 6 If 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 7 Mental Cognitive Symptoms Anxiety 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 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 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 8 Physical Symptoms Even 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 When 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 Some of the most common symptoms of a panic attack include Racing heart Nausea vomiting Hyperventilation Body chills or sweats Shaking Body numbness Dizziness Feeling like you are about to faint and even fainting 9 Physical Symptoms People 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 that can trigger us into having an unexpected anxiety response All of a sudden boom A panic attack shows up right out of the blue When our body gets stuck in that anxiety