What Is Anxiety? How does it affect us and how do we address it?

Anxiety is a mental and physical reaction to perceived threats. A perceived threat is an event that has not happened but there is a fear / anxiousness that it might happen. A threat is a danger that something unpleasant MAY happen to you.

A threat could be perceived in all three areas of your life.

Spirit - Spiritual – Temptations, Assurance of Salvation, Spiritual Attacks, Rejection or Abandonment by God. No answer to prayer.

Soul - Emotional – Abandonment, Rejection, Humiliation, Criticism, Dismissiveness, Shame, Suicidal Ideation.

Body - Physical – Physical Harm, Physical Danger, Isolation, Sickness, Death, Fear of War, Famine or Pandemic.

In small doses, anxiety is helpful. It protects us from danger, and focuses our

attention on problems. But when anxiety is too severe, or occurs too

frequently, it can become debilitating and affect your day to day life – Life becomes limiting & restrictive. Unless there is some kind of intervention anxiety can take over our lives. In order to keep the anxiety under control – some people resort to medicate / soothe with substances that can lead to addictions.

Three Types of Anxiety:

1.  Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

GAD is a long-term condition that causes you to feel excessive amounts of anxiety about a wide range of situations and issues, rather than one specific event - such as job responsibilities, health, finances, or minor concerns e.g. completing housework, completing exams or important tasks.

People with GAD feel anxious most days and often struggle to remember the last time they felt relaxed. GAD can cause both psychological (mental) and physical symptoms. These vary from person to person but can include feeling restless or worried and having trouble concentrating or sleeping.

Physical symptoms of GAD – How it affects your body

GAD can also have a number of physical symptoms, including:

Dizziness - Tiredness - A noticeably strong, fast or irregular heartbeat (palpitations)

muscle aches and tension - Trembling or shaking - Dry mouth - Excessive sweating - Shortness of breath -Stomach ache – Upset stomach - Feeling sick- nausea - Headache - Pins and needles - Difficulty falling or staying asleep (insomnia).

Psychological symptoms of GAD – How it affects your Soul / Emotions

GAD can cause a change in your behaviour and the way you think and feel about things, resulting in symptoms such as:

Restlessness - A sense of dread - Feeling constantly "on edge" - Difficult / poor concentrating – Irritability - Excessive nervousness

 Your symptoms may cause you to withdraw from social contact (seeing your family and friends) to avoid feelings of worry and dread.

You may also find going to work difficult and stressful and may take time off sick. These actions can make you worry even more about yourself and increase your lack of self-esteem.

Spiritual symptoms of GAD - How it can affect your Spirit

Loss of connection with God - Faith challenged – Lack of interest in prayer

With GAD, it may not always be clear what you are feeling anxious about. Not knowing what triggers your anxiety can intensify it and you may start to worry that there will be no solution.

2.  Phobias: Can lead to Panic Attacks.

A very intense fear of a specific situation or object, which is out of proportion to its actual threat.

A phobia is more than a simple fear. It develops when a person begins to organise their life around avoiding the thing they are afraid of, whether it’s an animal, object, place or situation. Phobias can be simple or complex.

A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder. If you have a phobia, you will have an overwhelming need to avoid all contact with the source of your anxiety. Coming into contact with the cause of your phobia or even the thought of this can make you anxious and may cause you to panic.

If the cause of your phobia is an object (simple phobia) or animal that you do not come into contact with regularly, such as a snake, it is unlikely to affect your day-to-day life. However, if you have a more complex phobia, such as agoraphobia (fear of open spaces), you may find it very difficult to lead a normal life.

As well as overwhelming feelings of anxiety, a panic attack can cause some of the following physical symptoms including:

Sweating -Trembling - Hot flushes or chills - Shortness of breath / difficulty breathing A choking sensation - Rapid heartbeat (tachycardia) - Chest pain or a feeling of tightness in the chest - A sensation of butterflies in the stomach – Nausea - Headaches and dizziness - Feeling faint - Numbness or pins and needles – Dry mouth A need to go to the toilet - Ringing in your ears - Feeling confused or disorientated

In severe cases, you may also experience psychological symptoms such as:

Fear of losing control - Fear of fainting - Feelings of dread - Fear of dying

Complex phobias tend to be more disabling than simple phobias because they are often associated with a deep-rooted fear or anxiety about a particular circumstance or situation. Two common examples of complex phobias are agoraphobia and social phobia. Agoraphobia is a fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult, or help wouldn't be available if things go wrong.

A person with agoraphobia may be scared of:

·   travelling on public transport

·   visiting a shopping centre

·   and in the most severe cases – leaving home

Social phobia is a fear of social situations, such as weddings, or performing in social situations, such as public speaking. People with a social phobia have a fear of embarrassing themselves or of being humiliated in public.

3 Panic Attacks :

A panic attack occurs when your body experiences a rush of intense psychological (of the soul) (mental) and physical symptoms. Panic disorder is where you have recurring and regular panic attacks, often for no apparent reason resulting in an extreme anxious response - sometimes caused by irrational thoughts, phobias and fears but can also be triggered by past experiences which have been suppressed. During a panic attack, the individual experiences an overwhelming sense of fear, dread, apprehensions and anxiety and numerous

Physical symptoms:

Nausea – Sweating – Trembling - A sensation that your heart is beating irregularly (palpitations)

 The physical symptoms of a panic attack are unpleasant, and they can also be accompanied by thoughts of fear and terror.For this reason, people with panic disorder start to fear the next attack, which creates a cycle of living in ‘fear of fear’ and adds to the sense of panic. Sometimes, the symptoms of a panic attack can be so intense they can make you feel like you're having a heart attack.

How Anxiety Grows:

Anxiety drives people to try and avoid the things that cause them fear.

When a“scary” thing is avoided, there is an immediate but short-lived sense of

relief. However, the next time a similar threat arises, it feels even scarier. This creates a harmful cycle of avoidance, and worsening anxiety.
 

Underlying all anxiety is :

·   the fear of losing control

·   a feeling of powerlessness over the situation

·   fear of the unknown.

Negative / Irrational Thoughts.

Anxiety is often the result of irrational negative thoughts. Irrational thoughts are patterns of thinking that are illogical, (lacking sense or clear sound reasoning) distort reality and prevent you from reaching your goals. They also lead to unhealthy emotions and self-defeating behaviour. 

“Irrational thoughts are ways that our mind convinces us of things that are not true,”. “These distorted thoughts can come from false messages we have heard, fearful events we have experienced, and underlying anxieties we feel.”

·   Constant thoughts of yourself or others dying

·   Thoughts of not being safe – being in danger

·   No one likes me, I am ugly

·   I am not worthy of being loved

·   Fear that you will always be on your own

·   Unjustified worry over financial hardship

·   I must please others to feel good about myself

·   If I make a mistake I am a failure

·   I will never …….

Challenge Cognitive distortions / Thinking Errors.

These are commonly known as cognitive distortions, are irrational beliefs that contribute to uncomfortable emotions and unwanted behaviour.

1. All-or-Nothing Thinking / Polarized Thinking

Also known as “Black-and-White Thinking,” an inability or unwillingness to see shades of gray. Seeing things in terms of extremes – something is either fantastic or awful, you believe you are either perfect or a total failure.

2. Over-generalization

This takes one instance or example and generalizes it to an overall pattern. Overgeneralizing can lead to overly negative thoughts about yourself and your environment based on only one or two experiences.

3. Jumping to Conclusions – Mind Reading

An inaccurate belief that we know what another person is thinking.

4. Jumping to Conclusions – Fortune Telling

A tendency to make conclusions and predictions based on little to no evidence and holding them as gospel truth.

5. Magnification (Catastrophizing) or Minimization

A exaggerating or minimizing the meaning, importance, or likelihood of things.

6. Emotional Reasoning

The acceptance of one’s emotions as fact. It can be described as “I feel it, therefore it must be true.”

7. Heaven’s Reward Fallacy

A belief that one’s struggles, one’s suffering, and one’s hard work will result in a just reward.

Challenging Irrational Thoughts / Cognitive Distortions can help us change them. – How to challenge:

1.  Keep track of your thoughts:You can’t fight irrational thoughts if you don’t know what they

   are, right? To help you identify irrational thoughts, you may find it useful to start keeping a

   daily journal.

2.  Detach yourself from the thought : When an irrational thought arises, it’s common to

   mistake it for a fact or feel bad for having these kinds of thoughts in the first place.

   This can make everything worse.

3.  Challenge the thought:

·   How do I feel when I think this thought?

·   Is there anything, in reality, to support this thought as being true?

·   When I tell others about this belief, do they support me? Is this the way everyone in my

    family, peer group, work, church, or community thinks?

·   Is this thought an absolute? Is it a black or white, yes or no, win or lose, with no options in

    the middle type of belief?

·   What is the worst thing that could happen to me if I do not hold on to this belief?

·   What positive things might happen to me if I do not hold on to this thought?