According to statistics/research on anxiety, we are more anxious now than ever.
What are we anxious about?
A lot it seems.
Is anxiety the same thing as plain ol' worry?
Anxiety is an umbrella term for a number of different disorders that may cause us to experience nervousness, fear, apprehension, feelings of impending disaster, and worrying. These disorders subsequently affect how we feel, think and behave.
Worrying, on the other hand, perhaps may be defined as what we do before it becomes an anxious state.
Example: There are rumours of cut-backs at work. At first you brush it off, but after three people have been "let-go", you start to ponder whether your name is on the list. Five more people are let-go, and you start having sleeping problems. Half of management are let-go, now added to no sleeping, for you there now is no eating.
Worrying, or being anxious, can also have positive aspects; it motivates us to prepare, plan, take precautions, and consider possible outcomes.
Whether we worry or are anxious, such feelings are usually the result of thinking which is future directed. We don't tend to worry about events in the past, we may however worry that something that happened in the past may happen in the future. Dealing with uncertainty we use our imagination and previous experiences to anticipate possible solutions and so increase our sense of certainty, and lessen the barrage of "what if's".
Too much of what if's can become overwhelming and instead of us experiencing an increased sense of certainty we may experience helplessness, over stimulation, incongruity and an even greater sense of unpredictability. Before we know it our imagination can run riot with us and there's no end to the disasters, catastrophes and terrible outcomes we can imagine. Postponing the "what-if's" and concentrating on the "what-is" actual information at hand, serves us far better in dealing with potential difficulties.
At some point in a humans life, we all worry. How much and what we do with the thoughts and feelings varies. "You worry too much!"......is there a right amount of worrying?
"You shouldn't worry,".....is worrying a moral concept? "Good/moral" people worry less?
"What are you so worried about?".........is it okay to worry about somethings and not other?
"He's a "worrywart",.........is there a "worryrose"?
Perhaps there is no right amount of worrying; i.e. how long is a piece of string? but there seems to be a level of worrying that can become threatening to a persons mental/physical health, and that level is individual. We all have different levels of how much uncertainty we tolerate.
Telling someone in the throws of anxiety to be less anxious is as effective in calming that person as giving a tennis player a racquet with no strings. If we want to help someone or ourselves to feel less anxious, what are some good tools?
(More than one in ten Australians currently live with an anxiety disorder and 28 per cent of people will suffer from an anxiety disorder at some time during their life...for stats relating to your country go to the Bureau of Statistics)
Some tools to overcome anxiety:
* Learn to recognise what triggers your anxiety - social interaction, talking with unfamiliar people, not having a plan for..xyz, ruminating on the future/past, your body image, etc.etc.
* When you worry, what are some of the thoughts going through your mind?
Do you do fortune telling - something bad is going to happen,
mind-reading - he/she/they think that I am..................
catastrophising - all is lost if..................
personalising - he/she is scanning the room because I am......
* Challenge negative thinking - are there other ways to interpret this situation, what
are the pros and cons, is my information unbiased or biased?
* Increase your tolerance levels by learning to accept imperfection and uncertainty.
Not having a perfect map does not have to mean one cannot begin a journey,
not having sheet music does not have to mean one cannot play music.
* Visit the areas/issues that you fear by using your mind;
Instead of avoiding those things that you fear/are anxious/worry about, try practising
facing them by using visualisation. The brain does not distinguish between what we
visualise and what we actually experience and this facility can be used to help us
become desensitised and more confident. Before you have to give that speech, imagine
yourself doing it, before boarding the plane, imagine yourself doing it, before asking
him/her out, imagine yourself doing it, and so on.
For many of us relaxation, exercise, and a healthy diet also assists us in overcoming
worry and anxiety. (If we however find that nothing seems to help, then perhaps seeing
a health professional may prove conducive :)
"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia."
(Charles M. Schultz)
"While we are focusing on fear, worry, or hate, it is not possible for us to be experiencing
happiness, enthusiasm or love." (Bo Bennett)
In times when we face a situation/event that we feel we have no control over, "worrying" may feel like we are actually "doing" something and to stop worrying can be experienced as
giving up, giving in, which may present itself as a worse option than being anxious.
Since worrying/anxiety pertains to happenings that belongs in the future and the unknown, no amount of worrying will change anything, however, if we can learn to deal/face our anxiety, we have the chance of a much more enjoyable and fulfilling,... now.
(ps: about the painting.."Run rabbit, run".....a symbolic depiction of the turmoils of worry)
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