What is Anxiety?
When it comes to mental health, there is no condition which is as prevalent across the board in how it interacts with other mental health conditions, or is influenced by other mental health conditions as anxiety. There are also many faces of anxiety, some of which are specific to situations or scenarios such as social anxiety, or particular phobias, to a more generalized type of anxiety where one is worried about a variety of different things. Regardless, the impacts of anxiety on a person are very similar, and often cause troubles in a person’s ability to function in there day to day, and can cause troubles in relationships with others. In this blog post, we are hoping to provide some helpful information regarding anxiety, and dispel any misunderstandings or myths regarding anxiety.
Why do we Experience Anxiety?
There are a lot of different reasons we begin to experience anxiety. Some reasons are due to traumas we experience in our lives, for example, someone may have been in a car accident and they now experience heightened feelings of dread and anxiety when they get into a car or other vehicle. For others it could be due to feeling like they are not in control of their life or the things happening around them in their life. Some examples of this could be a child frequently checking in to know where his parents or caregivers are throughout the day, and if they do not know, they become irritable and upset. Another example could be that of an adult wanting to make sure they have every small detail planned out regarding their day and if something changes in their routine they struggle to cope, and make changes to their plans. Looking at these examples and many others which we did not mention, anxiety often comes from wanting to feel safe, either by looking out for danger or trying to control as many aspects of our life. Because if we can control everything, the likelihood of something negative happening is minimal, or at least that is what anxiety tries to tell us.
What are Symptoms of Anxiety?
As mentioned above, anxiety takes many different forms, but to start out we are going to talk about Generalized Anxiety Disorder, as many of the symptoms for this disorder also are prevalent in other anxiety disorders. First off there is excessive worry most days over a lengthy period of time, in the case of Generalized Anxiety that time period is 6 months or more. When speaking about excessive worry, this means feelings of worry to the point it begins to interfere with the person’s life in various different areas, such as school, work, relationships, family, and so on. Next is difficulty controlling the worry, which means no matter the steps you may have attempted to take on your own, you still find yourself worrying about things to a point it can be difficult to focus on other things you need to do in your life. The next several symptoms are as follows: Restlessness or feeling on edge, being easily fatigued or tired frequently, troubles concentrating or focusing on tasks at hand not related to whatever you are worried about, irritability either with yourself or others, muscle tension, stiffness, or body aches when worried or anxious, and finally troubles with sleep, either falling asleep or staying asleep.
As mentioned before, these are the symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder, however, many other anxious disorders share many of these symptoms, with the focus of the anxiety instead being focused on something specific and not more generalized things in life. It should also be noted there are high prevalence rates of depression when one has anxiety. What does this mean you may ask? It means if you have anxiety or depression, there is a strong likelihood you may have the other, one may be more prevalent, or stand out more than the other. For this reason, anxiety and depression are sometimes referred to as the “ugly stepsisters” by mental health professionals.
What can I do about my Anxiety?
You may be reading this and after reviewing the symptoms you may be wondering if you have anxiety, which may cause you to feel anxious. We hope you know there are many different methods to treating anxiety, and we can help you learn how to have your anxiety work for you, rather than against you. Breathing and grounding skills, along with meditations are effective ways to help manage those feelings of anxiety in the moment, and help you focus more effectively on the things you are needing to do rather than letting your anxiety keep you side tracked on things which you cannot change in that moment. There are also helpful treatment methods such as CBT, DBT, Exposure Therapy, and so on, which can help address the issues caused by anxiety. It should also be mentioned if the feelings of anxiety are rooted in a traumatic experience or event, that trauma may need to be effectively processed or worked through before the symptoms of anxiety get better.
If you would like to know more about how anxiety or trauma is affecting you, or you are feeling like you need to work through your anxious thoughts and feelings so you can be a better version of yourself, please either call 435-660-0050 or book an appointment on our website to meet with our therapists. Anxiety can feel overwhelming, but you don’t have to work through it alone.
