What causes chronic anxiety?
- Dr. Debi Gilmore LMFT
- Jul 20, 2017
- 3 min read
Updated: May 18
For some individuals, just the thought of getting through the day produces intense levels of anxiety. No matter what they do, they cannot seem to stop the worry and often feel it is out of their control. They might anticipate disaster or be overly concerned about money, health, family, work or other issues.
Emotional Effects
The emotional effects of anxiety may include feelings of apprehension or dread, trouble concentrating, feeling tense or jumpy, anticipating the worst, irritability, restlessness, watching (and waiting) for signs (and occurrences) of danger, and, feeling like your mind's gone blank, as well as nightmares/bad dreams, obsessions about sensations, a trapped in your mind feeling, and feeling like everything is scary.
Cognitive Effects
The cognitive effects of anxiety may include thoughts about suspected dangers, such as fear of dying. For example, you may fear that the chest pains are a deadly heart attack or that the shooting pains in your head are the result of a tumor or aneurysm. You feel an intense fear when you think of dying, or you may think of it more often than normal, or can't get it out of your mind.
Who Is At Risk?
Anxiety disorders affect about 40 million American adults age 18 years and older (about 18%) in a given year. Interestingly, women are 60% more likely to be affected by anxiety. Sometimes anxiety can interfere with the individuals ability to engage socially and to function in their job, family, etc.
Symptoms of Anxiety:
Muscle Tension
Fatigue
Insomnia
Restlessness
Irritability
Edginess
COPING WITH ANXIETY
CHALLENGE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
Write down your worries. Keep a pad and pencil on you, or type on a laptop, smartphone, or tablet. When you experience anxiety, write down your worries. Journaling, or writing down something is harder work than simply thinking about them, so your negative thoughts are likely to disappear sooner. This is a powerful exercise to help you become more acutely aware of the negative thoughts that drive your anxiety. Next, write down positive thoughts that counter the negative ones. Make an effort to reject the negative thoughts and replace them with your new positive script.
Create an anxiety worry period. Choose one or two 10-minute “worry periods” each day that you can devote to anxiety. Yes this is ok, because you are consciously allowing yourself to address the concerns that drive your worry. During your worry period, focus only on negative, anxious thoughts without trying to correct them. The rest of the day, however, is to be designated free of anxiety. When anxious thoughts come into your head during the day, write them down and “postpone” them to your worry period.
Accept uncertainty. Unfortunately, worrying about all the things that could go wrong doesn’t make life any more predictable—it only keeps you from enjoying the good things happening in the present. Learn to accept uncertainty and not require immediate solutions to life’s problems.
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
Practice relaxation and guided imagery techniques. When practiced regularly, relaxation techniques such as mindfulness meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, and deep breathing can reduce anxiety symptoms and increase feelings of relaxation and emotional well-being. Research shows that with just a few episodes of guided imagery exercises, the brain actually changes... incorporating a new skill.
Adopt healthy eating habits. I know... you have heard this one before, but start the day right with breakfast, and continue with frequent small meals throughout the day. Some nutrition experts call this "grazing." Going too long without eating leads to low blood sugar, which can make you feel more anxious.
Exercise regularly. This is one that takes motivation and dedication, but once you get in the habit, exercise can be something you actually look forward to. Exercise is a natural stress buster and anxiety reliever. To achieve the maximum benefit, aim for at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise on most days.
Get enough sleep. This may seem counter to those who struggle with insomnia, but sometimes lack of sleep can exacerbate anxious thoughts and feelings. You may have assumed the insomnia was due to chronic anxiety, but consider the possibility that you are overtired... so exhausted that your body cannot figure out how to slow down. Try to get seven to nine hours of quality sleep a night.
