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More and more people in society are starting to speak about anxiety. Whether it is those who are understanding the disorder or those who are wondering what is anxiety really? Many articles speak about statistics to bolster the severity of it and basically, a lot of people experience this mental state.
Anxiety disorders are debilitating. They prevent people from living normal lives and the more that it is trivialised, the worse it gets for those who truly need the support.
‘Normal’ Anxiety
To understand anxiety, we must first speak of it as a common occurrence that is necessary for humans. Anxiety is an emotion and a state of mind that is meant to protect us. When we start to feel this emotion it is our body telling us that we need to avoid some type of danger.
It is a survival instinct. Every person has felt anxiety in their life. The sweaty palms before you have to read in front of people. The twists in the stomach before playing a big sporting match. Your first date or time you told someone that you love them.
This feeling is both normal and required for our survival. This may be why using the term anxiety is so misunderstood. Since we see that it is common and just preparing us for a big event then why are people struggling so much with it?
The answer is simple, but not simple. Those who say they have anxiety in a way that implies a mental disorder are referring to a state of anxiousness that has gone beyond the norm. This is when the feelings move beyond sweaty palms in situations that should only be mildly anxious situations. There are 6 common types of anxiety disorders to explain this uncontrolled anxiety.
The Science Behind Anxiety
To understand this state of mind, we must speak about the primal instincts of humans. We know that we have certain instincts that cause us to act on impulse in certain situations. This is what anxiety is, a primal impulse that is meant to protect us.
To not get too scientific with this description, I’ll explain it in layman’s terms.
As my therapist explained to me once, when we are in danger our mind switches to autopilot. This switch turns off our mind’s reasoning capabilities to allow more brainpower to be used in the instinct part of our brains. The body does this by activating hormones in various ways.
Fight or Flight
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This is the flight or fight response. A response that lets our body choose between only two options. Since danger usually means we don’t have a lot of time to think, we now only have to decide between the two. Flight means you run away from danger while fight means you stand your ground and push through.
Both of these responses require your body to act in certain ways. Your blood starts pumping faster around your body, therefore your heart beats faster. Your breathing becomes quicker to get more oxygen running through your body and to your brain. Also, your adrenaline kicks in and is pumped through your body.
All these functions are started up by your instincts to protect you. Remember the sweaty palms, this is your body’s response to cool itself down to prevent overheating from all the blood pumping through it.
Then why does this normal process turn unbearable?
Finding The What? Is Anxiety Normal or a Disorder
Now that you understand the normality of anxiety you may still wonder why it is deemed to be bad in people who say that they have a disorder. It should just be their body protecting them you may think.
This is incorrect. The people, myself included, who experience this state of mind are usually speaking of when the responses are out of our control or triggered in situations that shouldn’t be deemed as dangerous, but to us, they are.
Usually, the primal instinct should kick in when you are in physical danger, such as a robber holding a gun to you in the street, this is when you absolutely need these responses to help you decipher your next move.
Anxiety sufferers, get triggered in situations that other people would class as normal and not anxiety-inducing. For instance, the dreaded message saying “we need to talk” will most likely cause anxiety in almost everyone. Yet, those who suffer from Anxiety Disorder (AD) may see the situation as if they are being robbed.
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There seems to be an imbalance of hormones in our brains that activate the instincts more often and for less severe reasons. We cannot control our bodies entering into the protecting frame of mind even when the situation does not require us to.
Now we have our bodies activated and running at full speed with no direct threat in front of us. We don’t have a person with a gun, where we can navigate, do we run from this, or stand our ground. We have an invisible threat.
Invisible threats are a lot harder to navigate than ones that we can see. We now have all these responses without a way to use them. We don’t turn and run to use up the energy and we don’t physically fight either.
So these processes have nowhere to go and that is when we can have a panic or anxiety attack. Our body isn’t using the oxygen, so we tend to breathe faster to expel it and this can lead to feelings of not being able to breathe. The beating heart rate can feel as though we are having a heart attack.
This is not to say that every sufferer has these physical symptoms, some can have all these processes happening inside the body without anyone even noticing that they are experiencing this. AD can manifest in so many different ways and each warrior fights a unique battle.
Common Symptoms of Anxiety
While there are so many ways to experience AD, there are common symptoms that people experience that helps us to relate to each other. The flight or fight response is usually the manifestation of a lot of symptoms that have gone untreated leading to the unwanted climax of an attack. Other symptoms can include:
Restlessness
Insomnia
Overthinking
Depression
Constant worrying
A constant fear of dying
Irritability
Fatigue
Inability to concentrate for longer periods
Muscle tension
Headaches
Irrational fears
These are just a few of a long list of possible symptoms of anxiety. The severity of the symptoms depends on how severe your AD is and if you have taken any steps to improve it.
If you are feeling these symptoms regularly and for situations that don’t warrant such a severe reaction, you should consider reaching out for help.
How to Get Help
Another controversial topic is how to combat anxiety. Is there an actual cure or is this something that you have to live with forever?
From personal experience, it is important to find out how you can manage your AD. As with the symptoms, the treatments are just as unique for individuals. Some people believe that medication is absolutely necessary, while others deem it to have more negative effects than positive ones.
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The key here is to understand what works for you. What feels right for you. There are many articles on the internet claiming that anxiety can be fixed with yoga and a bit of meditation each day.
In my opinion, this is nonsense. Anxiety disorder requires a lifestyle change to treat it and the changes you make are up to you. My advice: try everything! Take medication if you feel you need it, but if it makes you feel uncomfortable, stop taking it.
For me, taking medication made me more anxious because of the dangerous side-effects like problems with breathing after playing sport, so pharmaceuticals were not for me. Although, they may work for you. Natural supplements such as L-Theanine are my solution regarding pills.
The rest is a complete lifestyle switch. Stop doing what makes you feel bad and start doing what makes you feel good. Easier said than done, I know, but start small and make your way up. The right type of diet can help fight anxiety, along with other solutions that I will mention in a future article.
Bottom line
You have got this, my anxious warrior!
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