What Anxiety Is

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July 22nd, 2009 anxman Leave a comment Go to comments

What is anxiety? This is a very important question since anxiety is something that we all face from time to time, some of us more than others. Anxiety can affect our whole being- how we feel, how we think and how we behave. Anxiety has very real physical symptoms. This is why we need to understand anxiety and what happens to our bodies during it.

Anxiety feels a lot like fear except you don’t always know what you are anxious about like with fear. Mild anxiety is a bother but serious and severe anxiety can feel like it’s taking over your whole life. It can disrupt a normal life and disturb daily functions.

So what causes anxiety in the first place? Usually it is triggered by stress in our lives. Some people are more susceptible to anxiety than others but it can affect anyone. Even if you’re more vulnerable to it, you can get control so it doesn’t take over your life.

You can regognize anxiety when you know the symptoms. Anxiety can manifest itself through tense muscles, trembling, nausea, churning stomach, headache, backaches, heart palpitations, numbers or a pins and needles sensation and sweating/flushing.

The symptoms can make you feel like you have a real illness and fear of being sick can increase your symptoms of anxiety. Anxiety becomes a problem when it starts to interfere with your life and in the absence of real threat or danger or if it stays for a long time after the initial threat has passed.

Sometimes people avoid the things that cause them to feel anxious. While this can provide temporary relief, it is not treating the underlying problem and this is how anxiety can begin to interfere with your normal life. It often causes depression and isolation.

When you avoid something that bothers you, it’s possible that it becomes harder next time. This can also lead to a fear of contact with more and more things. Instead you should learn to properly manage your anxiety.

One way of doing this is by learning to manage the stress in your life. It’s not always possible to make our stressors go away but we can change how we react to them. You should also take care of yourself physically. You need to be sure you get enough sleep at night, exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet. You need at least 8 hours of sleep each night for good health. This is when your body regenerates and heals itself from the day.

Negative self talk should be identified and stopped. You need to learn to replace those negative thoughts with something positive. This will improve your anxiety. Don’t be afraid to seek professional help for your problem with anxiety. There are therapy programs which can be very helpful in only a matter of weeks to months.