Generalized Anxiety Disorder: a condition that way too many people are way too familiar with.

According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary, it is defined as “an anxiety disorder marked by chronic excessive anxiety and worry that is difficult to control, causes distress or impairment in daily functioning and is accompanied by three or more associated symptoms (as restlessness, irritability, poor concentration and sleep disturbances).”

It’s more than worrying about a test. It’s more than insomnia after a stressful day at work. It’s something that has the potential to overtake someone’s life: full of shaking hands, overheated faces, racing hearts and the inability to breathe, rationalize, sleep or sometimes even think. Just because anxiety invades the lives of so many college students doesn’t mean that it’s easy to deal with.

There are some ways to make living with anxiety in college a little bit easier:

Accept that some days are going to be better than others

This is a really important lesson that I am currently working through that helps me tremendously. It helps me be a little more positive and feel a little less anxious even on days that are bad, because I have the hope that things are going to improve. It even helps to think this way in the midst of a panic attack; when I first started experiencing them, I remember thinking that it was never going to end. Reminding yourself that the attack will eventually end can help calm you down a little bit quicker.

Talk to someone if the option is available

Therapy is something everyone can benefit from. It’s just talking to a neutral person and getting advice from someone completely removed from the situation. Therapy can be expensive, but a lot of schools have therapists available on campus free of charge. Point Park offers students ten free sessions with a counselor each semester. Utilize this service if you think it would help you.

Find something to distract you when you are about to have an attack

There are a lot of different symptoms to panic attacks: sometimes it incorporates hyperventilating and crying, sometimes it’s an impending feeling of doom accompanied by a racing heart and the inability to think, sometimes it’s silence, shaking and the feeling that your lungs can’t possible hold enough air. I’m sure there’s 1,000 more panic attack symptoms that I’ve never experienced. Just like each panic attack is different, each person has to have a different few methods to help distract or work through anxiety attacks. For me, when I feel a panic attack coming on, I like to attempt to meditate, color or read.

Find something that you like to do, by yourself, outside of school and work

Granted, college students are busy and sometimes it seems like finding time to do something just because you like it is next to impossible. But I can tell you that the weeks where I find a little extra time to go to yoga, go to ballet and read for my own enjoyment are a lot better than the ones where I don’t. Even if it’s watching one episode of "Fuller House" on Netflix every night before bed or reading four pages of "Harry Potter" for the 10th time, finding something you truly enjoy doing without anyone else really does help me with anxiety. I really recommend exercise—it makes it difficult to think about anything you could be anxious about!

It’s important to remember that some of these tips might not work for everyone; everyone experiences anxiety in a different way, and each person needs to find their own way to achieve peace. Best of luck to all of the college students dealing with anxiety, it will get better.