Anxiety is an emotion that is common in everyone’s life. It enables you to recognize and react to danger in “fight or flight” mode. In other words, anxiety motivates you to deal with difficult situations.
Anxiety can be either good or bad. Good anxiety helps you to pursue your goals because it motivates you to take action and be creative. Bad anxiety is often persistent. It puts you under emotional distress and prevents you from pursuing your goals.
Besides, unrelenting anxiety can contribute to various anxiety disorders including panic disorders, obsessional behaviors, and panic attacks. When left untreated, anxiety can incapacitate your physical and mental well-being.
Your ability to manage anxiety even during difficult times is paramount. When you experience it on a regular basis, you are likely to become overwhelmed. You can also lose balance in your life and fail to recover or relax.
Yet, anxiety is under-diagnosed, undertreated and under-reported. In this article, you are going to gain insights on things you didn’t known about anxiety.
1. Anxiety is not the same as anxiety disorder
Normal anxiety occurs due to a particular problem or event and it often goes away when you sort out the problem. What’s more, the extent to which you become anxious depends on the intensity of a situation or problem. Good anxiety is a normal response to a real problem or situation.
Anxiety disorder is when you experience anxiety without warning or for no reason. The anxiety can be so intense than you would imagine. What’s more, you are likely to suffer from unrealistic anxiety. In other words, you fear something that might never happen.
Anxiety disorder can go on and on even after you have dealt with the problem. When you have an anxiety disorder, you may feel incapable of controlling or managing it. You are also likely to avoid events or problems that you think are a cause for your anxiety symptoms.
2. Anxiety is linked to other mental illnesses
Anxiety disorder is often associated with depression and substance abuse. For instance, social anxiety demoralizes relationships and prevents them from succeeding.
What’s more, you are also likely to avoid situations that you consider to be too uncomfortable. Anxiety can also make you feel like you do not belong to a group. It blocks you from expressing yourself and your interests.
In other words, you develop self-doubt and become incapable of pursuing your career and life goals. As a result, depression develops and you start abusing alcohol and drugs to cope.
3. Anxiety is genetic
Anxiety is hereditary. Parents can pass on anxiety disorders to their children. For that reason, you can develop various forms of anxiety disorders because of family genes. In addition, you can develop an anxiety disorder because of exposure to a parent who has it.
This is particularly common with social anxiety. What it means is that your children can learn your anxious behaviors and ways of coping by observing you. As a parent, it can be so hard to pretend that everything is okay more so when around your children. This can be disheartening and it can make any parent feel guilty and ashamed.
4. Lack of sleep
You are likely to have some irregular sleep patterns due to anxiety. This often happens because your mind tends to feel overwhelmed and exhausted.
When you worry repeatedly about life and its troubles, your brain never settles down. What’s more, it is important to note that anxiety disorders can make you to either oversleep.
5. Scrutinizing every bit of conversation
You are likely to analyze each thought and behavior several times when you have anxiety. This is a common occurrence because you fear doing or saying the wrong thing. For instance, anxiety causes you to check all your conversations.
You always want to make sure you are not giving incorrect information. This can be exhausting for you. It puts you under a lot of pressure.
6. Guilt becomes part of you
Many people do not have a sense of guilt or remorse. Yet, when you have anxiety you are likely to always feel guilty. Every problem or negative situation can make you feel overpowered with guilt.
With anxiety, you are likely to feel guilty when something goes wrong. What’s more, you are likely to feel guilty when something happens the way you had not anticipated.
You are likely to blame yourself and feel like you could have prevented such occurrences.
7. Diet causes anxiety
The food you eat can trigger anxiety. If you have tried to manage your anxiety disorder without success, take a close look at what you put in your plate. Food can affect your central nervous system and magnify anxiety-related behaviors.
For instance, caffeine, alcohol, refined grains, non-dairy creamer, sugary products, and fried foods can trigger anxiety. What’s more, anxiety is less common among people who eat foods such as fruits, veggies, meat, whole grains and fish.
8. Exercise relieves anxiety
Physical activities release the feel good chemical, which helps to relieve anxiety. Anti-anxiety exercises help you to cope with stress and relax your mind.
Therefore, exercising on a regular basis helps to manage symptoms of anxiety like panic disorder and panic attacks. What’s more, physical exercises increase confidence and self esteem because you get to interact with other people.
9. Mental fatigue
Is your mental exhaustion due to anxiety? Well, extreme anxiety or panic attacks can leave you feeling overwhelmed and burned out. This is because anxiety tends to overwork your sympathetic nervous system.
Feelings of anxiety can increase your blood pressure, heartbeat, and muscle tension. It also discharges toxins into your system, which can be a cause for inflammation.
These body changes can make you feel awkward, fatigued, and malaised. It is possible that you have been feeling tired because of anxiety.
Parting Shot!
People rarely talk about anxiety, which is a shame. It means some common things about it remain unknown.
I hope the above information will enlighten you and provide you with extra information you may need. Overcoming anxiety is not easy, but it is possible and we’re here support you.
