According to a recent survey by the American Psychiatric Association, 28% of Americans are making New Year's Resolutions focused on improving mental health. If you are one of those people and have the urge to try to get rid of your anxiety, that's understandable. After all, who likes feeling anxious? Unfortunately, it turns out that a lot of people's efforts to get rid of anxiety make it worse. Let's look at some common ineffective anxiety management strategies and what to do instead.

The Problem: People with anxiety struggles often wish that they could get rid of it completely. Sometimes, people beat themselves up for feeling anxious, telling themselves they are weak or have some other shortcoming. This nonacceptance of anxiety often causes secondary anxiety, that is, anxiety about the anxiety. It also might lead people to do behaviors to try to get rid of it, which only ends up making it worse in the long run. Also, berating yourself for your anxiety can lead to depressive symptoms and feelings of helplessness.

A More Productive Solution: Accept that you feel anxious and validate yourself. Acceptance doesn't mean that you like it, but it means acknowledging that feeling anxious is part of life. Self-validation might involve saying something like, "It makes sense that I feel anxious about _____, given my........

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