Anxiety

Anxiety is a strong feeling of worry.  It is a normal emotion, which is experienced by many people before an event such as an exam.  But when anxiety takes over it can become overwhelming and interfere with everyday life.  Maybe we’ve seen something on television that unnerves us and we are then worrying it may happen to us e.g. Terrorism.

Sometimes anxiety can creep in when we’ve been through some difficult situations, such as trauma or abuse.  Anxiety has very physical symptoms, which can escalate our worry.  Often we don’t know what we are worried about, we just are.   It’s a feeling of dreading the unknown or dreading a possibility.

If you find yourself getting anxious about something or it feels like it is developing into a panic attack, try to name it; things are less worrying with a name.  Breath deeply e.g. Breathe in counting to 7 and breathe out counting to 9, for as long as needed.  It is also good to practice this when things are calm.

Try grounding yourself by listening to sounds around; feel the char/bed under your body (can you feel the chair under your legs? The arms on the arms of the chair?); name some things that you can see. What can you taste? What can you smell?

The above techniques should be helpful to begin to make you feel calmer.  It will reduce the heart rate and bring oxygen back into the brain aiding clearer thinking.

It is also important to eat healthily and drink plenty of water.  What we eat can have an impact on our physical body.

[Image source: http://www.anxietysymptomsdr.com/physical-symptoms-of-anxiety]