What is Anxiety ?

Anxiety is a normal response to a perceived threat  and in some situations it can save your life. In these cases the “fight or flight” response is triggered,  your body prepares itself to deal with potential threats. For example, if a situation makes you feel anxious it may be that you are in danger, in which case listening to the anxiety and removing yourself from the situation is beneficial.  

In other circumstances you can feel anxious when you are about to do something that is important to you. For example

you have an exam coming up and are worried about how you will do, in this case the anxiety helps you, you study harder.

You could be about to take part in an important sporting event, your anxiety helps you perform better.

Problematic Anxiety 

Sometimes the anxiety alarm system starts to trigger when there is little or no need. This means  your body is primed to deal with a dangerous situation when none exists, and all the energy, thoughts and feelings have nowhere to go and build up  and up in your body, in extreme cases resulting in panic attacks 

Some of signs of problematic anxiety

You may feel a few, or several of these

1. Feeling on edge most of the time

2. Being unable to control your negative thoughts

3. Difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep

4. Stomach and appetite problems

5. Diarrhoea

6. Being unable to stop worrying about things

7. Irritability

8. Lack of concentration

9. Being unable to be still or be quiet

10.   Avoiding social, work and daily situations

11. Overly worrying about your health

12.       Experiencing a sense of doom

13.     Always thinking the worst case scenario is going to happen

Why have I become so Anxious

There are many reasons people become anxious and you are not always aware of the causes, sometimes they can be rooted in childhood experiences, sometimes a specific trauma can be the start. Lots of little negative events throughout your life can start you down the path to anxiety . Some people are more susceptible to be coming anxious than others. This is true if you experienced situations that would causes anxiety for anyone but  you had a particularly bad experiences at that time. In truth you may never fully know why you have become anxious as it can be a combination of  things  that have slowly built up over time, and you haven’t really noticed it until that one final event that tips you over the edge.

One of the big problems with anxiety is sometimes the easiest way deal with it is to avoid doing the thing that makes you anxious.  You fear that something bad could happen, but avoiding the task reinforces that something is dangerous and to be feared.  The reality is often different eg something as simple as going out for a drink with friends because something to fear. This has a knock on effect of you becoming more and more isolated, exacerbating the anxiety and potentially causing loneliness and depression. This develops into a very negative cycle of thoughts, feelings and behaviours that can be very difficult to break.

How do cope with my anxiety and become less anxious

 Talking to somebody you trust, or a therapist, can be very helpful to put things into perspective when your mind goes to the worst case scenario.

Looking after yourself physically can help you feel better and manage symptoms. Movement is always good for managing and preventing anxiety. This can be anything from yoga to walking, to martial arts to football, anything as long as your body is physically moving.

· Diet and nutrition also plays an important role especially as anxiety can cause upset stomach and lack of appetite. Eating a good diet can help but if you really struggle visiting a nutritionist maybe beneficial to you.

There are many different types of relaxing and mindful activities that could help you manage your anxiety. These include breathing techniques, mindfulness activities, relaxation techniques and meditation.

Ultimately you want to be able to face and do the very things that cause you anxiety. Anxiety is like facing a Tasmanian devil, the more you avoid the things that make you anxious the more you feed the anxiety. If you can learn to face the very things that makes you anxious in a manageable step by step way, you start to reduce your anxiety and the more you do this the easier if will feel to do things.

 To do this you need to learn tools and techniques to help you along the way and this is best done with a professional to help guide you.