Anxiety

There are two kinds of anxiety, one is a diagnosable mental condition that doesn’t go away, but is somewhat controllable with medication and therapy.  And there’s the other kind, the kind that happens to all of us. We’ve all experienced stress to one degree or another sometime in our life. When you let stress take over your life, you will likely become anxious.

These are stressful times.  Our country and the world is facing a pandemic that few people have seen in our lifetime.  Anxiety serves a purpose to remind us to take this seriously. That is a good thing. Now that you know this, you can let the anxiety go.  You don’t need it anymore. Easy said, huh? But not so easy to do.  

There are so many ways you can experience anxiety.  You may find yourself obsessively thinking about everything that could go wrong.  You may watch for danger everywhere you go, expecting it to appear at any moment. You may be irritable, restless, unable to concentrate.  You may have insomnia and/or heart palpitations. You may tremble and sweat. The symptoms of anxiety are scary, as scary as the thoughts that precede the symptoms.  And, yes, we are coming to the answer- how to control the symptoms of anxiety.

Cognitive techniques teach us how to trace the thinking that brought about the symptoms.  Sometimes the thoughts bring about legitimate concerns. We can accept these concerns and take steps to minimize the dangers.  With this pandemic looming over us we practice social distancing, we wear masks and often gloves in public, and we stay home when possible.  Taking such reasonable steps to be safe, our anxiety is reduced.

And sometimes thoughts have little to do with any real concerns.  Remember Chicken Little who told us “the sky is falling!” If Chicken Little took a few minutes to analyze his thoughts, he’d realize there was no reason to believe the sky is going to fall.  Once he knows this, his anxiety can start to go away.

There are other things a person can do, too, like focus on what is right with the world.  Reduce anxiety by remembering the picture from above.