It’s funny how anxiety is one of those things that is hard for many of us to identify. When we do, it often takes a long time to realize what it was all along. Anxiety can lead to a lot of suffering, from mild to severe. But when you don’t know what it is, it just feels like regular life. You don’t know any differently.
Anxiety can be thought of as a milder form of fear. Think about how your body reacts when you are in a state of fear. Your heart beats faster, you feel that knot in your stomach, you often start to sweat. Now consider those feelings when they might happen at a lower level. Perhaps to the degree that you don’t completely notice them without thinking about it. Those feelings usually accompany some unpleasant thought, usually some form of worry. That’s anxiety. The physical symptoms you feel go along with the unpleasant thought. Just like fear but on a less intense and therefore less obvious level.
It’s Hard to Recognize
That subtlety about anxiety is what makes it difficult for people to recognize. We know when fear hits us. It’s intense. It’s easy to identify what provoked the feeling. Maybe a near car accident occurred. Maybe a person threatened you. Or maybe even a scary scene in a movie. In those examples it’s easy to make the connection between the precipitating event and the emotional response.
Anxiety flies beneath the surface oftentimes. And we become accustomed to the feeling because it is not so obvious. Consequently, we don’t recognize that it’s happening. But the long-standing effects of anxiety are real. It wears us down. It makes our mood worse in general. Sometimes we verbalize our worry to others who cannot understand what the worry is all about. That often leads to frustration in our friends and family. And then once you become aware that you have anxiety, you notice the symptoms. And they start to bother you even more.
Types of Anxiety
Some people feel anxiety in social situations. It might be meeting new people or being in a large group of people. You might feel like you don’t know what to say. This is referred to as social anxiety. Other anxiety might be more global. You worry about an endless variety of things. Those things are usually extremely unlikely to happen. That is called generalized anxiety. And some people get intense feelings that mimic a fear response. They experience intense rapid heart beat, sweating, and other unpleasant physical sensations. These are panic attacks.
How to Treat It
The good thing about anxiety is that it can be treated, and the symptoms can improve remarkably. Sometimes medication is an option for this. But psychotherapy can also greatly reduce symptoms by helping people recognize when they are having automatic worries that are not based on real but only hypothetical scenarios. By identifying those negative thoughts one can reorient him or herself and gain control over the physical symptoms. Techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) have a proven record in helping people recognize and improve their anxiety.
Consider making an appointment with a therapist today to see what can be done about your anxiety.
