What is anxiety anyway?
What is anxiety?
If you have ever ridden a rollercoaster, then you know what anxiety feels like. Your heart races, you feel tense as you wait for the next thing to happen, you may feel like you can’t take a deep breath. For some people, feelings like this may be something exciting. For others, these feelings come with memories of pain, embarrassment, or fear.
Anxiety comes from our need to protect ourselves. Just like our early ancestors had to worry about survival, our brains worry too. We still have survival threats of all kinds, but they aren’t as frequent in most people’s daily lives. Instead of worrying about being attacked by a wild animal, we now worry over a meeting with the boss, a bill that’s coming due, or a social interaction we think may be uncomfortable. Anxiety happens when normal worry begins to interfere with our ability to live life.
Symptoms of anxiety
Cold sweats
Shaking hands or legs
Racing heart
Tightness in your chest
Racing thoughts that won’t stop
Tenseness in the large muscle groups
Dilated eyes
Sleep disruption
Inability to focus
What can I do about it?
Fortunately, there are many ways to address anxiety. Some come from a mental health provider, some from a doctor, and some you can do for yourself. In our next post we will share some practical tools for you to lessen anxiety and panic.