Mental Well-Being

Common Ways People Try to Cope With Anxiety That Can Make Things Worse

Updated Aug 15, 2025· 5 min read
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In This Article

Key Takeaways

Avoidance feels like relief in the short term but reinforces anxiety over time.
Reassurance-seeking can become a cycle that prevents building genuine confidence.
Distraction and over-controlling behaviors may feel helpful but often deepen anxious patterns.
Understanding why these habits form is the first step toward changing them.
Professional support can help you replace unhelpful coping strategies with evidence-based ones.

When Coping Strategies Work Against You

When anxiety strikes, the instinct is to make it stop — and fast. Most people reach for whatever brings the quickest relief, which is completely understandable. The problem is that the brain's short-term comfort system and its long-term wellbeing don't always agree on the best path forward.

Many of the habits people reach for in anxious moments are genuinely soothing in the short run. That's exactly what makes them easy to repeat. Over time, though, certain patterns can actually train the anxious brain to stay on high alert rather than settling down.

This doesn't mean you've been doing anything wrong. These responses are natural, and recognizing them is not about self-blame — it's about building awareness. If you're new to thinking about anxiety management, our beginner's guide to managing everyday anxiety provides a helpful starting point.

1

Avoiding situations, places, or activities that trigger anxiety.

Why it happens: Avoidance provides immediate relief, which powerfully reinforces the behavior. When anxiety spikes, escaping the situation feels like the safest option.

How to avoid: Gradually and gently facing feared situations — sometimes called exposure — is one of the most well-supported ways to reduce anxiety over time. A therapist can help you build a manageable, step-by-step plan rather than diving in all at once.
2

Repeatedly seeking reassurance from others to quiet anxious thoughts.

Why it happens: Reassurance briefly quiets the alarm bells, so it feels productive. But it doesn't address the underlying uncertainty — it simply delays the discomfort until the next doubt arises.

How to avoid: Practice tolerating uncertainty in small doses rather than resolving every worry immediately. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) offers specific techniques for this, and our guide to therapy options for anxiety explains these approaches in plain terms.
3

Using alcohol or other substances to take the edge off anxious feelings.

Why it happens: Substances can temporarily dull the physical sensations of anxiety — racing heart, tightness in the chest — making them feel like an effective short-term fix.

How to avoid: Research consistently shows that regular alcohol use can increase baseline anxiety levels and disrupt sleep, creating a reinforcing cycle. If substance use has become a coping tool, speaking with a healthcare professional is an important first step.
4

Excessive research or information-gathering to feel more in control.

Why it happens: Anxiety often masquerades as a need for more information. Searching feels like doing something useful, but for anxious minds, every answer tends to generate two new questions.

How to avoid: Set deliberate limits on research time, especially regarding health or safety concerns. Recognizing that 'more information' rarely satisfies anxiety — and that the discomfort of uncertainty is something that can be worked through — is an important reframe.
5

Staying constantly busy to avoid sitting with anxious thoughts.

Why it happens: Busyness prevents the quiet moments when anxiety tends to surface most strongly. It feels like coping because the discomfort is temporarily out of sight.

How to avoid: Sustainable anxiety management involves learning to tolerate stillness, not outrun it. Building small, calm pauses into your day — even brief ones — helps your nervous system practice returning to a resting state.
6

Trying to suppress or "push away" anxious thoughts entirely.

Why it happens: It seems logical that the less you think about something frightening, the less anxious you'll feel. But thought suppression tends to backfire, making unwanted thoughts more frequent and intrusive.

How to avoid: Acceptance-based approaches encourage noticing thoughts without fighting them — observing them the way you might watch clouds pass overhead. This is very different from agreeing with or acting on anxious thoughts, and it's a skill that develops with practice.

Building More Helpful Patterns Over Time

Recognizing unhelpful coping habits doesn't mean you need to overhaul everything overnight. Small shifts in awareness can open the door to more effective strategies — ones that work with the nervous system rather than against it.

~31%

Adults affected by an anxiety disorder at some point

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health conditions in the United States.

Up to 50%

Anxiety reduction possible with CBT

Research published in clinical psychology journals consistently shows that structured therapies like CBT can meaningfully reduce anxiety symptoms for many people.

It's also worth noting that the line between helpful and unhelpful coping isn't always obvious. For example, relaxation techniques are widely recommended, yet for some people they initially increase discomfort — a phenomenon explored in our article on why relaxation techniques sometimes make anxiety worse.

If you've been self-managing anxiety for a while with mixed results, it may be worth weighing the pros and cons of self-managing anxiety without professional help. A therapist or counselor can help you identify which of your current coping patterns are serving you and which may need to shift.

When to Seek Professional Support

If anxiety is regularly interfering with your work, relationships, sleep, or daily functioning, professional support is worth seeking — not as a last resort, but as an informed choice. A mental health professional can assess what's happening, rule out other contributing factors, and offer evidence-based treatment tailored to you. Don't wait until things feel unbearable to ask for help.

This article is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice. If anxiety is significantly affecting your daily life, please speak with a qualified healthcare professional.

Mental Well-Being Editorial Team is the collective byline for our editorial team and contributor network. Articles published under this byline or an editorial pen name are researched, written, and reviewed according to our editorial standards for clarity, consistency, and independence before publication.

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