Everyone faces problems sometimes.

And they can cause lots of anxiety and worry, often more than the actual problem itself, and that can increase the amount of anxiety and hopelessness we might be feeling.

Problem solving is an excellent way to boost self-esteem and help you feel less worried and anxious.  Here are some suggestions for how to go about problem solving without creating more stress and anxiety.

• Recognise the problem and write it down on paper

• Identify the problem and how it is affecting you now, what the situation is, and what you would like the outcome to be, what you would like the situation to be

• Chunk the problem down into bits, stages or component parts if you can. This can  make it a lot easier to deal with and work on

• Look for solutions, way to solve the problem, this may seem hard at first but every problem does have a solution

• Ask for help with this if solutions are easy to come up with.  Other people, friends, family, organisations might have more ideas that you hadn’t thought of. Try an internet search too, but filter results through your common sense

Taking small steps like these will make you start to feel that the problem can be sorted, that you are in control of it, that there is a way through

And remember too that starting this process is a whole lot better than staying where you are and letting the problem feel it’s getting bigger and bigger

You can work it out.