Everyone gets anxious at times. Anxiety is a natural emotion which is adaptive, for example, you smell smoke in your house, become afraid, and run out.
Anxiety can become a problem if a person becomes more EASILY anxious, more OFTEN, and more INTENSELY.
Anxiety can arise from a few root causes and can be a complex combination of these. Some people can be predisposed to anxiety tending to be emotionally sensitive in their personality. Imbalances in body systems, hormones etc. Anxiety can trigger anxiety symptoms as well. Anxiety can also be a learnt response, either directly from others, or more subtly through observation/modelling, or through previous negative experiences.
There are 4 aspects to anxiety, namely, physiological/body sensations, cognitive (worrisome thoughts), emotions and behaviour (urge to run away/avoid or lash out).
If you struggle with anxiety, here are some management techniques that can be helpful:
1. Communication about feelings
Focus on how you feel in different situations – sometimes situations can be non threatening, or others can make you nervous or scared. Name some different feelings, as well as intensity of feelings, for example nervous, scared, petrified.
2. Pay attention to how your body responses to feelings
Besides describing feeling through words, paying attention to the physiological reactions that occur in our bodies when we get nervous or worried is an important aspect. Think about how your body feels when you are anxious – tense, heart rate, sweating, difficulty breathing, light headed etc.
Deep breathing, visualisation, progressive muscle relaxation, listening to music etc. are useful ways to deal with the physical feelings associated with anxiety.
3, Be aware of your self talk
When we are faced with a situation we have all sorts of thoughts, these are called ‘self talk‘. It is not the situation itself that leads to how we feel but rather our thoughts about that situation. Anxious people tend to have pervasive, worrisome thoughts – they always expect the worst and they think that there is nothing that they can do about it.
Anxiety also results in two errors of thinking – overestimating how likely it is that something unpleasant might happen, and overestimating how bad the consequences will be if it does happen. However, becoming more aware of your self talk can empower you to consider what you might be thinking and that there is more than one view about that situation.
4. Appropriate coping behaviour
Anxious people act in a way that keeps the anxiety going usually by avoiding the situation/relationship that makes them feel anxious. By avoiding they never put the feared situation to the test and give themselves the opportunity to learn that nothing bad will happen to them.
Besides learning to think more positively and realistically, confronting anxiety-provoking situations is also necessary.
YOU NEED TO FACE FEAR IN ORDER TO FIGHT IT.
Facing fear, and staying long enough in the feared situation in order to learn that nothing bad will happen requires some key principles and it is important to discuss these with your therapist in order to develop a step by step plan that will be appropriate for you.