Let’s Talk anxiety.....
Anxiety is the body response that is formed to protect you from outside threats. It serves an important role in keeping people safe and can be traced back to early men and centred around survival. Fight or Flight is the bodies’ reaction caused through adrenalin which is a hormone and chemical messenger in the brain. This triggers the response to either run or face the danger, which in terms of early man this could have saved your life. In life today this response plays out as a shadow, of the original flight or fight anxiety. This could be before you attend an important event or a job interview. Another example would be keeping yourself safe while crossing the road instinctively looking both ways before crossing.
Anxiety becomes problematic and debilitating when it becomes outof proportion to the original trigger/stressor. This produces physical symptoms such as, but not limited to.
● Increased blood pressure
● Nausea
● Butterflies in stomach
● Headaches
● Sweating
● Restlessness
● Increased Irritability
● Sleep difficulties
● Uncontrollable feelings of worry
These feelings are very real, which can lead people to think theyhave got something physically wrong with them, rather than anxiety. But It's still important to remember to get any new physical symptoms checked out by your GP. These feelings could also be classed as normal, the difference is around the duration and intensity. Possible cause of anxiety can be
● Environmental stressors
● Genetics
● Brain chemistry
● Withdrawal from illicit substances
● Medical factors
Things that can help are having a good support network, people to share with. Stress management can involve organising and compiling lists to make daunting tasks manageable. An exercise to try is making two lists one side is your negative thoughts and the idea is that on the other side of your list you replace those thoughts with positive ones. Creating a mental image can help you to re-enforce the positive thoughts over the negative ones.
Mindfulness can be very helpful as it helps you to stay focused in the present. Allowing you to have a non-judgemental awareness of what’s happening in your body, which encourages acceptance, openness, curiosity. Exercise can also help as this release endorphins, finding the right exercise is important as your more likely to stick to it. Counselling can also help. As counselling provides you with a safe space to explore your thoughts and feelings without fear of judgement, being heard and accepted for being you is very powerful. Going to you GP can also help as having the right medication can be the first steps in allowing you to move forward in your life.
