Credit Card Anxiety

Tips to Beat the Anxiety Attack

Credit card debt can take a toll on your health as well as your wallet.  For persons who are subject to anxiety attacks, the bad news of increased interest rates or hugely increased minimum payments can trigger an attack. 

If you are one of these people; or if you react to stress with sweaty palms, a tightness in the chest, rapid heart beat or a general tightening of the neck and shoulder muscles, then read on for some tips from renowned Life Coach Michael Knowles.

Essentially when an attack is triggered, your brain reaches back into the past and recalls a fearful experience and then projects dire events into the future.  Basically your brain is existing in the past and the future at the same time.  Your body reacts to this condition using a response similar to the fight or flee syndrome that is in every human.  To counter these reactions, you have to bring the brain back into the present.  Here’s a couple of ideas from Michael’s book Anxiety Triage.

Anxiety Triage Technique #1: What's That Sound?

Identify the sounds you hear, one at a time.

Start by identifying the closest or more obvious sounds. Let's say
you're driving in your car. So the first sound you identify is the
radio. Listen to it for a moment, and pay attention to nothing else.
Shift your attention then to the next sound, perhaps the whoosh of
the wind rushing by your window. Next, listen to the sound of the
tires on the road surface. Now the sound of the vehicles around you.

Finally, see if you can hear all the sounds at once, without
focusing on any one in particular.

When done, you will be completely present -- and much calmer.

-- Anxiety Triage Technique #2: Name That Thing

Name everything around you, speaking its name aloud.

Start by identifying the closest or more obvious items. Back in the
car again, you might start with the black steering wheel... the red
speedometer... the blue car hood... the green pickup truck that just
passed... a silver Mercedes... a white Toyota.

Continue until you have returned to a calmer state of mind.

-- Anxiety Triage Technique #3: Tapping

Tap several pressure points on the body until the anxiety attack
subsides. (This is not a good technique to use while driving.)

Start by finding the sensitive spot between and just above your
eyebrows. Using the middle finger of your right or left hand,
tap that spot 32 times. Use even pressure.

Now locate the tiny indentation in the eye socket just below your
right eye. Gently tap this spot 32 times. Repeat with the left eye.

Tap 32 times behind the right earlobe. Repeat with the left earlobe.

Next, cup your right hand so the fingertips all touch. Find the
spot on your sternum in the center of your body, in the location
of the heart. Press that spot using the fingertips of your right
hand and firm but comfortable pressure hand. Adjust the position
until you feel a sudden release of tension in the shoulders.

Though this technique might seem a little odd, there's nothing
magical about it. You're simply stimulating various pressure points
and, in so doing, initiating the body's natural relaxation reflex.

-- Use What Works

Any technique is a good technique so long as it does no harm and
gets the job done. The three I've described above have proven
effective for my coaching clients. One of them will work for you,
too.

Dealing with credit debt is difficult enough.  You certainly don’t need the distraction of anxiety and panic attacks interfering.

If you’d like to learn additional techniques in controlling or preventing anxiety, check out Michael’s book "The Anxiety Triage Kit"