Let’s talk about anxiety
It’s not easy to live with anxiety. Constant worry and fear hold you back from living the full life you dream of. In these uncertain times it’s not hard to encounter some situation on the news or in daily life that causes excessive fear.
Anxiety is actually a very common struggle. According to the NIMH, approximately 31% of adults will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. Typically it’s slightly more common in females than in males, but anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the country. This means you’re not alone.
You might feel like you’re crazy or weak, but you’re not. You’re just having a hard time.
Like anything, there is a range of impairment with anxiety. It can be mild, just a minor reluctance to start tasks, or it can be severe, resulting in full blown panic attacks. During a panic attack the sufferer can have such an intense physiological reaction that they think they are having a heart attack. In fact, one paper found that there were just over a million anxiety-related emergency department visits a year. In fact panic attacks were the most common reason for seeking treatment for chest pain.
“Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt
It’s so important to remember that fear and anxiety are linked. Fear can be described as an emotional response to a specific danger. While anxiety is more of a worry or concern about a possible future. The feeling of fear doesn’t usually last as long as the feeling of anxiety can last. The important thing to recognize is that fear is totally normal. Fear is actually a protective mechanism. The purpose of fear is to prepare us to manage an unexpected or unsafe situation. Fear alerts us to the presence of danger.
The purpose of fear is to prepare us to manage an unexpected or unsafe situation.
We feel fear when we perceive that we are being threatened. Excessive worry and anxiety is what happens when our natural defense mode goes into overdrive. It’s working TOO well. Instead of helping us conquer a challenge it causes us to cope poorly. Our emotions are linked with our functioning in daily life. So naturally when we are stuck in an anxious state we are missing out on living up to our full potential. We don’t just experience anxiety on the mental level, we also experience it on a physiological level and also on a behavioral level.
We experience anxiety on three levels:
Mental
Physiological
Behavioral
Because we are experiencing this feeling on three levels, we can’t just “get over it”, or talk ourselves out of it. You have probably tried telling yourself that “you’re fine”, or “you have noting to worry about”, and you have probably noticed that didn’t do much to make you feel less anxious. The best treatment for anxiety at present is a combination of medications and therapy. It’s important to talk with your doctor before seeking mental health treatment in order to rule out any potential medical causes. The most effective type of therapy to treat anxiety is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) your therapist will teach you a variety of tools to manage the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors associated with excessive anxiety. Usually the therapist will talk with you to identify the troubling things (“the problem”) in your life. Then they will work with you to help you understand how your own thoughts and beliefs about these troubling things is causing your emotional reactions. Next you and the therapist will recognize how your negative thinking and behavioral reactions are linked. Lastly, you and the therapist will work together to reshape your negative thinking.
In therapy you will be exposed to some techniques to track your thoughts and behaviors, possibly a journal. You will be taught some calming strategies to manage the heightened anxiety, perhaps deep breathing techniques. You may even be given homework. This could include tasks for you to implement and practice throughout the week on your own outside the therapists office.
The possibility of getting homework is very high in CBT, so don’t be surprised when your therapist brings it up!
Mindfulness techniques are another method of coping skill that are showing to be very effective at managing the symptoms of anxiety. Here is a like to a blog about a mindfulness strategy known as 5-4-3-2-1.
It’s important to realize that even CBT and even medications may not cure anxiety. They will bring relief, but when life happens, anxiety can increase and when it reaches a certain level our old coping skills may not be enough. Like the tires on our car, they can get worn out over time with heavy use.
Like the tires on our car, coping skills can get worn out over time with heavy use.
Please be gentle with yourself. At all times, but in particular when you are feeling anxious. You absolutely are just as strong as you always have been, you’re just having a hard time. There is help available, reach out today.
