MENTAL HEALTH
Too Anxious for Teletherapy? Remember These 15 Tips to Stay Calm
The best tips for getting past those persistent, nagging symptoms, so you can get the most out of teletherapy and live better, sooner.
You’re lying in the sand on a beach, soaking up the sun, listening to the waves, and feeling at peace. You’re relaxed and cheerful, the calm, warm breeze soothing your body from stress. The afternoon sun heats your skin, filling the moment with warmth and comfort.
After coming from your city apartment, you chose to visit this beach for one reason: you want relief. You seek quiet and ease. You have racing thoughts and struggle with persistent worries. You feel best when you’re free from constant feelings of dread. And because you’re anxious and worried, you know the truth: you’re one of 19.1% of adults in the U.S who has an anxiety disorder.
But wait, have you ever heard of teletherapy?
Teletherapy is a great way to get help if you have anxiety.
What is teletherapy?
Teletherapy is therapy using video chat services like Zoom. Teletherapy is an effective way to treat anxiety disorders like you would in an office. The good news is, you don’t even have to leave your home.
Convenience and flexibility top the list of reasons people choose teletherapy for help. Together, distance, disability, and COVID-19 also made teletherapy necessary. Transportation is a challenge in rural areas, for sure. And physical, mobility, and sensory disabilities stall treatment in others.
But with teletherapy, you’re all good to go because you can get mental health support from your home. Even then, it’s worth knowing telehealth once helped save a baby’s life. Telehealth also assisted a man treated for a stroke in a Bay Area hospital. Telehealth and teletherapy follow the same principle: it’s all about communicating via video conference to make lives healthier.
Still, anxiety happens, and you feel you can’t make it to meetings. You know this is a problem and want relief to thrive in therapy. But how do you manage your anxiety if teletherapy is the cause?
How does anxiety pose a challenge to teletherapy?
All you hope to do with most anxiety is breathe and unwind. You wish to shut your eyes and hear silence for only but a second. A break in the noise would mean everything in the world, but you know the tough stuff of therapy will surely be a challenge.
Now, the physical and behavioral symptoms create a barrier to teletherapy. Together, they lead to what’s called maladaptive behaviors. You may have heard that term tossed around on the Dr. Phil show, or in group therapy, in self-help books, or in your friend’s old psychology book. Maladaptive behaviors prevent you from effectively adapting.
You may cling to a sense of peace in your room instead of adjusting well to therapy. Procrastination becomes an issue, and so does sticking to your appointments. If you ever feel the need to withdraw, you might feel compelled to lash out. By lashing out that means being passive-aggressive, or using aggressive language, if only because you’re so overwhelmed, restless, and impatient.
You may have noticed you’re resistant to therapy at some point in your treatment and some of the problems stand out. The issues you may have observed include:
- You’re canceling appointments because you feel sick with anxiety
- You’re keeping your head down to avoid eye contact because you’re so nervous
- You turn the camera away from your face to avoid criticism
- You thought of therapy as a stressor or negative experience
- You used substances and alcohol to cope with anxiety symptoms before your appointment
So, if any of these situations apply, you need tips for coping. Keep reading to learn how to cope with anxiety caused by teletherapy.
How to cope with anxiety caused by teletherapy
You can manage anxiety symptoms in teletherapy with slight adjustments to how you live and think. Seeing relief from anxiety symptoms takes a willingness to adjust and do your best.
1. Remember, you’re human
Can you relax for now and sustain a conversation? Can you learn about someone’s life? Can you listen to someone else’s advice without judgment?
If so, your human qualities are glowing, and you have the right to feel peaceful, relaxed, and at ease.
At the start of your session, abandon perfectionism, then, let your guard down and allow yourself to make mistakes.
In 2020, during video calls, 73% of U.K. survey respondents felt anxiety. And with COVID-19, inflation, and rising gas prices, many more Americans are also feeling the pressure.
But you don’t have to be perfect and can make it through therapy by relaxing. Laugh after talking fast and then share personal experiences. Remember, it’s vulnerability that makes people likable.
2. Be a good listener
While therapy lets you get your anxious thoughts out at once, listening helps you take some of the pressure off of needing to talk.
Active listening happens when you relay information to the therapist. Your therapist can now come up with the best strategies for wellness.
Repeat phrases and words that stand out to yourself. Ask questions for clarification and focus on your therapist’s words. You may use nonverbal communication, like facial or hand gestures. Active listening gives you an opportunity to learn.
According to Credit Donkey, people spend 70–80% of their time during the day communicating with others. But only 55% of that time goes toward active listening.
So, spend more time listening so you can hear words that encourage . Active listening fills the silence that may fill a quiet room.
3. Practice self-care before appointments
You want to feel calm and relieved. You don’t want to feel like life is falling apart, right
All you have to do is rely on carefullu coordinated self-care activities. These are activities you can do to feel better emotionally and physically.
Self-care is about looking after your health, wellness, and spirit. You can build an entire self-care routine to prepare for an appointment.
Exercise, shower, then use a lotion that soothes. Write in a journal, eat your favorite snack, then stretch for 10 minutes. Either way, a self-care routine is most effective at winding you down.
But remember, it’s easy to forget activities that keep you from feeling well, but your mind and body need self-care to be free of anxiety.
To start, here are some other self-care activities you can try:
- Drink a glass of water to reduce the effects of dehydration symptoms on anxiety. Fighting off dehydration makes for a clearer mind — ideal for a helpful and productive therapy session.
- Take a nap a couple of hours before your appointment. You might feel tired before your meetings, so schedule some sleep and fight your fatigue. Improve cognitive performance with 20 minutes of rest.
- Try mindfulness meditation to accept the present without judgment. Think about your breathing. Let go of the thoughts running a million miles an hour in your mind. You can also try progressive relaxation and tighten up individual body parts. Releasing tension leaves you feeling less stressed so overall, you’re less resistant to teletherapy.
4. Minimize activity, noise, and distractions
Distractions are any external stimuli that pull your attention away from the meeting. To reduce anxiety symptoms, switch off devices and go into a quiet room for the appointment.
A room full of tenants would make you feel more nervous during teletherapy. But closed windows and a switched-off television will help keep things in order.
The less going on around you, the less your mind has to compete with other activities and events. When you feed into one distraction, your mind generates more worrisome thoughts. But if you trust in reality, nothing else is amiss. You can relax but still need less going on around you all at once.
Maybe you don’t hear people chattering nearby. You certainly wouldn’t be checking your cell phone too often. So, to eliminate distractions, mimic the calm in your psychotherapist’s office.
Keep in mind, however, that the mind sensitive to distractions has more to worry about than ever — environments without distractions work best for your mental health.
5. Take your time talking
According to Preston Ni M.S.B.A., you may speak fast for a reason. That reason is that you don’t want to spend much time talking. Therapy can be uncomfortable, and video anxiety brings pressure. You’re inclined to rush through the conversation to get through the discomfort faster.
But slower, careful articulation is far more effective. Take your time articulating your words so that they echo in your mind. Pause between sentences, and pause to let the meaning sink in deeper. But speak boldly and with authority while striving to be aware of your words.
The challenge is not letting your emotions stop you from expressing yourself. Your words have meaning, and your therapist wants to listen. Accept that your comments are important and impactful. Embrace your stories, thoughts, and troubles as authentic. Remember, take your time talking while you’re in a Zoom meeting, especially since you’re anxious. Above all, know that there’s plenty of time to talk when you’re in therapy.
6. Adjust the room’s lighting
Increase the lighting in your room to boost feelings of positivity in the environment. Research shows lighting, happiness, confidence, and motivation are all linked.
An Australian study from Philips looked at 1,000 customers. The study intended to examine customers’ beliefs regarding positive family living. Of those families surveyed, 95% felt that a well-lit home was essential to thriving. Only in a well-lit home could these customers feel upbeat and creative.
Remember, natural sunlight can help your mood and improve your well-being. So, try adding floor and table lamps, then open the blinds in the room where you’re speaking. Feeling pleasant in the moment can ease your stress. This way, the symptoms are more manageable even when you’re still wired and anxious.
7. Wear casual, comfortable clothing
There’s a science behind clothing comfort. The temperature and the wind influence how comfortable you feel in your clothing. So does the level of dryness or moisture. So, if you overdress for your appointment, you’ll feel hot and anxious, not refreshed and content. If it’s peace and a break from the stress you want, you may soon feel like it’s time for the meeting to end.
Clothing that’s too tight will restrict movement and make you feel trapped. So, dress so you can easily make it through an hour of sitting. Here are some ideas for achieving this comfort:
- Wear loose clothing around the arms, cuffs, neck, waist, legs, ankles, torso, and back. Loose-fitting clothing improves mobility and reduces feelings of pressure and discomfort.
- Wear clothing that’s clean and dry, so you feel confident and energetic. Clean clothes make you feel like a better you. Clean, fresh clothing is welcoming to others.
- Wear clothing you already like wearing, so you don’t worry about appearing in something new. Choose garments you wear around the home. Something light that you can wear inside or out.
Comfortable clothing increases confidence.
8. Take the initiative to speak more, and first
Do you know of your worries about waiting to say the right thing? Talking first and more frequently helps you escape these worries. Speaking first reduces the anxiety you feel. Additionally, you can reinforce your commitment to your mental health.
The alternative is there can be long periods of silence. Overall, not as productive as active communication.
In reality, finding new ways of thinking requires more talking from you. Your therapist needs insight into your illness, lifestyle, and troubles. Ease into a conversation by talking about what’s on your mind now. Before you begin, ask yourself what’s happening.
- Talk about a recent experience that left you overwhelmed. A significant stressor will be on the top of your mind. These stressors can stimulate an entire session.
- Share something you learned from a previous session or therapist. Talk about how you’ve grown or changed since learning this lesson.
- Discuss one primary goal you want to accomplish in therapy. Why is this the right time to bring your attention back to that goal?
If you have something you can’t wait to get off your mind, take the initiative to speak more. From there, the following tip will help you manage your anxiety even more.
9. Make appointments routine
Back-to-back meetings every week can be challenging if you have anxiety. Biweekly sessions are slightly more manageable. Monthly meetings might work well if your therapist agrees. But however often you meet, remember, consistent appointments keep you moving forward, not backward. Soon, you’re going to be free of anxiety symptoms, after all.
From developing new coping strategies to learning to reach your full potential, you can better manage anxiety if you try more sessions with your therapist.
Meet regularly to establish continuity from one session to the next. Initially, you might wonder, “What do I say?” “What if this doesn’t work?” But these questions aren’t as problematic during later visits. At that point, you’ve had time to accept how your therapist helps you. The major takeaway here is that more meetings faster equals more confidence in sharing. So, get comfortable opening up to your therapist on the regular.
10. Get some fresh air in the room during the meeting
To live free of anxiety., there’s nothing quite like a warm or cool breeze. Experts from Cabrini University pointed out that fresh air is beneficial. It uplifts you, makes you feel great, and cleans out the toxins from your lungs.
Fresh air also cleans your mind out as well. When all other coping skills fail, fresh air brings about some day-saving clarity.
Excellent air quality makes conversation comfortable, but poor indoor quality hits you throughout your entire body, specifically, your head, your nose, and your throat, so find air.
Add air circulation from a window fan, a house fan, an open window, or a portable AC. You’ll stay focused and pleasant and overall, be in an optimal state for support.
11. Take notes before the appointment
Studies show students who use handwritten notes perform better on conceptual questions and quizzes. You can detect similar benefits from that level of preparation if you’re seeking mental health support in teletherapy.
Think of much of the anxiety you feel as having worries about the unknown. If knowing is half the struggle, note-taking is your strategy for survival. Writing down information lets you organize your thoughts before an appointment. Doing so will reduce the number of problematic stressors on your mind.
Now, you have a plan for how you’ll communicate. Before your appointment, write down experiences, memories, events, and thoughts. Organize that information chronologically or in order of importance. This way, you won’t feel so anxious when it comes time to appear on camera and speak.
12. Try changing the time of your appointment
Experiment with different appointment times. See your anxiety change throughout the day. Poor eating habits or abnormalities in your circadian rhythm can cause a mid-afternoon slump. But checking in to a Zoom call when you’re alert and motivated is essential to tackling anxiety.
You might feel more inspired during the morning after your coffee. Indeed, a therapist can give a mean pep talk when you need it, but evening appointments are just as great, as the effects of therapy carry over to the following day.
Change the time of the appointment before you get too deep into therapy. Try before you have too much to do and after you’ve already done a little. Somewhere in between the time you’re at your best emotionally and psychologically, but right around the time you could benefit immediately from therapy.
13. Take deep breaths before your appointment
Diaphragmatic breathing, or deep breathing, helps you feel centered on your mind and body. Feel your body’s presence in the moment as you inhale slowly. Relax as the tension escapes your body as you exhale through your mouth. The way you breathe will prepare you before and during your call.
According to the American Institute of Stress, deep breathing activates your body’s natural relaxation response. This response changes the way you feel when you’re anxious. So, now you’re more relaxed, and now you notice your heart beats slower. So, fewer teeth grinding, less dread, and less muscle pain overall. Now you can talk about mental health and manage anxiety during your appointment.
14. Practice showing positive body language in your teletherapy meeting
Your body language can help you feel more confident and in control.
See yourself sitting squarely at the computer, your shoulders facing forward. Because you’re in a strong position, you’re far from feeling as if everything is happening to you. Your eyes occasionally make contact with your therapist on camera.
Positive body language puts you and your therapist at ease. You can expect a more productive conversation if you appear willing and poised.
And do you know how you feel better when you sit up straight? One reason is that you’re putting in the effort. Naturally, you feel better, but even then, recent studies show body language like making eye contact accounts for 30–60 percent of the time you talk. So, as long as you can make the minimal effort to show presence and self-respect, you can feel better about getting better support for your anxiety.
15. Offer a friendly smile or laugh
A friendly smile is a kind gesture that makes others feel better. But according to a study published in Psychological Science, smiles promote stress recovery. That’s because smiles reduce the intensity you feel amid your body’s stress response. A smile can go a long way toward making you feel more relaxed.
Your therapist would agree that you can improve your well-being by seeing mental images of you smiling. To start, envision yourself smiling even if you’re too stressed to try. Change your mood instantly by mimicking the expression of someone pleasant and cheerful. In doing so, you’ll change the trajectory of your future teletherapy sessions forever.
All you’ve wanted is to feel calm and at ease. Knowing you have an Anxiety Disorder, you know you need to make your appointments. But even teletherapy can be hard when you’re living with anxiety.
Still, managing anxiety symptoms related to your video call is crucial to your recovery. Work on becoming less anxious with these tips in mind.
Take control of your symptoms in teletherapy to get more help for anxiety. Whether you change the lighting in your room or try and focus more on body language, managing anxiety symptoms during teletherapy takes practice and persistence.
But remember that you’re okay and can still get the help that you need. Take your time finding the best solution for treating anxiety.
