When answering the question of "What is anxiety?", the concept is often confused with worry. While worry is based on realistic grounds, anxiety focuses on uncertainty about the future. It is normal to have a certain amount of anxiety, and we can say that normal levels of anxiety can positively affect our performance. However, if our anxiety level is so intense that it negatively affects our daily life, and it affects us both psychologically and physically, we may need to seek support.
Intense anxiety exhausts us both physically and psychologically. Due to anxiety, our attention level decreases and we feel more tense. When our anxiety level increases, our tendency to generate negative scenarios also increases. This also negatively affects our relationships. Therefore, recognizing our anxiety is as important as answering the question of "What is anxiety?".
After learning the answer to the question of "What is anxiety?"evaluating the psychologically and physically common symptoms that may indicate that we are experiencing anxiety can help us gain self-awareness.
Even if we know the answer to "What is anxiety?", we may not understand its symptoms. So, when we feel anxious, our brain sends various signals to our body. Through these signals, our body speaks with physical symptoms to warn us of possible dangers. In addition to the question of "What is anxiety?", it is also important to know its physical symptoms.
Common physical symptoms of anxiety:
If we suffer from these symptoms in our daily lives, we may be feeling anxious about certain events or people in our lives. Recognizing these symptoms can make it easier to understand why we are anxious and find out how to relax.
When we are anxious, our thoughts and some of our cognitive skills can be negatively affected. In addition to knowing the answer to the question "What is anxiety?", it is also important to know its cognitive symptoms.
Common cognitive effects of anxiety:
If these symptoms seem too close to us, we may be exposed to the negative cognitive effects of anxiety.
We can define "What is anxiety?", but we cannot say anything definite about the duration of anxiety. The duration of an anxiety attack, which usually lasts between a few minutes and an hour, can vary depending on the person and the situation.
A question that is as intriguing as "What is anxiety?" is what to do during an anxiety attack. When our anxiety level increases, it is not always easy to cope with our situation in a healthy way. Learning effective methods that we can apply in such moments relieves us in the long run. Because when we know what anxiety is and how to deal with it, we realize that anxiety is not something to be afraid of. So what are the easy but effective methods of dealing with anxiety?
In moments of anxiety, our minds are preoccupied with the future and possible negative scenarios. However, focusing on these possibilities in such moments leads to an increase in our anxiety level. Instead, if we focus on our breath when we are anxious, we can both stay in the present moment and give our body the message that everything is fine by slowing our breath down. For this reason, when we feel anxious, it can be very useful to regulate our breathing by distracting our attention from our thoughts, closing our eyes or focusing on an object around us.
Our anxiety can stem from negative thoughts about the future. When there is uncertainty in our lives, we often automatically start thinking about bad scenarios. In such moments, asking ourselves the worst possible scenario, then the best possible scenario and finally the most realistic scenario helps us calm down by bringing ourselves closer to a realistic possibility. Therefore, it is important to first understand what we are struggling with and to be able to answer the question of "what is anxiety?".
In anxious moments, writing down our thoughts helps us to distance ourselves from them. Our thoughts can no longer have a strong effect on our mind and body. For this reason, we can write down our thoughts on a piece of paper or in the notes section of our phone to alleviate our anxiety.
Going for a walk, getting fresh air and moving our bodies regulate our anxiety levels. Walking not only reduces our anxiety level, but also helps us establish a healthy relationship with many emotions that we find difficult to cope with.
We continue our blog post, which we started by answering "What is anxiety?", with learning the habits that can relieve an anxiety attack. There are some measures we can take to prevent anxiety attacks in the long term. We can exercise regularly, eat a balanced diet, get into the habit of meditating, pay attention to our sleeping and waking hours, drink enough water and include more relaxing activities to our lives.
Following the question of "What is anxiety?", we can discuss the types of anxiety. Is every anxiety the same anxiety? Are there different types of anxiety? If our anxiety level is too high, we might be suffering from an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders can vary according to the area where our anxiety is focused. The most common anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder and panic disorder.
Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by persistent and intense anxiety about many different situations or activities. If we have this type of anxiety, the feeling we experience is not limited to a specific event, but many things we want to do in life arouse anxiety in us. We may worry that the plane we are on will crash, the bus will have an accident, the food we cook will burn even though there is no indication that these things will happen.
Thoughts and impulses that cannot be prevented are called obsessions. These irrational thoughts come into a person's mind against their will. And these thoughts cause intense distress and restlessness. We can exemplify an obsession with the sentence of "What if I leave the stove on and burn down the whole house?". In order to reduce the anxiety we feel due to such thoughts, we exhibit repetitive behaviors called compulsions. Behavioral habits such as "pulling all the plugs in the house, frequently checking that the stove is off", can be acquired.
In panic disorder, symptoms such as inability to breathe, heart palpitations, nausea, trembling, extreme anxiety, fear of dying or losing one's mind can be observed. Experiencing these symptoms is referred to as panic attacks. Panic attacks can be frequent in panic disorder. These attacks usually end within a few minutes. However, they can sometimes last for a few hours. Sometimes they can occur only while driving a car, or they can occur during a casual moment such as sleep or in any other situation. Panic disorder can occur in early adulthood and after a stressful life event.
Facing a situation or an object can suddenly make us extremely fearful and anxious. This anxiety is defined as a phobia. If something specific causes us intense anxiety, it is possible to think that we have developed a phobia against it. When our phobia is triggered, we may feel our heart racing, nauseous, have difficulty breathing and shake. Phobias are also categorized according to their type: animal phobias, phobias related to a natural environment, environmental phobias, sexual phobias and body-related phobias. For example, fear of heights is a type of phobia related to natural environments and it can cause intense nausea and dizziness when experienced.
Social anxiety is defined as intense anxiety experienced in social situations or moments that require performance. Symptoms of social anxiety include developing physical symptoms such as sweating, trembling and nausea before social situations. When we have social anxiety, we might avoid entering social situations, interact with people as little as possible if it is not possible to avoid them, fear of being judged and fear that people around us will think poorly of us.
It is natural that we worry about the things we care about. This is because anxiety is one of the emotions that we have acquired evolutionarily and that allows us to survive. Moreover, it is good to feel a certain level of anxiety because thanks to our anxiety, we can accomplish good things and maintain good relationships. However, when our anxiety levels are too high, we can become overwhelmed and unable to do anything. Relate users report that when their anxiety levels are high and when they feel bad, they feel better by using Relate. To avoid this, it is important to recognize what increases our anxiety and try to deal with it.
Growing up surrounded by anxious people gives us the impression that high anxiety is a natural reaction. Especially when our parents who raised us are unable to manage their emotions and experience intense anxiety in the face of events they encounter in daily life, it can cause us to become unable to regulate our emotions in a healthy way. Situations we experience at a young age that make us feel insecure can also cause us to react with anxiety. If we are often embarrassed, humiliated or made to feel guilty from a young age, we may experience high anxiety.
When we are faced with difficult situations, if we are confident that we can overcome them, we can keep our anxiety levels at a more normal level. However, when we have low levels of self-confidence, self-esteem and self-compassion, we can become very anxious about every difficult thing that might happen to us.
When negative thoughts make us anxious, the following symptoms can occur:
When we look at babies, we see that they can have very different characteristics from each other, even though they have just been born and have not learned much from their environment. Some of them are more grumpy from the first day, while others are always smiling. These differences in our temperament are among the factors that affect our anxiety levels. Especially if we are shy and pessimistic, our anxiety levels may be higher.
Is it normal to feel anxious in our daily lives or can it be an indication that we are suffering from an anxiety disorder? How can we distinguish between anxiety and anxiety disorder? At certain times in our lives, each of us may feel a certain level of anxiety. This state of anxiety is part of the evolutionary process that allows us to survive. This allows our mind and body to sense danger and prepare to fight it. Danger used to be exemplified by fighting animals like mammoths. Today, preparing for an exam in which our performance is being measured causes us anxiety.
The length of time we feel anxious, the frequency with which we feel anxious and the amount of anxiety we feel are also important in making this distinction. If we feel anxious to a certain extent on the day of a presentation and our anxiety decreases after the presentation, this can be called an emotional state that everyone can experience. This anxiety can even encourage us to present better.
In short, anxiety is caused by a specific problem and when we solve that problem, the anxiety goes away. In anxiety disorders, on the other hand, the problem is not based on a specific cause, and even when the problem is solved, the feeling of anxiety does not go away and persists for a long time. In addition, only environmental factors play a role in anxiety, whereas genetic factors play a role in anxiety disorders. While anxiety affects only a certain period of our lives, anxiety disorders can persist throughout our lives. When anxiety is lifelong, we try to avoid situations that cause us anxiety. This prevents us from encountering new opportunities.
Although knowing the answer to the question of "What is anxiety?" is the first step of treatment, it is not enough to answer "What is anxiety?" alone. In the treatment of anxiety, various psychiatric medications, cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy can be used frequently. Thanks to these medications, our body can be hormonally balanced. With cognitive behavioral therapy, our unrealistic anxious thoughts can be replaced by healthy thoughts. For example, the thought of "I will definitely make a mistake in this presentation and I will get a low grade in the class." can be replaced by the thought of "There is no reason for me to get a low grade in this presentation, I have prepared enough for the presentation. Even if it goes bad, I can improve my grade." Exposure therapy allows us to gradually approach and experience the things we fear instead of avoiding them. For example, if we have a phobia of dogs, we can first look at photos of dogs, then stand in the same room with the dog, and finally try to pet the dog.
