I got asked about how to cope with eating during the evenings when you have more anxiety than during the day. Below is an article about anxiety during the evenings - why and what you can do about it.
However when it comes to eating when you have the most anxiety, then it is important to be extra strong. Maybe have someone with you during the evenings if you know that that is when you struggle the most. Have reminders around your apartment, or even alarms on your phone reminding you to eat. Also preparing your food for the evening so its just to take it out and eat, even if you feel you dont want to can be helpful. But most important, fight the anxiety. Know that your body needs the food, that you are doing a good thing even if it may not feel like it. You are giving your body energy and nourishment which it needs.
It can help to maybe read, watch a film or series or sit and talk to someone during and after your meals if that is where you struggle the most. But also have some where comfortable to sit or lie down during the evenings if you find it hard to be still or get very restless. Let your body relax and rest and feed your body the energy it needs.
Take deep breaths, have a mantra or motto you can repeat to help cope. Know that it will get easier, but you have to go through the tough times and get stronger!!!
Anxiety that gets worse in the evenings is interesting, because there isn't necessarily a medical reason for it. There are, however, several potential reasons that someone may experience nighttime or evening anxiety – anxiety that makes your anxiety disorders worse.
The causes of evening anxiety are somewhat unclear, in that there isn't anything about anxiety that should increase in the evenings. That means that each person suffering from evening anxiety likely has their own specific reason. Possibilities include:
- Post-Work Stress – Many people experience considerable anxiety after work, because of the way their work caused them significant stress. When you're feeling stressed at work for a considerable amount of time and go home to your own thoughts, it's not uncommon for that tension to grow, leading to further late night anxiety.
- Morning Distractions – Throughout the morning and afternoon, you're very busy. Distractions are actually an important tool for relieving anxiety. So those that are busy at work or busy in the mornings will be less likely to be able to focus on their stresses. But once all of that is over and the distractions are gone, anxiety has a tendency to bubble up to the surface.
- Sleep Therapy – Sleep is its own natural form of therapy, and anxiety is a cumulative condition. So it's possible that every time you sleep your anxiety dissipates, and then over time as you go throughout your day it builds itself back until you sleep again.
- Restless Leg Syndrome – Restless leg syndrome is a condition that starts in the evenings and can lead to pain an discomfort in the legs. It may make it harder to sleep and cause anxiety symptoms whenever it starts to occur.
- Late Night Associations – For many, anxiety becomes associated with events. For example, if you often fight in bed with your spouse, then going to bed will create more anxiety even if you're not fighting. It's possible that you have had several arguments or problems around dinner time or later, and so when you start to approach that time your body becomes anxious in anticipation.
- Physical Responses – Some people find that they are more prone to hyperventilation in the evenings, as well as experiencing more aches and pains and fatigue. Those with anxiety attacks may react to these feelings with greater levels of anxiety. Since each person has their own triggers, those with evening anxiety may have more night triggers.
This list is only preliminary. It's possible that some people are more prone to biological responses as well. Brain chemistry changes based on energy levels, time of day, diet, and other factors that may differ at night compared to during the day.
Also, some people become their own mental enemy in the evening. As soon as you start to wonder whether or not you're more prone to evening anxiety, you're also setting yourself up to anticipate evening anxiety. As strange as it sounds, the very realization that you have evening anxiety may make evening anxiety more likely.
The most likely reason is simply the lack of distractions. Anxiety has a tendency of taking over when we're lost in our own thoughts, and unfortunately most people have little to think about at night that prevents them from focusing on their anxiety. But again, it may be any combination of causes.
How to Prevent Evening Anxiety
There are some very simple ways to reduce evening anxiety, at least comparatively. Overall, the only way to guarantee that you don't get anxiety in the evenings is to cure your anxiety altogether. But in the absence of that option, there are strategies that can help you break the cycle of anxiety at night. These include:
- Staying Busy – The first thing you need to do is try to stay busy. No matter how tired you are from work, make sure that you've planned several things to do once you're off work that you enjoy. This will reduce the time spent moping or lost in your own head, which is important for reducing anxiety.
- Post Work Exercise – You should also make sure that you're physically active. One of the best short term anxiety cures is aerobic exercise. If you can get yourself exercising right before or while your anxiety hits, you'll find that your anxiety symptoms decrease and your ability to cope with the stress improves.
- Creating a Boring Routine – If staying busy and exercising isn't something you can do, a boring routine may help. Routines are all about comfort. As long as your routine involves doing something, you'll find that the act of knowing exactly what you're doing at all times can be very calming to the mind and body.
- Goal Setting – You should also consider giving yourself goals – goals that you can work on every night. This relates to staying busy, of course, but they also ensure that each night is spent focusing on the future, not just the present. Even if one of those goals is to finish a jigsaw puzzle, as long as you're working on it you'll improve your ability to cope with anxiety.
- Self-Awareness – Finally, make sure that you're aware of your anxiety more. The more in-tune you are to the way you feel, the more you can break the anxiety cycle. When you start feeling anxiety at night, don't try to fight it. Acknowledge it to yourself, try to see what you're doing when it comes up, and then try to treat it. Fighting anxiety makes anxiety worse. But accepting it and solving it anyway can make it much better.
