Anxiety is worrying about something which has not happened yet, and might never happen. In the current circumstances it seems difficult to avoid. But is it really necessary for so many of us spend so much of our lives in its grip? To answer that we need to understand a lot more about anxiety and how it works.<\/p>\n
Anxiety is actually a major part of our survival instinct, and therefore one of our oldest and most unsophisticated reactions. \u00a0It is triggered when a part of our brain called the amygdala, receives messages suggesting that we could be under attack, an attack so severe that we might not survive. The amygdala doesn\u2019t investigate whether this threat is real or the message is true, because that\u2019s not its job. Its job is much simpler, to trigger the fight, flight or freeze reaction, which it has effectively done since early \u00a0times, to help us survive. This floods our body with adrenaline, we start to feel hot, possibly nauseous, our mouth goes try, we can\u2019t concentrate, we can become irritable, tense and super vigilant. We don\u2019t do our best work in this state, we can be difficult to be with and it\u2019s hard to be happy. Even worse being in this state of extreme anxiety for extended periods can make us develop stress related illnesses, such as irritable bowel syndrome, migraines and even cancers.<\/p>\n
And the irony is that we might not be under attack at all. We might just be worrying about some situation or mild Facebook embarrassment which does not require this extreme reaction. For the amygdala it\u2019s all the same and it can\u2019t decipher the threat level from a brain that keeps sending worrying messages and narratives. Over thinkers are particularly at risk. They can\u2019t stop their overactive brains creating new, imaginative, awful scenarios, which constantly trigger anxiety. Therefore some people feel constantly anxious and unhappy and feel there\u2019s nothing they can do about it.<\/p>\n
But if we all cause our own anxiety with worrying frightening narratives, why can\u2019t we control too? \u00a0It\u2019s true that some people are genetically more prone to anxiety than others, but even so it can be challenged and people can \u201ctrain their brain\u201d out of being constantly anxious.<\/p>\n
There are a number of possible options here.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t eradicate anxiety from our lives and neither should we want to. But living with it over extended periods is unhealthy and undesirable. So try to develop more self-awareness of how you are helping create it, and take steps to have a more equal relationship with anxiety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anxiety is worrying about something which has not happened yet, and might never happen. In the current circumstances it seems difficult to avoid. But is it really necessary for so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[20,19],"tags":[86,87,38,53,73,92,94,85,90,76,95,91,89,93,96,88],"yoast_head":"\n