Skill Application #1: Stress and Anxiety

Nava Kazemian (215487234)

ORGS 4500 R

Developing Management Skills

Professor Stephen Friedman

Question 1: I have struggled with stress and anxiety for almost a decade, I have been able to manage it on and off, but with the current state of the world, my anxiety has been bad over the past year or so. The past couple of months have been about trial and error and learning which ways of managing stress work well for me. I know I have anxiety because I have been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and have frequent panic attacks. A few months ago, I would have at least one panic attack a day. It is important to note here that almost all of my symptoms of anxiety are physical, like panic attacks, really bad stomach aches, nausea, and migraines. I also tend to lash out at people that are close to me in times of anxiety, I will scream, yell, cry, and throw a tantrum when I am stressed. The problem is that I do not know how to manage my stress and it impacts me and those around me. A huge part of stress management, as stated in our textbook, is self-regulation, something that I am not good at. Part of self-regulation is a long-term commitment to control and regulate your emotions, and I have had a problem in the past with instant gratification which is what I believe is causing my inability to regulate my emotions. An example of my emotional dysregulation is if I am driving and someone cuts me off, I’ll have road rage, I’ll get really worked up and angry, it ends in a panic attack and being unable to drive for the next few days. Trying to regulate my emotions is important for me, and also being able to communicate my emotions is also an important area that I lack. I want to reduce my physical symptoms of anxiety, namely my panic attacks, which is the one that bothers me most. I also want to learn how regulate my emotions better and throw less tantrums, and I want to be able to communicate what I need more effectively, which will reduce how much I get frustrated (I get frustrated a lot), and will decrease my overall stress as being frustrated all the time is very stressful for me.

Question 2: One way that I plan on regulating my emotions is naming them. We were given an article in class that really resonated with me, it was about how we can tame our emotions by naming them. When my emotions are all over the place, I tend to hold onto it for hours and sometimes a few days, which is very exhausting. So I plan to tame them by naming them, if I feel a sudden feeling of panic, maybe my body starts to shake, I am going to say to myself “My body is telling me I am anxious” and I will regulate that by doing a breathing exercise, slowly inhaling and exhaling until my heart rate slows back down, this way I know what is going on with my body. I want to write down the feeling after I name it, and what the symptoms are on a piece of paper, and then ripping the paper to feel like I am in control of my emotions and my symptoms, this is a strategy my therapist taught me. I have found that meditation is an okay tactic for me, but it is not ideal, it feels more like a chore to me than a form of self-care, maybe it’s because I’ve been doing it for so many years that I’ve just lost interest, so I have to find a new way of preventing my panic attacks and decreasing the number of them. I find that when I move my body and exercise, it is a physical way for my body to release energy, so when I exercise, I let go of anxiety and stress, and my energy does not build up and release in the form of a panic attack, I plan on doing at least one form of exercise a day, even if it’s a 10 minute walk. All of these put together will allow me to regulate my emotions and identify what I am feeling, and will also reduce my anxiety, especially my panic attacks. My goal is to implement these to get a long-term solution for my anxiety.

Question 3: One way I’ll be measuring my improvements is the number of panic attacks I have per day, currently I’m having at least one panic attack per day, I plan on reducing them to one every other day for a few months, then going from there and seeing if I can reduce them to one a week or less. As far as behaviours go, I know I’m successful if I am lashing out less at people around me. Since I don’t realize how often I lash out, I am going to be checking with them about once a week to see if the number of outbursts I have seems to have decreased, if they answer yes, that means that I am effectively regulating my emotions (or at least getting better at it)!

Question 4: One of my biggest triggers of anxiety, stress, and panic attacks is school. I have always had such immense anxiety revolving school because I have an extreme fear of failure, I get very irrational. Recently, I had to do my LSAT, which was really stressing me out, to the point that I was not eating for a few days and having upwards of 3 panic attacks a day, I would also scream at anyone who would even try to speak to me or make me feel better or offer unwelcome advice, it was really bad. Everyone in my life was upset with me, even though they understood I was going through a tough time; it made me feel really badly about myself that I was lashing out at everyone that I love, I was constantly exhausted and anxious. This went on for a few weeks. About a week before the actual exam, I realized I couldn’t continue like this or I won’t be in the right mindset to take the test, and everyone around me will continue to suffer. So, I wrote down everything that I was feeling and all of the symptoms, we have a little fire pit in our backyard, and I asked my dad to turn it on, I sat by the fire and threw the paper in, and it gave me a feeling of control, I felt like it gave me power over my emotions and anxieties. This inspired me to also realize when my body is giving me signs of anxiety, which I would name and practice breathing while I was realizing what the feeling and symptoms were. I did this every time I felt like I was panicking in the week leading up to the exam. I also decided that, in order to be able to exert my energy in some way, I would exercise every day in the week following up to the exam, but honestly, I did not have time to do it every day, I went for 2 runs that week, which helped, but I found that I regulated my anxiety and emotions well with the breathing and ripping up paper. This tremendously helped, such simple tools allowed me to calm down and be in the right mindset for the whole week before the exam, and also allowed me to control myself more so I would not lash out at the ones I love unprovoked.

Question 5: I was definitely aware of my learning experience when I was doing this, it is actually the reason that I did it. I remembered a combination of things we learned in class, articles that I had read out of curiosity, and also methods my therapist had suggested, and I figured that I was so stressed out that there was no harm in trying them at that point. I was really surprised to see that it worked well for me. I have since implemented them into many stressful situations and they have been enjoyable and successful thus far, and I plan on continuing to implement them into more situations. I felt a sense of control over myself, my feelings, and my anxiety; not a complete sense of control, I think that will take a lot longer to be able to achieve, but so far, I have a strong enough sense to the point that I can control and regulate my emotions and anxiety to the point that it isn’t decreasing my quality of life. I think this has helped me understand how to correct my response to anxiety, and again, it is not a fool-proof way, but it is good enough for the time being.

Question 6: This concept has shown me how to regulate my emotions and a healthy way to cope with my anxiety. Learning about self-regulating made me aware of my lack of self-regulation, so it helped me come up with solutions that may be impactful in helping me get out of my dysfunction and counterproductive cycle. Additionally, understanding the physical symptoms of my anxiety and being able to draw methods that will allow me to reduce my anxiety, especially at times that I am experiencing a panic attack, is huge for me and will drastically improve my quality of life. These concepts have allowed me to self-reflect and come up with solutions that I find are doable and ones that are easy and quick enough that I will be able to implement long term. Truthfully, my original game plan was to continue meditating (as stated in my PErM), but I found that I was tired of that and although it worked, it was so repetitive that it was a chore for me and I did not enjoy doing it any longer, I felt like I needed a change, and the things I ended up doing instead of meditation have been just as effective, and I find that they do not feel like chores, which is great!

Question 7: I was successful in accomplishing my learning objective. I was definitely able to learn a little bit more about myself, why I act this way and why I am the way I am, how to regulate my emotions, and what my triggers are. I’ve definitely self-reflected a lot. I have also found ways that are achievable and realistic for me long term that will allow me to be able to control my anxiety which will in turn allow me to self-regulate, which is huge for me. I have a long way to go and I am still obviously learning and discovering as I go, but I am proud of the progress I have made so far. My panic attacks have also decreased, I have one every 2-4 days now depending on how stressed, this is a result of journaling, taming my emotions by naming them, ripping/setting on fire the piece of paper that has my negative emotions written down, and also exercising to release my energy and release healthy hormones in my body. Quantitatively, the frequency of my panic attacks has decreased, and people around me have noted that I lash out less and communicate better, so they know how to react if I am feeling frustrated.

Question 8: I have also learned the importance of preventing getting to the point that I feel these feelings and have learned to be more proactive and preventative rather than allowing it to happen and being reactive. I learned about myself and my triggers and how to prevent panic attacks and outbursts from happening. My next steps are to implement more exercising as I find it a really good outlet for me, but I always have an excuse to avoid doing it as I don’t like it. I want it to be something I do for myself and my mental health, and I want to do some form of exercise daily, even if it’s a 10 minute stretch or walk, I previously mentioned that I was going to do this, but I haven’t done it continuously, so I want to do it regularly. Once I do it regularly, it will be my sign that I am improving and also that I am prioritizing myself and my mental health. I will also continue to tame by naming, breathing when I find myself getting worked up, journaling, and also ripping or setting a piece of paper on fire that has all of my negative feelings written down on this (to make this fun, I have decided to call it a ‘mind dump’). I also want to read the book 10% happier over the summer just to get additional insight and learn about other people’s journeys!

Sources:

Abblett, M. (2019, October 01). Tame reactive emotions by naming them. Retrieved from https://www.mindful.org/labels-help-tame-reactive-emotions-naming/

Cuncic, A. (2021, January 04). What is dysregulation? Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-dysregulation-5073868#:~:text=Dysregulationalsoknownasemotional,angerirritabilityandfrustration.

De Janasz, S. C., Dowd, K. O., & Schneider, B. Z. (2019). Interpersonal skills in organizations (6th ed.). New York,NY: McGraw Hill.

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