1. Apply the five-pronged calm-down approach – here you would need to use one or more of your five senses – see, hear, smell, taste and touch.

a. See - you could see an enjoyable movie; or go to a park where you could admire the tranquil scenery; take out your family albums and walk through the memory lane with the help of the photographs; and so on.

b. Hear – take a walk in the park and listen to the chirping of birds, swish of the wind through the trees and other sounds of nature.

c. Smell – take a breath of your favorite perfume or that of your partner's (if that is soothing for you); light aromatic candles; have a massage with aromatic essential oils; smell a rose (or any flower you love); go to a bakery and smell the freshly-baked bread or pastries; and so on.

d. Taste – buy your favorite fruit and relish it; visit a nice eating place and order your favorite dish or decide to taste something new; cook your favorite dish; indulge in a rich and tasty chocolate cake; and so on

e. Touch – pet your cat, dog, bird or whatever animal you have at home; go for a relaxing massage; soak in a hot and scented bath; sleep on satin sheets; let the breeze or rain wash over you; and so on.

2. Be AWARE: this word does not only warn you about an imminent danger; this is also an acronym for a foolproof method to manage GAD:

a. ‘A' for accepting that you have an anxiety problem – do not resist anxiety when you feel it coming. Accept it and work with it not against it. Just as you need to turn the steering wheel of a vehicle along with the skid to control it best, anxiety can be checked most effectively when you show least resistance to it. Do not be angry or tense about it. Simply go about the steps that you know would diffuse it.

b. ‘W' for watch out for the tendency to put a label on it – look at your anxiety feeling as objectively as you could under the circumstances. Do not hurry to label yourself as ‘hopeless', ‘worthless', ‘helpless' and such. Anxiety is neither your fault nor part of your character; this is a disorder, which needs to be treated like any other illness.

c. ‘A' for action against anxiety – do not sit there and allow anxiety to permeate every fiber of your body. Act decisively against it with medication, therapy, exercises and meditation (for calming the mind) among others. Do what it takes to get rid of it.

d. ‘R' for recognizing the patterns of anxiety attack – each person has his or her own anxiety graph. The feelings that precede an attack are unique to each person. Learn to recognize the telltale signs and be ready for it.

e. ‘E' for encouraging positive thinking – stop all negative thoughts in their track. Replace them systematically and strategically with positive thinking. Eliminate negativity and negative thoughts traps from your mind.

3. Seek medical help – you should know you need medical help when the above-mentioned SOS strategies do not help reducing the intensity of your anxiety induced feelings and symptoms. Ensure that you inform your doctor about all details (many people feel they would be perceived as crazy if they voice their fears and all types of feelings – and therefore, hide these from the doctor) regarding the anxiety attack. Be particularly watchful about the side effects that develop along with anxiety such as substance abuse, depression, and the like.

4. Follow the recommended anxiety treatment to the T – many people choose to adopt parts of the recommended treatment instead of accepting it as a whole. For example, when the medical practitioner recommends therapy, psychiatric help, exercise and medication most people would take up only the medication or only the therapy and assume that it would be enough for coping with the anxiety attack. It is not so. You need to do exactly as the medical practitioner advises – no exceptions.