How to Deal With and Understand Anxiety

Anxiety is part of what makes us human; it’s part of our fight or flight instinct that keeps us safe and wary of danger. We all get a little anxious from time to time, when we have a large piece of work due, when you have an exam, or when you’re waiting for an interview. This is perfectly normal, it’s part of a natural reaction that occurs within us when we become aware that we are in danger or there is a potential for embarrassment or messing something up. Usually, we overcome out anxiety; however there are times where we will also succumb to it. Anxiety can however become a serious problem for those who suffer from generalised anxiety disorder (GAD).

GAD is a condition that can affect you for a prolonged period of time and cause you to feel anxious and worried over things that should not cause such emotions. Dealing with anxiety is never easy, it can really hinder your everyday life and prevent you from carrying out your everyday life. GAD is a fairly common mental disorder and affects one in twenty adults in the UK. It is slightly more common in women than in men and often affects those in their mid-twenties. Although a very serious mental illness, GAD can be highly effectively treated with the right physiotherapy courses and relaxation techniques. Learn how to control and manage your anxiety by understanding what causes anxiety, what the symptoms are and how to control it.

The rate of anxiety we experience on a day to day basis very much depends on the type of person you are and how you live your life. If you are a very cautious person who likes to take their time over things when making a decision then you are naturally an anxious person. If you’re the kind of person who throws caution to the wind and makes decisions on impulse, then it’s likely to be the case that you’re not a very anxious person at all. This is perfectly normal as we all experience anxiety on a day to day basis in many different formats and intensities.

Anxiety only becomes a problem when the anxiety we feel become a lot more frequent or sever than you are normally used to or more than you can tolerate. Anxiety is a symptom more than an actual standalone mental disorder. It often occurs as a result of other underlying mental illnesses that is manifesting itself as anxiety.

The symptoms of anxiety can be put in to two categories, physical and mental. On the physical sides of things, anxiety can manifest itself in pretty much any part of your body, from grinding your teeth to tapping your feet. The most common physical symptoms connected with anxiety are the ones you might expect to be connected with the disorder, excessive sweating, dizziness, headaches, frequent urinating, shaking, feeling your heart pound, muscle pain, breathing very rapidly and feeling of tension. The emotional symptoms of anxiety often revolve around a feeling of impending doom, a lack of confidence, a fear that you might do something inappropriate or a fear that you might go mad.

Overcoming your anxieties can be as simple as using some relaxation techniques to try and calm yourself when you feel yourself becoming anxious, or it could take some more serious medical treatment such as psychotherapy courses or in more severe cases, drug treatment. 

Below are listen ways in which you can try to calm yourself and deal with the physical effects of anxiety when they occur. However, if the effects of anxiety continue to occur or get worse then you should always seed medical help from your local GP or doctor.

When you begin to feel anxious and the physical symptoms begin to manifest themselves, it can be hard to think straight. When you begin to feel like this, you should immediately try and remove yourself from the situation which is beginning to make you feel anxious. Try and take your mind off whatever is calling you to feel this way by running a bath, having a cup of tea or by taking a walk around the block.  When you physically feel better and more relaxed you’ll be ready to decide on the best way to cope with the situation that was making you feel anxious.

It’s important to understand that when you feel panicked, stressed and anxious, whether it’s in work, during after an exam or in a relationship, that you and the universe will survive once it is all over. It’s often the case with people with anxiety that a panic attack is the worst possible outcome that can occur – what the sufferer needs to realise is that these are only temporary problems.  The best thing to do when having a panic attack is not to fight it. The more you fight the urge to panic the more your body will fight back and panic even more. Stay where you are and simply let the feelings of anxiety wash over you, relax your breathing, place your palm on the centre of your stomach and breathe deeply.

It may take up to an hour for you to fully relax, but this exercise helps your body and mind get used to feeling panic and how to control it when you feel like it is about to overwhelm you. The goal of this exercise is to try and help you control your anxiety when it affects you the most.

Life is full of stresses and no one is perfect, therefore you should not expect everything to be all the time. It is these unrealistic expectations that can cause anxiety to become a problem. If you’re expecting tings to be of such a high standard, to be either wrong or right or for there to be a definite answer to  difficult question, then it’s more likely that is that you’ll become stressed, trying to accomplish these unrealistic tasks.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think so please feel free to comment. Make sure you check out the rest of my work on Instructables, I would particularly recommend "Fathers: How To Cope With Post Natal Depression" for mental health based information.

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