Understanding Anxiety
Anxiety is a normal human response. It’s not a flaw, or weakness, despite it maybe bringing up feelings of shame. It’s simply your nervous system trying to protect you. Try thinking of anxiety as though it is your body's alarm system. Its job is to keep you safe from perceived harm. When it senses danger, it ‘switches on’ automatically, much quicker than your thinking brain can react and evaluate whether the danger is real.
This can cause physiological sensations such as;
Increased heart rate
Faster breathing to get more oxygen
Muscles tensing - to prepare fight or flight
Stomach feeling ‘off’
Sweating
The issue isn’t that you have an alarm system, anxiety isn’t the problem. The issue is that sometimes our ‘alarm system’ can become oversensitive. Sort of like a smoke detector that’s triggered by burning toast! It reacts to perceived threat, not just real danger. Which can be triggered by our thoughts, feelings, memories and uncertainty. The body is reacting first, and then our mind is trying to catch up and explain it later.
The Anxiety Cycle
Trigger (thought, situation, sensation)
Body alarm activates
Person interprets sensation as danger
Anxiety increases
Avoidance or safety behaviours
Short-term relief
Long-term strengthening of anxiety
Avoidance makes sense, it gives a sense of relief. However, accidentally reinforces the belief that something is dangerous.
The aim isn’t to eradicate anxiety completely, the goal is to teach your alarm system that you are safe more often.
