If you’ve been diagnosed as having an anxiety disorder, it’s important to fully explore your treatment options. For a treatment to be effective, you have to be committed to it and be willing to learn techniques to control those overwhelming feelings of worry and apprehension.

Many tools are available to you for treating anxiety. First and foremost, you should learn as much as you can about anxiety. The more you know and understand about your condition, the better equipped you will be to control it. Other tools include cognitive therapy and behavioral therapy. Lifestyle changes in diet and exercise can also be very beneficial.

Diet and exercise are two simple but very important factors in anxiety. You should eat a healthy, balanced diet rich in magnesium, B vitamins and calcium. Drink plenty of water, and eat whole-grain products and green, leafy vegetables. Avoid nicotine and caffeine, since they trigger the release of adrenaline, a stress chemical that can exacerbate anxiety. Exercise will help dissipate stress chemicals and help you relax.

Cognitive therapy involves helping you change negative thought patterns and beliefs, which can trigger anxiety. For example, you may feel that “everybody is looking at me.” By learning cognitive techniques that challenge and restructure that belief, you’ll realize that your fear is unfounded and thus control the anxiety, replacing it with more rational thoughts and concepts.

Behavioral therapy will help you confront and understand the causes and triggers of your anxiety, using a technique called exposure. Via exposure, you’ll take a small series of steps that will eventually desensitize you and allow you to control and analyze the factors that set off an anxiety attack. For example, if you get anxious in social situations (“everybody thinks I’m boring”), you’ll learn to gradually increase the amount of time spent in social situations until you realize that nothing bad will happen.

Anxiety can be debilitating and can interfere with job, family and relationships. It’s important to know that anxiety is treatable and often reversible. You can to overcome those overpowering feelings of “gloom and doom” that keep you from fully participating in life by seeking treatment and committing to it.