You know how anxiety feels, but do you know what it is, and why it happens?
Anxiety is your body’s natural response to stress. It’s a feeling of fear or apprehension about what’s to come. When you are faced with a real threat your brain releases the chemicals that you need to fight or run away from that threat. These chemicals are designed to help you to deal with the situation as effectively and efficiently as possible. During a ‘fight/flight’ stress response, you shouldn’t experience anxiety symptoms if the situation is a ‘real threat’, because the ‘stress’ chemicals that are released by your brain are being used to deal with that situation, and do not build up in your body. Anxiety symptoms usually occur when the ‘stress’ chemicals are not being used and they just sit in your system. Usually after a few minutes you will notice yourself start to relax as the stress chemicals leave your body.
So, the only time that you are likely to experience those ‘nasty’, ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘frightening’ symptoms that are commonly associated with anxiety is when you panic about a situation that you think is going to happen but it doesn’t.
So, now that you know why you experience Anxiety symptoms, how do you stop anxiety attacks, and high anxiety?
I am often asked the question, is anxiety treatable, and the answer I always give is, “yes when it is treated with the right approach, and that approach is delivered in the right way”. If you suffer from anxiety, it can be very daunting to seek psychological treatment when the first step that the therapist takes is to tackle the fear/s that trigger your anxiety, especially if one of your fears is of having a panic attack. Most clients that I treat report that in their first session that they are feeling at the time very anxious. It is normal to be guarded and anxious in your first session when you do not know what to expect, and to talk about the trigger/s to your anxiety that you try so hard to avoid in order to prevent an anxiety attack. Unfortunately, if your first experience of therapy was a negative one, then why would you want to keep going?
Therapy doesn’t have to be painful. Sure, you will of course feel a little anxious at your first session, but with a therapist that takes the right approach, you should get through the treatment process with more ease and better results.
The approach that I have always taken is to first explain to my client that it is normal to feel anxious in the first session, and inform them that we will only start tackling ‘their fear/s’ at the end of the treatment process, after they have completed the first step in the treatment process of developing their confidence in being able to control their symptoms. Once the client is able to keep their symptoms at a low level, only then will they feel comfortable to tackle what is triggering their anxiety – their fear/s. How can anyone be able to talk about their fear when this is the very thing that triggers their anxiety? A client is more likely to talk about their fear/s when this only generates minimal symptoms. So, the first step in successfully treatment an Anxiety Disorder is to first teach the client how to keep their symptoms low enough to be able to challenge their fear/s.
The first stage in effectively and efficiently treating anxiety is to:
- Understand what is causing the anxiety in the first place.
- How to reduce your symptoms to a low enough level so that it is more comfortable to address the cause/triggers/fears.
- Develop the techniques to control the triggers through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
The first fear that you need to let go of, is the fear of having a panic attack, and the only way that you will be able to do this is to a) really understand why your body responds the way it does when you are experiencing anxiety, and to b) understand how the central nervous system works and how you can control it so that it only activates the stress response when it is necessary.
The second thing that you need to learn is how to keep your symptoms from reaching the severe level, and how to keep your symptoms at the mild level regardless of what is triggering your anxiety. Wouldn’t it be nice to at worst only ever experience low levels of anxiety? You can learn how to do this, and I will give you this information later in this article. But first, let’s talk about the third step, how to stop the triggers.
In the third step you need to learn the techniques that people who do not suffer from anxiety apply in their everyday lives. How to a) not catastrophise, b) fear failure or of making mistakes, c) fear the worse case happening, d) fear of being judged or rejected, e) fear of not being in control, and f) fear of having a panic attack.
So, the big question is, how do you achieve this? Well, the best way is to seek professional help however, for therapy to be effective, you really want to educate yourself first on the ins and outs of anxiety. When you understand why you experience anxiety, and what triggers your anxiety, then you should be better equipped when you seek professional help. However, not everyone is ready to take the leap of seeking professional help. If this is you, then you might want to start off by at least learning how to control your symptoms, and you can do this by going down the ‘self-help book/program’ path.
The program that I have created is a useful self-help tool, while it is not meant to replace treatment, it is certainly a great tool to improve your level of understanding and insight, and a good starting point in the treatment for your anxiety. It was designed to simulate the treatment formula that I use when treating people for anxiety.
The program has three parts totalling to one hour of videos which makes it easy to understand. Dane Pevy of Pushin’ Through Blu who I had the privilege to guest speak on his podcast, road tested the program himself and reported that it was one of the most informative programs he’s tried, and that he found the science behind anxiety fascinating, he highly recommends the program to anyone suffering from this condition.
For more information about my program, Heal Your Anxiety click https://insight13.teachable.com/p/heal-your-mind
To listen to the podcast, visit www.pushinthroughblu.com
If you want some tips to help your child cope with Anxiety click https://www.corinnecoe.com/~corinnj8/how-to-help-your-child-with-panic-attacks/