Managing Anxiety
- kesha Pillai
- Apr 2, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 4, 2021
Anxiety” has many synonyms, including “fear,” “worry,” “tension,” “unease,” “restlessness,” “watchfulness,” “distress,” “concern,” “nervousness,” and the all-encompassing “suffering.” When we just read this list, we can consider our life's challenges, difficulties, and concerns. Anxiety is the most common mental health condition in Australia. According to Beyond Blue, on average, one in four people – one in three women and one in five men – will experience anxiety at some stage in their life. In the last 12-month COVID19 period, over two million Australians experienced anxiety.
When something makes us anxious for a few minutes or hours, we are in the normal biological state of being anxious. Our bodies are built to deal with anxious spells on their own. When a deeply anxious event occurs, such as losing our job or major life-threatening events, the system is taxed. Returning to normal balance then becomes more problematic. Sometimes the persistent feeling of fear or trepidation can progress to panic attacks despite the absence of a triggering event. Anxiety overload necessitates medical and psychological help and support.
Signs and symptoms
The signs and symptoms of anxiety are experienced on the physiological, cognitive, and behavioural level.
The physiological aspect of anxiety manifests as physical sensations. A racing heart, shallow breathing, light-headedness, clammy hands, restlessness, fatigue, trembling, muscle tension, or a "lump in the throat," as well as headaches, stomach-aches, backaches, and a variety of other stress-related medical problems, are some of the symptoms.
Worrying thoughts about the future characterise the cognitive aspect of anxiety. Imagining various disasters and considering how to avoid them.
Avoidant behaviour is the third aspect of anxiety. We predictably try to avoid situations that cause unpleasant physiological reactions or painful thoughts. As a result, when we are anxious, we limit our lives and what we fear reinforces the idea that it is dangerous.
These are just a few of the symptoms that we might encounter. They are not intended to provide a diagnosis; we will need to consult a doctor for that; however, they can be used as guides.
Types of Anxiety Disorder
There are different types of anxiety. The most common are:
Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), here the person feels anxious on most days, worrying about lots of different things, for six months or more.
With social anxiety, a person has an intense fear of being criticised, embarrassed or humiliated, even in everyday situations, such as speaking publicly, eating in public, being assertive at work or making small talk.
In phobia disorder, a person feels very fearful about a particular object or situation and may go to great lengths to avoid it, for example, having an injection or travelling on a plane.
In a person with panic disorder, the feeling is intense, overwhelming, and often uncontrollable. Someone having a panic attack may experience shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, and excessive perspiration. Suppose a person has recurrent panic attacks or persistently fears having one for more than a month. In that case, they are said to have panic disorder.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) happens after a person experiences a traumatic event (e.g. war, assault, accident, disaster). Symptoms can include difficulty relaxing, upsetting dreams or flashbacks of the event, and avoiding anything related to the event. PTSD is diagnosed when a person has symptoms for at least a month.
This checklist measures your experiences of anxiety during the past two weeks. Your answers and results are entirely confidential, and they do not store any of your information. After taking the test, you can print the results for yourself or mental health professional.
Self-Care by Being mindful of anxiety.
At times, self-care is highly beneficial, while at other times, millions of people take a tranquilliser prescribed by their doctor. The disadvantage of this quick fix is that it only treats the symptoms rather than addressing the root cause of anxiety. The main problem for us who cannot seem to get past our fear, nervousness, or trepidation is that we believe the message anxiety sends us. We have thoughts like "This will turn out badly," "Something terrible is about to happen," and "I'll never be able to handle this" are running through our heads. Fear does not tell us the truth; it only tries to convince us. The two are not the same. So, when I have an anxious thought, I use the mantra "I don't really know this is true." The truth is that right now, I am okay. In this way, I am cultivating a new habit for your brain to cope with difficult situations. I am training it to be mindful and look at each situation realistically in the present, where it was accustomed to believing in mindless fear signals.
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