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Anxiety can be quite limiting to everyday life. Here you can find information about anxiety and anxiety disorders.
Do you know this? Your heart feels like its beating up to your throat, you start breathing fast, you might even scream. We all know what anxiety feels like. The situations in which we experience it are very different. Some are afraid of spiders, others of large gatherings of people; others even experience the feeling for no apparent reason. Fear is basically a feeling that is supposed to warn us of a possible danger. If we never felt fear, we would often put ourselves in situations that are threatening to us. Fear is sometimes even necessary for survival because it prevents us from doing things that could be dangerous.
When fear causes problems
But it can also be the case that feelings of fear become a hindrance to us. An example of this is “exam anxiety”. An exam is not actually a (life) threatening situation. Nevertheless, some people feel so afraid of an exam that they can hardly concentrate.
More information on the topic of “exam anxiety”
Physical effects of anxiety
When you feel fear, your body also reacts. These reactions serve to prepare the person for a “flight” or “fight” response. “Flight” or “fight” are the normal protective reactions that are deeply ingrained in us.
Physical symptoms of fear:
- Increased alertness, visual and auditory nerves become more sensitive.
- Increased muscle tension and reaction speed
- Increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, as well as shallower and faster breathing
- Sweating, trembling and dizziness
- Nausea and shortness of breath may also occur
Anxiety as a disease
Anxiety can also be a disease. In anxiety disorders, people have excessive and frequent anxiety over a long period of time. In this case, everyday life is usually severely impaired.
Phobia
Phobias are a specific type of anxiety disorder. Namely, the fear of certain things or situations.
A common phobia is called “claustrophobia” – the fear of confined or enclosed spaces. “Specific phobias” refer to the fear of certain things (e.g. snakes, blood, spiders, etc.).
However, not everyone who is disgusted by a spider is suffering from a phobia. Only when the fear is really excessive and you avoid certain situations altogether out of panic about encountering spiders can you speak of a phobia.
With a social phobia, someone has a very strong fear of embarrassing themselves in front of others or being judged negatively for a long time. Here too, everyone may be afraid of embarrassing themselves at one time or another. Many people experience this from time to time. However, if this fear becomes permanent, is accompanied by severe physical signs of anxiety (e.g. racing heart, trembling, etc.) or if situations are repeatedly avoided for this reason, it may be an anxiety disorder.
Panic attacks
Panic attacks are strong, sudden attacks of anxiety without any visible cause. The anxiety attack is accompanied by physical symptoms such as racing heart, accelerated breathing or shortness of breath, trembling, dizziness, sweating. Often, anxious thoughts also occur, e.g. the fear of having a heart attack, or of going crazy. For fear of having another panic attack, sufferers are often reluctant to be alone or to go out of the house.
Generalised anxiety disorder
Affected people worry a lot or have strong fears about things in everyday life. Often one worry follows another and worrying can take several hours. The worries are for example about school, work, the occurrence of bad events or that someone might get sick or have an accident. Because of the constant worrying, many other symptoms occur, such as nervousness, irritability, difficulty falling asleep, heart palpitations, stomach or swallowing problems, tension, anxiety, etc.
What helps with anxiety?
Psychotherapeutic or psychological support
It pays to get support if anxiety has been affecting your life for a long time. Anxiety disorders can generally be managed very well with psychotherapy or clinical psychological treatment. You can search for psychotherapists and clinical psychologists in your area here:
Self-help for anxiety
There are a few things you can do yourself to reduce anxiety.
Relaxation helps!
Relaxation is the opposite of anxiety and can help you calm down. Try sinking deeply into the couch with pleasant music and concentrating only on your breath. Breathing out twice or three times as long as you breathe in also helps you to “come down”.
You can also find our tips for relaxing here:
Counteracting thoughts of fear
Do you think a lot about all the bad and unpleasant things that could happen? Some people call their thoughts a cloud of fear or a “monkey mind”.
It is not possible to simply turn off your thoughts, but you can calm them down by focusing on something else.
For example, you notice the anxiety rising or you start to ruminate and you start to concentrate on sorting and re-sizing your socks or pants. It may sound weird, but it can help.
You can also try to calm yourself down with positive thoughts. This works by saying to yourself, for example, “I am safe.” Over and over again until you notice that the fear is slowly decreasing.
You can also support these calming thoughts by adopting a posture that conveys safety. Many people find it comfortable to sit on the floor with their knees drawn up and their arms wrapped around their legs. If you feel comfortable, you can also rest your head on your knees. Many people find that the feeling of being held by the floor helps.
Smells can also help to influence your anxiety. Smells that remind you of nice, safe places, for example. Or the scent of roses is said to have a relaxing, anxiety-relieving effect.
To influence your fear directly, breathing is also a great help. This often sounds a bit strange. Just try it out to see how much a breathing exercise can help to influence your anxiety level. Lie down comfortably and first just observe your breath. Count to 4 when you inhale and to 5 when you exhale. If thoughts come, that’s perfectly normal. Imagine a window with the most beautiful view you can imagine, send the thoughts through and concentrate on your breath again. Because even though our “mind” constantly produces thoughts, we can influence whether or not we occupy ourselves more closely with them. Because: You are not your thoughts.
You can also put a hand on your belly and observe how it rises and retracts when you breathe.
Here, for example, you can find short, free meditations linked to breathing by the influencer Dariadaria. They only take a few minutes.
Avoid stimulants
Stimulating substances such as coffee, energy drinks, guarana, stimulating tea, nicotine or stimulant drugs can cause anxiety or panic to happen more easily.
Don’t let fear limit you
When you are afraid of certain things, you tend to quickly avoid them. This works great, for example, if you are afraid of snakes. This behavior will not limit you much. But if you are afraid of speaking in front of people, this can limit you in your training. Try not to avoid situations that have caused you anxiety. By avoiding them, the fear will keep you in its grip. Instead, pack a backpack with things that will help you cope with the situation. For example, have another person with you, take a few deep breaths beforehand, or work on your fears with someone. It can help to experience that you can also manage situations that you are afraid of.
For further help and support — Speak with a licensed therapist today.
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