Anxiety

Anxiety is a normal, healthy response to danger. It increases our awareness and helps us get ready to escape or freeze – which was very handy when we lived with reptiles and wild animals close at hand. These days though our anxiety is likely to be triggered by such things as a bill we can’t pay, an exam paper,  or perhaps going into a situation with other people. Anxiety is understandable but our response to feeling anxious -to escape or freeze, is not always so useful.

Panic Attacks – we can also have anxiety responses for apparently no reason at all – which can be scary in itself – often called panic attacks. There are triggers* we just don’t always know what they are. However, because people like to make sense of things they sometimes blame their panic on the first thing that seems to fit : for example, if you have a sudden awareness of feeling anxious in a busy place, like a supermarket, you may blame the supermarket – and then start avoiding it. It is not as daft as it sounds as our ancestors panics would have probably been triggered by a real threat in the environment, like a dangerous animal, so avoiding the places where wild animals roam would have been very smart.
So anxiety is perfectly normal* and so is trying to avoid things that you think are threatening. However, if you are avoid things that  are not really making you anxious, like the supermarket or things you do feel threatened by, like a bill, (that will get worse if left), the avoidance causes problems for you.

The problem is not anxiety per se but your response to it.

Things you can do to help you with your anxiety

1. Understand what it is

Your response is psychological – avoidance – and so psychological therapy can help you change your response to feeling anxious. However, there is a great deal of things you can do to help yourself that does not involve you having therapy.
Things you can do to help you with your anxiety

2. Use the practical steps that are suggested to help you stop avoiding

These services offer telephone support and workshops/groups* (sessions with other people with similar difficulties – sounds a bit scary but usually turns out to be very supportive, helpful and can even be fun!) and if these don’t help or you need more help you can get one to one support from a trained worker – this is someone who has done some training in offering psychological support for anxiety.
If you live in Norfolk or Suffolk use this link: http://www.wellbeingnandw.co.uk
If you live elsewhere in the UK just type the name of your local mental health service – this should contain relevant links or ask your G.P. Practice for information on local IAPT services.

*Anxiety Disorder
I wrote anxiety is not a disorder because it is a normal feeling much as anger, sadness and lust are. All have an underlying physiological basis (body changes and sensations in response to chemicals released in our bodies). However, you can have a disorder in your physiology that makes you, for example, more prone to irritability or anxiety.
You can also make yourself more likely to emotional changes (physiological disturbances) by not looking after yourself. For example, staying up late, not get enough sleep and not eating well can make you irritable. Drinking a lot of coffee can make you anxious. Hormonal changes and other changes can also lead to physiological changes that mimic anxiety symptoms.
It is important if you are in doubt about the cause of your symptoms that you have a chat with your G.P. However, usually the pattern of when you experience them, e.g. always in the supermarket, helps rule out any medical condition.
Life experiences can also have an impact on your feelings, or emotions. If you had a lot of abuse and neglect as a child and perhaps spent time in the care system this is likely to have played havoc with your emotional development. This may mean you feel anxious very easily in some situations and not quick enough in others. A bit like a faulty smoke alarm that goes off when you make a piece of toast!
Life experiences as an adult can also lead to an increase in anxiety. These are experiences that cause your sleep, eating and relationships/friendships to become disrupted. The term stress is used widely to cover a vast range of such events from childbirth to moving house, from death to losing a job, from a severe illness to money worries, from being bullied to having a panic attack.
Sometimes it is one big thing, sometimes it is a lot of little things. Usually your confidence is dented if not completely depleted.