As with depression, the most common anxieties are felt in response to adverse circumstances. 3 Doctors commonly try to manage their patients' reactive anxiety by offering information and support. Good pain management, through pharmacologic or other methods, is also essential, for anxiety almost always accompanies unrelieved pain. There are many non-medical techniques to relieve anxiety. You almost certainly have developed some of your own that work for you.
Simple strategies are often most effective.
Prepare for time spent waiting or receiving treatment. Take an interesting book on tape to doctor's appointments, or watch a video during a chemo infusion. Studies have shown that the judicious use of minor tranquilizers, brief psychotherapy and behavioral interventions like self-hypnosis, meditation or relaxation techniques are all extremely effective, alone or in combination, to help most people cope with reactive anxiety. In the last two decades, behavioral techniques have received particular attention. In the comparatively new field of behavioral medicine, research has shown that techniques like these can alter physiological and psychological functioning.