Anxiety

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a feeling we get when we are faced with a threat (real or perceived). Anxiety as a response, has been around since the dawn of time and is often referred to as fight or flight.

Picture the scene: A caveman steps out of his cave, breaths in the fresh morning air, stretches his hairy limbs and sets about foraging for breakfast. Suddenly a large predator appears and our caveman begins to experience what we now refer to as anxiety. His muscles tense, his heart rate increases dramatically, forcing more blood into the muscles and brain. His breathing is faster and he begins to sweat. At this point he can either fight or flee, he chooses to flee back into his cave where he can better defend himself.

In our modern world we may not be faced with the same ravenous beasts as our caveman ancestor, but we do have many stressful and unpleasant situations to face up to. Financial worries, family problems, pressure at work, divorce or bereavement, all of these things can cause us to want to run and hide in our cave, or lash out in self defence. This can be quite a problem in the world of today, as we often cannot do either of these things and still gain a satisfactory resolution.

What causes anxiety?

All of us feel anxious from time to time, however, when a person remains in an anxious state for too long, anxiety can become their only response to almost any situation that arises.

Symptoms of anxiety:

Do you feel nervous, worried, frightened, on edge, tense, restless, light-headed, dizzy?

Do you constantly worry, have difficulty concentrating, have thoughts racing, imagine the worst, have poor self image, avoid people, think you're losing control, feel faint, think you're having a heart attack?

Do you experience pounding heart, tightness in the chest, tingling fingers and toes, aching body, change in breathing pattern, sweating, an urge to go to the toilet, blushing, hot flushes, shaking trembling, panic attacks?

If a number of these symptoms describe how you feel, then it is quite likely that you are suffering from anxiety.

Why does anxiety become a mindset?

Anxiety becomes prolonged for a number of reasons:

• Anxious personality, natural worrier The habit has been learned - normally from a family member.

• Continuous stressful events cause the habit and outlook to develop.
  
• Constant exposure to the physical symptoms of anxiety can cause people to spontaneously react to all situations in an anxious manner.
• Predicting anxiety. The fear of fear itself. The fear that anxiety will return.
• Avoidance or flight. Avoiding situations that have previously caused stress can often compound this feeling when we are faced with the same situation again.