You can start by giving your anxiety a funny name and its own personality. I call mine Gladys. She’s a drama queen who catastrophizes everything, lives for worst-case scenarios, and panics if I leave the house without checking the stove four times. Giving her a name and a personality helps me separate me from her.
To be clear, anxiety runs in my family. My mother had it, my son Charles (who died by suicide) struggled deeply with it, and my older son experienced panic attacks when he was younger. While I haven’t had chronic anxiety myself, I’ve had my moments, especially during grief.
Through supporting my sons, I became the go-to panic attack coach in our house. Over time, we collected a whole toolkit of strategies—including humor—to bring the heart rate down and put anxiety in its place. Charles was especially stubborn about breathing techniques, claiming they wouldn’t work despite concrete science proving it does. So I was distracted with humor when he dug his heels in.
Ways to talk to your anxiety
This is just for inspiration. Make up your own. Let me know yours in the comments.
“Thanks for your input, Gladys, but we’re not doing worst-case-scenario theater today.”
“Oh hey, Anxiety! You’re early. The overthinking meeting doesn’t start until 3 a.m.”
“Cool story, bro. But I’m still going to that party.”
“You again? I thought I blocked you.”
“Thanks for the alert system, but this is just a grocery store, not a war zone.”
“Appreciate the drama, but I’m going to breathe now.”
“Yes, I did send that email. No, I’m not going to reread it 47 times.”
“Sit down, Anxiety. You’re not driving today. GPS says we’re headed to Rational Thought.”
“You must be exhausted from sprinting to conclusions all the time.”
“We’ve been over this anxiety, I’m not dying.”
“Your job is to warn me, not to direct the show.”
“Oh, anxiety, stop being so dramatic.”
“You are doing the best you can do. Breathe.”
“Can we reschedule this spiral for never?”
Humorous YouTube Videos About Anxiety
Mindful Moments: Managing Stress from ManTherapy.org (1 minute meditation)
YouTube Short on How to Talk to Your Anxiety (YouTube Short, 1 minute)
Benefits of Laughter on Anxiety
A good laugh is medicine. When you laugh, it doesn’t just lighten your load it actually induces physical changes in your body. Laughter…..
- Activates and relieves your stress response. A laugh fires up and then cools down your stress response, while increasing and then decreasing your heart rate and blood pressure. The result? A relaxed feeling.
- Soothes tension. Laughter also stimulates circulation and aids muscle relaxation. Both of these can help reduce some of the physical symptoms of stress.
- Boosts your mood. While it’s not a cure, laughter can help reduce stress, ease feelings of depression and anxiety, and bring a sense of lightness when things feel heavy. It might even give your self-esteem a little lift in the process.
- Helps relieve pain. It prompts your body to release natural painkillers—those feel-good chemicals that can ease discomfort and help you cope just a little better.
AnneMoss Rogers is a leading wellness and suicide education expert and one of the top mental health speakers and suicide prevention speakers. Known for her powerful, motivational keynotes, AnneMoss combines her personal story of loss with proven strategies to help organizations build a wellness culture that drives results and saves lives. She speaks at conferences, workplaces, K-12 schools, and universities, delivering impactful presentations that inspire change and promote mental health awareness.
AnneMoss does this work in memory of her son, Charles, who struggled with anxiety, depression, and addiction, and died by suicide at age 20 in 2015.