Anxiety zaps self-confidence. When it knocks out our belief in ourselves, anxiety often takes with it our sense of who we are, what we can do, and how we want to be. How is it that anxiety can be such a powerful force that it encompasses not only worry and fear but our belief that we are okay, legitimate human beings in our own right? Anxiety can chip away at self-acceptance, but there are ways to pick up the pieces and put them back together. You can create the courage to be self-confident despite anxiety.

It happens to me all too often. I work full time. I ride my bike to and from work every day. Theoretically, I should fall asleep the second my head hits the pillow, but I don’t - racing thoughts and a restless heart, more often than not, make that impossible. Instead of letting every sleepless night snowball into catastrophe, I’ve learned how to turn them into something more manageable. Here are some of the things that have helped me the most.

Being hard on yourself is an unfortunate effect of anxiety. We blame ourselves for this and we chastise ourselves for that. We ruminate about the past and beat ourselves up with worry. We fear things that might happen in the future because we think we’re not good enough to handle this or that. Being so hard on yourself cannot only be an effect of anxiety, but it can also cause increased anxiety. Anxiety and self-hatred exacerbate each other so that it seems that we’re stuck in this awful place forever. In reality, you don’t have to always be so hard on yourself. There are ways to stop and to even start liking yourself.

You probably want to control anxiety attacks and panic attacks because they are frightening experiences that make anyone who has them feel out of control. Of course people feel out of control with anxiety attacks. They are all-consuming. It’s as if the world shrinks around us like cling wrap -- squeezing, crushing, and suffocating us. And at the very same time, panic attacks make the world feel like it’s growing bigger and bigger so that there’s nothing to ground us, leaving us to spiral dizzyingly out of control. Is it even possible to control this terrible aspect of anxiety? Happily, there is. This checklist can be your guide to control anxiety attacks or panic attacks.

Anxiety while driving is commonplace for me. Due to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), my brain magnifies my anxiety while driving. Even driving to a nearby store turns into a worst-case scenario in my mind’s eye. Some of this anxiety seems reasonable. Other fears involve driving activities that don’t distress the average person. When I drive, there is a specific driving anxiety I can’t conquer. I have a fear of getting into a car accident while making left turns in traffic.

If you experience work anxiety, do you find yourself losing sleep over your job, tossing and turning and staring at the ceiling as you ruminate over what went wrong, what you did wrong, and what you will do wrong at work? Do you find it hard to get out of bed because you fear what the workday has in store for you? Maybe you have anxiety attacks even before leaving the house. When you experience any of this, your anxiety casts its evil spell and has you under its control even before you enter your workplace. Starting the day this way is a set-up for yet another daily struggle with anxiety. This battle with work anxiety gets in the way and holds you back from fully doing the job you need and want to do.

Anxiety in romantic relationships, for better or worse, complicates love. I’ve had a variety of significant others. Some partners were supportive of my mental conditions, while others were not sympathetic to any significant degree. I’ve had to deal with many problems, such as rejection and anxiety about the state of my relationships. Though anxiety complicates my romantic relationships, it doesn’t make romance impossible for me.

Is it anxiety or a medical condition? It can be hard to tell because anxiety can feel miserable throughout the entire body, and symptoms can be frightening enough to cause people to wonder if they have anxiety or a medical condition. Not knowing what your symptoms mean can increase existing anxiety or cause new anxieties and worries. Of course, that can worsen physical symptoms and that, in turn, increase worries. Worrying whether you have anxiety or a medical condition can become a vicious cycle of worry, physical discomfort or pain, and worsening mental-- and physical health. Knowing what medical conditions share symptoms with anxiety can help you sort out the healing approach that is best for you.

Do you hate the anxiety that uncertainty causes? Does not knowing cause you intolerable stress? If not knowing what might happen, officially called uncertainty intolerance, makes you worry so much that it’s interfering with your life, know that you’re not alone. Many people who have anxiety, whether or not it’s an anxiety disorder such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), also have difficulty living with any sort of uncertainty.

My anxiety over health insurance since my divorce 15 months ago, is increasing daily. While married, I was covered as a dependent under Tricare, the military’s insurance. When I moved to Idaho and eventually divorced, I found myself in what is called "the gap" in Idaho's health care coverage.1 It is a hole in Idaho’s health insurance plan where thousands of Idahoans do not have affordable access to healthcare coverage. Because my daughter is on her father’s insurance, I am not eligible for Medicaid. As it stands, I receive no tax credit for insurance because of my income bracket. Therefore, affordable rates for health insurance aren't available to me. I need anxiety treatment, and this anxiety over health insurance is not helping.