The purpose of this piece is to help you understand the mind and body’s reaction to anxiety. These reactions can feel extremely overwhelming and even out of control.
It can be helpful to understand what anxiety is and where it comes from, what the triggers may be, so you can develop coping strategies to manage and reduce your symptoms.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a natural human response when we feel there is a threat, it can present itself mentally in our thoughts, emotionally in our feelings and physically in our body.
Anxiety can manifest when we are worried about a situation or something that hasn’t even happened, but through overthinking something we believe will happen.
Most people will experience anxiety at some point in their lives, due to stressful situations or changes in our lives.
It is a natural human response to want to protect ourselves from danger or threat, so when this need arises the mind and body goes into being hyper alert, which causes the body to generate adrenalin.
How does Anxiety make us feel?
People experience anxiety in different ways, however whatever the symptoms for most, people feel overwhelmed with the feelings which at times can feel debilitating. Short video on anxiety:
Feelings in the body
Some examples are:
Churning tummy, feeling or being sick, light headed, pins and needles, restlessness/agitated, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat, clammy hands, tight chest, sleep difficulties, body tension and pain, mental and physical exhaustion.
Effects on the mind
Constant worrying, catastrophising, over-thinking, sense of dread, ruminating, need for reassurance and checking.
These symptoms can affect our day-to-day functioning, it can affect how we think, and respond to certain situations. It can also affect our relationships including forming and maintaining them.
All of these feelings can leave us with thoughts that we just have to live with them. However therapy can be really beneficial in helping someone develop coping strategies to manage our anxieties, practical strategies to reduce these effects which allows us to live our lives in a more productive way.
Social Anxiety
I feel this is likely to be more prevalent as we ease out of lockdown, given we have been forced to withdraw from social situations.
So what is it?
Social anxiety in essence is a fear of being judged and perceived in a negative way by others, resulting in feelings of inadequacy, self-consciousness and embarrassment.
This can cause irrational thinking patterns which can result in a fear of socialising, withdrawing from friendship groups and social opportunities.
Helpful video explaining social anxiety:
Triggers
These apply when anxiety manifests itself after a significant event, for example witnessing a traumatic situation, or being involved in a car accident. This is when the body moves into a hypervigilant state, where it perceives threat in most situations. This is a normal reaction to protect in any perceived danger.
Avoidance
A lot of people experiencing Anxiety will say things like “ I keep myself busy, so I don’t have time to think”. Understandably this is a protective strategy so high levels of anxiety symptoms don’t appear; it is also a way of maintaining some control. However over-using this strategy can delay someone taking positive control and getting the support needed to reduce and manage symptoms.
Trust
This can be an issue particularly if someone has had a bad experience, for example being involved in a car crash where it wasn’t their fault and they had no control.
The threat to life in this incident can feel very real, resulting in someone not trusting anyone else as a passenger in a car, or another driver on the road. This can lead to second guessing what someone else might do and by default increasing risk to themselves.
Summary
So in essence anxiety is a result of a threat or perceived threat, the mind and body’s way of coping with that. The important thing to understand is that you don’t have to suffer, there are ways you can manage your anxiety differently with certain strategies, and different thought patterns to support you.
Most importantly be kind to yourself, consider reaching out to someone who has experienced something similar. Let go of those conflicting conversations that can go on in your head and ask yourself how useful they are to you right now.
