What does this mean?

Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear.

Everyone experiences anxiety at some point in their life. For instance, most people can relate to feeling anxious just before an exam or job interview.

However, for some people, anxiety can occur much more frequently and affect their day-to-day lives.

Anxiety is a natural human emotion and can actually help keep us safe. When we experience a 'threat' we feel anxious, and our body reacts by releasing adrenaline and cortisol to help us manage.

These chemicals give us a quick burst of energy, which is very useful when we are faced with a physical danger.

This is often described as the fight or flight response, as the chemicals released into our body gives us temporary energy to fight or run ('flight') from a threat.

How does it affect people?

Unfortunately, our mind cannot tell the difference between a physical threat and one triggered by a worrisome thought. When the 'threat' we experience is a thought or worry, and not a physical danger, this release of chemicals can cause some unpleasant symptoms in our body. These symptoms include:

  • Dizziness
  • A noticeably strong, fast or irregular heartbeat (palpitations)
  • Muscle aches and tension
  • Trembling or shaking
  • Dry mouth
  • Excessive sweating
  • Shortness of breath
  • Stomach ache
  • Feeling sick
  • Headache
  • Pins and needles

Although not dangerous, this can feel very physically unpleasant and can then encourage further worry which maintains the anxiety.

The essence of anxiety is worrying about potential threat. It is trying to cope with an event that you think will be negative. People typically do this by paying more attention to possible signs of threat and looking inside themselves to see whether they will be able to cope with that threat. This often leads to heightened symptom awareness and a feeling that we will be unable to cope. This is the start of the vicious cycle of anxiety.

Diagram showing a cycle of anxiety and avoidance. The sequence is: Anxiety → Attention narrows ("You look for signs of threat or of yourself not coping") → Escape or avoid → Short-term relief → Long-term: loss of confidence about coping → back to Anxiety. Orange arrows connect each stage in a circular loop.

 

What strategies might be helpful?

Remember, anxiety is a very individual experience and people can be triggered to anxiety by situations others may find relatively mundane. It is important to understand how the individual is feeling and to not make assumptions about their ability to cope or overcome their feelings.

  • Encourage the gradual and graded facing of feared situations - if deemed safe to do so.
  • Shift the focus to achievement and small victories when facing fears (e.g. even the act of preparing to face a fear can trigger anxiety, so by even thinking about making a change, the first step towards facing anxiety has been accomplished).
  • Try to avoid any kind of 'should' thinking, we are all different and it can be extremely unhelpful to tell ourselves we 'should' be able to do things.
  • Numerous self-help packages for overcoming anxiety are readily available and can help give structure to interventions, such as:

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