Anxiety Vs. Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety is a normal feeling. Anxiety disorder is NOT.

Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear. It is a normal feeling that anyone can experience at some point in their life. You might feel anxious before your new job interview, an important exam, or a huge event!

From an evolutionary perspective, anxiety has played a crucial role in our survival and adaptation such as living in the wilderness and facing daily challenges. So, we eventually needed it to survive, and our brain is wired to detect any potential threat or problem to help us overcome it.

However, an anxiety disorder is a mental health condition that makes it difficult to get through your day and impacts your social, academic, occupational, and interpersonal life.

This is tricky because the same alarm system, fight or flight response, which is activated by a flood, will also be triggered when the brain identifies any stimulus as a danger. This could be your class presentation, meeting with the director or missing your medical appointment.

Thus, people who are diagnosed with anxiety disorders can have distressing experiences almost everyday.

For example, they might recall feeling like something was wrong, as if there is something bad about to happen. Initially, they could assume it was stress from work, traffic, deadlines, a birthday dinner or going to the gym. Their heart would race, their palms would sweat, and their thoughts would race a mile a minute. 

It is like a constant battle going on in their head.

Physical symptoms are just one part of it - People with anxiety disorders also experience cognitive symptoms such as the negative and intrusive thoughts that contribute to their anxiety. They find it hard to stop worrying about everything from making a mistake at work to whether they left the oven on.  

It can be very exhausting and make it hard for them to focus on anything else. Even simple tasks like grocery shopping or going for a walk could feel overwhelming.

Dealing with anxiety can be a journey, but with the right treatment and support, we can learn to manage anxiety symptoms. 

Therapy helps us learn specific techniques for calming the racing thoughts, like deep breathing and mindfulness. Other cognitive strategies include identifying our automatic thoughts and reframing them. You can check my previous article where I give examples on reframing thoughts.

If you relate to this article remember that you are not alone - anxiety disorders are more common than people realize. It's not always easy, but with seeking the support of a mental health professional we can learn to overcome these challenges and still live a full and happy life despite this anxiety.

Take home message:

So, when someone confides in you that they've been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, please avoid the temptation to say, 'I know how you feel, I get anxious too'.

While it may come from a place of empathy, it's important to recognize that the experiences of someone with an anxiety disorder and someone without one are not the same.

If your struggle is interfering with your daily life, consider seeking help from a mental health professional.

Yours truly,

Dana

Kindness is not just a virtue, it's a way of life.