It is normal to feel anxious in some situations, for example, before a job interview or exam. Anxiety is only considered an illness when you feel that way all, or nearly all, of the time. If you worry about nothing in particular, fear the worst most of the time and are unable to control these feelings, you may have what doctors and healthcare professionals call ‘generalised anxiety’.
Generalised anxiety is fairly common and affects more women and men. One in 20 people may experience long lasting or severe anxiety at some point in their life.
Anxiety can be caused by severe or long lasting stress which can in turn, trigger an imbalance in the chemicals in the brain that can make you feel anxious or sad. Some people are born with a greater chance of having this chemical imbalance or it may be caused by a particular stressor such as the loss of a loved one, a relationship break up, pressure at work, serious illness, major life changes, money worries, drug or alcohol misuse.
Anxiety may cause you to feel worried, panicky, nervous, tense, on edge and stressed out.
Some people manage to overcome anxiety on their own although, without treatment some people may feel anxious all the time or every now and again.
There are treatments that work to help overcome or reduce anxiety and there are also many ways that you can help yourself.
• Self-help – Relaxation techniques such as Meditation/ Mindfulness, exercise, learning about what triggers you.
• Prescription medicines (Some anti depressants are also anti-anxiety medicines which target some of the chemicals in your brain that might be causing the anxiety. Other tablets, such as Beta-Blockers, may be prescribed to relieve some of the physical symptoms that anxiety can cause such as rapid heartbeat or sweating).
• Cutting down or avoiding cigarettes (The nicotine in cigarettes can make anxiety worse and if your breathing is affected by smoking it increase your anxiety.
Please note that cutting down on cigarettes or alcohol may initially make you feel more anxious and if this is the case then it may be best to get your anxiety under control before trying to cut down or stop any of these things.
Learning to relax is a way of helping you to overcome your worries. Try a relaxation tape or online meditation. When teaching yourself to relax, remember to be patient – you may have to practise several times before getting the full benefits.
Breathing too quickly can make you feel more anxious – by concentrating on controlling your breathing, it can help control your anxious thoughts and feelings.
Start to breathe in slowly and deeply, using your stomach muscles. Imagine your lungs filling completely with air to the count of three, hold your breathe for the count of two and then exhale fully and completely, emptying your lungs for the count of three. As you breathe in, count in your mind, 3 (in)-2 (hold) -3 (out).
Facing up to your worries – Many people find that it is easier to avoid situations that make them anxious rather than deal with them. However, facing your worries can be an important factor in overcoming them. It might seem frightening, but you can practise and learn to deal with them slowly, at a pace which feels comfortable and manageable for you. Practising allows you to gently challenge yourself to gradually build up your confidence and begin to reduce your anxiety.
2) Grading Tasks – Starting with the easiest task first, write down ways you could achieve this task. This may involve several small steps of increasing difficulty.
3) Practising tasks – Practice each step as often as you need until you can manage the task without difficulty. Be kind to yourself, even if you find it hard at first. Give yourself encouragement and keep a diary to remind yourself of how well you have done.
Stress, makes you feel under threat and makes you feel as though you can’t control things as well as you want to; therefore, safety behaviours are developed in a response to this needing to protect yourself from threats that probably feel very real to you.
• What are your safety behaviours?
• Work out a plan how to tackle one of your safety behaviours.
Although they cause great stress and discomfort, panic attacks themselves, are not dangerous.
When you have your first panic attack, you may fear you are having a heart attack or stroke or fear you are going mad. Panics can last for a few seconds to a few hours and may leave you feeling shaken and exhausted. If you suffer another attack, you may begin to change your behaviours to try and avoid another attack.
Panic can affect your thoughts – There is a rush of fear and you may feel like you are losing control. You may feel that something awful is about to happen, even if you can’t identify what it is that you fear. These thoughts can cause you even more stress and the more stress you feel, the more it affects your thoughts, creating a vicious circle.
Panic can affect your actions – You may begin to avoid certain places or situations or avoid doing things in an attempt to prevent a panic attack. You may begin to restrict your life, affecting your self-confidence.
Panic can affect your body – Your heart rate may almost double in a few minutes of panic and this has such an impact upon the rest of the body, it can create a feeling of utter terror. As your thoughts connect to your bodily responses i.e. My stomach is heaving – “I’m going to be sick”, a vicious circle of anxiety begins.
Breathing – When you breathe in, you breathe in Oxygen, When you breathe out, you breathe out Carbon Dioxide.
When someone is calm, there is a balance between the oxygen going in and the carbon dioxide going out.
When someone panics, breathing quickens up and becomes much too fast for what your body needs. This is called Hyperventilation. The fight/flight response has been triggered and your body is primed with energy to tackle a threat.
This can be helpful in situations where you have to run from a danger – you can successfully use up this extra energy whilst protecting yourself. However, one of the problems with panic attacks is that the threats you are worrying about are often not those that you can run from or fight. So you are left with lots of excess energy and oxygen that you can’t use up. It remains in your bloodstream longer as your cells do not need to use it up and therefore you have an imbalance of too much oxygen which may make you feel dizzy, faint, confused, disorientated, breathless, have a choking sensation, blurred vision, raised heart rate, numbness or tingling in fingers, feet or mouth, stiff muscles or clammy hands.
All these symptoms may cause you to panic even more, as you may interpret them as dangerous or scary.
• Try to slow your breathing down, keeping it under control. Try a breathing technique such as counting in as you inhale for the count of three, holding the breath for the count of two and then exhaling, letting go of your breath to the count of three.
• Try to relax your body, letting your shoulders drop a little and your muscles loosen.
• Breathe into a paper bag or cup your hands around your mouth and nose. This can help to re-balance your oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.
• Remind yourself, that these are just symptoms of the hyperventilation and they will pass.
• Imagine the panic travelling down through your body and flowing out through the soles of your feet.
• Try to keep your thoughts under control. Focusing on an object nearby can also help, really noticing its shape, colour, texture etc. or counting all the blue or red things you can see around you.
• Fight the panic – you are in control – don’t let the panic win and rule you.