Daily Calm: Coping Alone With Anxiety? A Ten-Country Study

Daily Calm, from Central London Hypnotherapy, Farringdon

Why do so many people handle anxiety on their own? A new study gives a more generous answer than "they should ask for help sooner". Published in 2026 in SSM Mental Health, A social-ecological analysis of psychological self-management among college students is based on 261 interviews with university students in ten countries.

What the researchers found

Students who struggled but had not sought treatment were not simply avoiding care. Many were managing their distress actively. They leaned on friends and family, joined campus activities, volunteered and limited their time on media. The authors call this a spread-out network of care, shaped by relationships, campus life and wider society.

The interviews built on a related survey of nearly 14,000 students in eight countries. Among students who had not sought help, 56.4 percent said they preferred to handle problems on their own, making self-reliance the most common reason. Turning to friends or family came second.

News coverage describes it as the first large qualitative study of its kind across several countries, and notes that it accompanies a student mental health survey from the World Health Organization's WMH-ICS initiative.

The interviews describe experiences and patterns. They do not measure how common each approach is, or how well it works, and the sample is university students.

Coping alone is not the same as coping well

Managing on your own takes effort and often works for a while. What this study shows is that it is a reasonable instinct, not a flaw. What it cannot tell you is whether your own approach is still enough.

If anxiety is deciding where you go, what you avoid or how you sleep, self-reliance may have reached its limit. Many people who come to see me in Farringdon have been coping, successfully, for years. They arrive because coping is tiring.

What it means for you

• Handling things yourself is a legitimate starting point. Nothing in the research says you have failed.
• Your surroundings matter. Friends, routines and the places you spend time are part of your support, so use them deliberately.
• Asking for help is also a way of managing yourself. It is one more tool.

Hypnotherapy suits people who like to take charge of their own recovery, because the work is yours to keep. The research is encouraging. A 2019 review of 15 studies found people who had hypnosis reduced their anxiety more than about 79 percent of people in comparison groups. A 2013 review of 34 randomised trials covering 2,597 people found hypnosis reduced distress. In a session we work with the way anxiety shows up for you, whether that is racing thoughts, a tight chest or dread of a particular situation, and you leave with a self-hypnosis practice you can use on your own.

Tim Dunton has practised for more than 20 years, is a GHR member, and trained in NLP with Bandler and Grinder. Read how hypnotherapy helps with anxiety.

Book a free consultation. Talk it through in person at 9 Coldbath Square, Farringdon EC1R 5HL, or online. Request your free consultation or call 07975 653893.

The research

1. A social-ecological analysis of psychological self-management among college students, SSM Mental Health, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2026.100713

2. Bioengineer.org, 6 November 2026, coverage of the above. https://bioengineer.org/college-students-manage-mental-health-alone-across-ten-countries-study-finds/

3. Valentine KE, Milling LS, Clark LJ, Moriarty CL, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 2019, 67(3):336-363. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31251710/

4. Tefikow S et al, Clinical Psychology Review 2013, 33(5):623-636. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23628907/

Tags: anxiety · research · London · confidence · self-help

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