How does snapping a rubber band on your wrist help with anxiety?

Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain reveals the VERY simple trick she used to conquer her anxiety on the show (and it involves a rubber band)

• Nadiya, 32, explained how she would 'snap' the band back as 'shock therapy' 
• She requested crew find her another one after it snapped off in week six of show
• Mother-of-three also described panic disorder as a 'monster shouting at me' 

Published: 21:50 AEDT, 6 October 2017 | Updated: 22:56 AEDT, 6 October 2017

She has been open about her struggles with anxiety since winning The Great British Bake Off in 2015. 

And now Nadiya Hussain has revealed the simple trick she used to cope with her anxiety during her time on the show.

The 32-year-old explained how she would wear a rubber band on her wrist that she would snap back as 'shock therapy', to remind her that her anxious thoughts were 'not real'.

She also described how she relied on the elastic band so much that she urged the crew to find her another one when it snapped off during week six of the show. 

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Nadiya Hussain, 32, explained how she wore an elastic band around her wrist to cope with her anxiety disorder 

Speaking on Lorraine on Friday, she explained: 'If you watch Bake Off back, I had an elastic band on my wrist up until week six. 

'All you do is snap it and it's like shock therapy, it reminds you that whats happening is not real. 

'Then week six it snapped off, and I said you have to find me an elastic band quickly.'

Discussing her panic disorder, Nadiya added: 'I don't know when it started, I don't remember feeling any differently. 

The Bake Off 2015 winner (pictured during her time on the show) said she would 'snap' at the band as 'shock therapy', to remind her that her anxious thoughts were not 'not real'

'I describe it as a monster. Some days it's in my face and shouting at me and I can't move because it's shouting at me. 

'Other days it's behind me, or he's in my pocket. It's like I being cut or bruised on the inside but no-one can see it. 

'I spent years not saying anything, but we need to talk about it. Some days I want to fly, other days I want to hide under my duvet.' 

The mother-of-three described how appearing on The Great British Bake Off 'saved' her.

Nadiya said she had to ask the crew to find her another band when it snapped off during week six of the competition

The television cook also discussed her panic disorder during her appearance on Lorriane 

She also explained how she is able to 'channel [her] fears and anxiety' into her work. 

Since winning the Bake Off two years ago, she has appeared in several TV shows, including her own series The Chronicles Of Nadiya, released her own books and baked the Queen's birthday cake as part of her 90th birthday celebrations.

Nadiya is currently presenting the BBC One's Big Family Cooking Showdown, with co-host Zoe Ball and judges Rosemary Shrager and Giorgio Locatelli starring on the programme. 

She also fronted an eight-part series called Nadiya's British Food Adventure over the summer. 

The mother-of-three described how appearing on The Great British Bake Off 'saved' her 

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A number of practices and techniques are available to help you loosen the grip of any type of anxiety-driven, unproductive thought pattern. Since I'm not a technique-oriented therapist, I often learn from my therapy clients what works, rather than the other way around.

One woman, Katy, tells me about a technique for managing her unwanted judgmental thoughts about herself and others. She learned it from a woman's magazine she came upon at her hairdresser's.

The article suggested a "rubber-band technique" for stopping thoughts. Katy has elaborated on the technique, using her imagination and self-knowledge to create a tool that works for her.

Here's what she does: When Katy finds herself drifting into negative thinking, she snaps a rubber band on her wrist and says to herself in a spirit of playfulness, "Hello again, you silly little critical thought! How are you today?" If she's alone, she may say this out loud. Then Katy puts the thought in an imaginary red dumpster and lets it ride down a railroad track where it gets dumped into a pile at the end of the track.

She doesn't try to stop the thoughts (which is impossible), but she's found a way to say howdy to them, and to use her wonderful sense of humor to give each judgmental thought—these days focused on her "loser brother"—a little welcome and sendoff.

Katy doesn't think too much about why her brain wraps around "negative thinking" at one point in time and not another. Her belief is that the variations in her thought patterns have more to do with the vicissitudes of her "weird brain chemistry," as she calls it, than anything psychological that she needs to attend to.

No matter. Katy has a gift for silliness, and practicing this technique, combined with daily aerobic exercise, has so far offered her the best relief in loosening the grip of unwanted thoughts.

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