What is Anxiety?
What is Anxiety?
WHAT IS ANXIETY?
Anxiety is a cluster of symptoms, that differ from person to person, and so, learning to identify and recognize the ingredients and building blocks of your anxiety, helps you start mapping your specific experience. If you haven’t already done so, consider speaking with one of our UniHealth psychotherapist on getting started with your ability to identify what anxiety feels like for you.
MAP YOUR ANXIETY: WISE MIND VS. REACTIVE MIND
Give yourself the time to learn and recognize the symptoms of anxiety. When you do, you are giving yourself the space to manage the experience, and you are giving yourself the opportunity to be proactive in your ability to discover ways in which to wisely respond to the anxiety rather than react to it.
Wise Mind:
- Intuitive Thinking
- Arrangement and balance between Rational and Emotional Mind
- Living Mindfully
- A balanced blend of your reasonable mind with your emotional mind. It’s the part of you that accepts the circumstances as they are, as the current and present truth, which gives you freedom and liberty to navigate around and through it. Developing a Wise Mind is a process, and a lifelong commitment to you, and your personal development.
Rational Mind:
- Approaches knowledge intellectually
- Thinks logically and uses past experience
- Uses facts and research as well as planning
- Focused
Emotional Mind
- Reason and Logical Thinking are Difficult
- Uses Only Emotions to Make Decisions
- Reactive
- Tells Us How we are really doing
- Uses core psychological Needs
Image Credit: Therapeutic Oasis
Mapping your symptoms is like creating a roadmap of where to go, and what to focus on. If you’ve taken the time to develop insight and mindfulness with this, you have started preparing yourself to know what to look for, and how to navigate around and through it.
Without a map, you may feel lost, worried, uncertain, and ultimately, work yourself into a reactionary state in response to the situation and circumstances.
SYMPTOM CLUSTER OF ANXIETY
The constellation and cluster of symptoms look and feel different from person to person. Here is a list of the more common symptoms:
- Butterflies in the stomach
- Heart palpitations
- Excessive and chronic worry
- Headaches
- Migraines
- Phobic Avoidance
- Indigestion problems
- Hyperventilation
- Sweating, flushing
- Frequent urination
- Sense of doom
- Stomach cramps
- Shortness of breath
- Tremor, shaking
- Dry mouth
- Constantly thirsty
- Depersonalization
- Diarrhea
- Sense of suffocation
- Muscle tension
- Fainting, dizziness
WHAT DO PEOPLE WORRY ABOUT?
The worry is relative from person to person based on circumstances. The level of distress the symptoms evoke and how it impacts your ability to live a fulfilling life are factors to considers. A few of the things people commonly worry about:
- Keeping themselves safe
- Keeping their family safe
- Health and Overall Wellbeing
- Paying bills
- Finances and expenses
- Impact of politics on daily life
- Relationship with Family
- Relationship with Friends
- Relationship with Coworkers
- Work and Job Security
If you feel you may be experiencing a form of anxiety, we may be able to help. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Our skilled psychotherapists and clinicians begin with an intake assessment, and then develop a treatment plan to help guide your personal growth.
Sources:
https://www.psychiatry.org/newsroom/apa-public-opinion-poll-annual-meeting-2017
