What is anxiety?
Anxiety is the body’s response to anything we perceive as threatening or dangerous. It’s normal and healthy, therefore, for you to feel anxious when you have to deal with new experiences or stressful situations. Things like starting a new job, taking an exam or going into the hospital all can make us feel anxious. In recent times, the COVID-19 pandemic threatened us all, and most people felt some anxiety as a result.
Moderate levels of anxiety in situations like these are helpful for us. It helps us perform well and prepares us to deal with an emergency.
When anxiety becomes a problem
However, when our anxiety levels get too high, we start to face all kinds of difficulties. When we get very anxious, a part of the brain known as the amygdala becomes more activated, triggering the body’s ‘fire alarm’. When this happens, our body’s release the stress hormones cortisol and adrenalin as we prepare to tackle the perceived threat. At the same time, our hippocampus (the part of the brain that facilitates rational thinking) goes ‘offline’, making it harder to think straight and to make sound, rational judgements.
Sometimes, often as a result of trauma, our internal ‘fire-alarm’ becomes oversensitive and gets triggered when there is no real danger. When that happens, you might feel like you’re always on edge, jumpy and worried by everything.
Many people suffer from a generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) where their anxiety has no particular focus and is not directly linked to recent events. Others find their anxiety has a particular focus: health and social anxiety, for example.
Anxiety is very common
According to Anxiety UK, around one in six adults will be experiencing a common mental health problem at any one time, with anxiety being one of the most common. Women are significantly more likely (one in five) to be affected than men (one in eight). Women also tend to have more severe symptoms than men do.
Anxiety can affect people of all ages and stages of life. The National Institute of Mental Health estimated that 19% of adults and 32% of adolescents suffered from anxiety disorders in 2013 and that 31% of all adults will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.
What does it feel like to have anxiety?
The symptoms of anxiety can be very worrying in themselves.
Some of the physical symptoms include:
- rapid heartbeat
- shortness of breath
- tightening of the chest
- dryness of the mouth
- butterflies in the stomach
- sweating
- nausea
- need to urinate
- loose bowels
Anxiety causes psychological effects too, for example
- feeling tense or agitated
- fear of losing control
- feelings of dread or impending doom
- being irritable
- feeling detached or disconnected (from others or the world)
Am I going to die?
Some of the physical sensations associated with anxiety are similar to those often associated with heart attacks — for example, chest pains, rapid breathing, and pins and needles. As a result, it is not unusual for people experiencing anxiety or attacks to convince themselves that they are about to die. Rest assured, no one has ever died from a panic attack. The symptoms you are experiencing are just the body’s normal response to adrenalin. While anxiety/panic attacks are frightening and very unpleasant, they are not harmful, and they will pass. However, we would recommend you seek medical assistance if your symptoms do not pass.
How can I help myself
Often well-meaning people who have never suffered from anxiety might tell you to “just stop worrying” or to “snap out of it”.
“Just snap out of it” doesn’t work.
If only it were that simple.
If it were, you would not be suffering like you are. All such well-intended comments tend to achieve is to make you feel worse about yourself because you can’t pull yourself out of it (and you assume others can). “Snapping out of it” just doesn’t work.
So what can I do?
Okay, while you can’t just “snap out of it”, there are some things you can do to help yourself. These include:
- talking through your worries with a trusted friend
- facing the things you’re afraid of, overcoming the fear
- identifying your anxiety and the things that trigger it so you can develop effective ways to overcome your fears
- use breathing exercises, relaxations and meditations to help you relax
- using EFT (tapping) to help you relax and manage your anxiety
- reviewing your lifestyle, particularly diet, exercise and alcohol consumption as all of these can affect how you feel
Beyond Self-Help
While self-help strategies can be sufficient for short-term, mind to moderate anxiety, recurring, chronic or severe anxiety may need professional help.
Counselling can help you:
- understand your anxiety and what may be causing it
- recognise, manage and reduce the physical symptoms associated with your anxiety
- challenge and reframe some of the unhelpful thinking that feeds your anxiety
- give you new, practical and effective tools that you can use in your daily life to help manage your mood
What we offer
If you came to us for counselling, you would meet with one of our trained and experienced therapists. They would allow you to talk through your fears and anxieties without fear of shame or judgement. Rather than telling you what to do, they would listen patiently to understand how you feel and experience the world. Together, we would work to help you find effective ways you can control, manage and eventually overcome your fears.
You would remain in control of the whole process, and we would not push you to talk about anything you did not feel ready to.
The next steps
If you would like to talk with someone, in confidence, about your anxiety, please call us on 0151 329 3637 or email enquiries@counselling-matters.org.uk. We would love to hear from you.
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