what is anxiety?

#anxiety #worry #panic

Anxiety is a common emotion and it is normal to feel anxious sometimes. But it’s important to recognise there’s a difference between feeling anxious and having anxiety.

We might feel anxious when we are making a speech, before an exam or walking in unfamiliar places. Feeling anxious is a natural reaction in these situations, especially the more unfamiliar they are. This is what is called the ‘fight or flight’ response - our body prepares itself to either fight or flee because we sense some form of stressful or threatening situation.

‍Feeling anxious before flying on a plane, for example, is a situation many people find stressful. Having anxiety is different (also known as an anxiety disorder). An anxiety disorder is where our anxiety becomes too much, we become overwhelmed and stop doing the things we want or need to do in our everyday lives. This could mean you start feeling anxious when you find yourself coming down with a cold, driving instead of catching public transport, or even not wanting to go to school and see your friends. Everyday actions which cause unwanted stress.

If you feel extreme anxiety, even after the stressful event has passed, and these feelings last for more than six months, may mean you have an anxiety disorder. By properly managing our anxiety, we can treat an anxiety disorder and subsequently, maximise our mind to get the best out of ourselves.

But before we talk about managing anxiety, let’s discuss symptoms.

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Physical symptoms like:

Sweating (without physical exercise)
Feeling hotter or colder than usual (i.e., hot or cold flush)
Shaking body, trembling hands, or leg bouncing
Feeling tense (and even muscle soreness/tightness such as in the neck or shoulders)
Difficulty sleeping (getting to sleep and/or staying asleep)
Problems with digestion or stomach pain
Feeling weak, tired or fatigued
Breathing rapidly, chest tightness, and/or a racing heart

Emotional and mental symptoms such as:

Jumping to the worst conclusion or scenario
Trouble concentrating on tasks
Difficulty holding a conversation with someone
Obsessively thinking or worrying about something
Feeling restless or flustered

Unhealthy behaviours like:

Avoiding tasks, situations or events
Spending time procrastinating
Constantly checking on things

If these symptoms are familiar, we would suggest clicking here to read our article about how to manage your anxiety.

If you are concerned that yourself or someone else has an anxiety disorder and want to speak to someone professional, click here to organise to speak to a MaxiMinds psychologist or call your doctor who can organise for a mental health treatment plan. Click here to learn more about a mental health treatment plan (https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/mental-health-treatment-plan).

Remember, if it’s an emergency, please call 000.

‍References

‍Albano, A. M., Chorpita, B. F., & Barlow, D. H. (2003). Childhood anxiety disorders.

Clark, D. M. (1999). Anxiety disorders: Why they persist and how to treat them. Behaviour research and therapy, 37(1), S5.

Bandelow, B., Michaelis, S., & Wedekind, D. (2017). Treatment of anxiety disorders. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 19(2), 93.

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).

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how to manage anxiety

#relaxed #zen #strategies

The first step to manage or cope with anxiety is to understand it! Anxiety is very different to just feeling anxious, for example. Click here to read our blog on ‘What is anxiety’.

Much of the difficulty around acknowledging a mental health challenge is the stigma. An important first (but often difficult) step is to accept that we do have anxiety and that it’s okay to feel this way. By acknowledging how we feel, we can move forward towards addressing the problem by managing those feelings. Try writing down how you feel, speaking it out loud, or telling someone close to you how you’re feeling.

Strategies to manage our anxiety can be broken into two groups—firstly immediate relief strategies, and secondly cognitive behaviour therapy strategies.

Immediate strategies

Short-term relief strategies help to reduce some of our anxiety, particularly providing temporary relief from physiological physical symptoms of anxiety, such as sweating, breathlessness, muscle tension and an increased heartrate.
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Mindfulness meditation – engage in the present moment by simply noticing your thoughts and feelings, recognising and releasing any tension in your body and softening your extremities (feet and hands)
Sensory engagement – engage in your surroundings by noticing and naming 5 things you can touch, 4 things you can see, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste
Deep breathing – slow your heart rate down by breathing in for 5 seconds, holding for 2 seconds and breathing out slowly for 3 seconds (and repeating)

Cognitive behaviour therapy strategies

‍Cognitive behaviour therapy strategies aim to unpack more of the underlying reasons for our anxiety, and work to improve our ability to think more clearly. They help to promote more rational thoughts and feelings which enable us to feel more in control, in the present moment and in touch with reality.
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Control circle – draw a circle on the page and inside the circle, write down what is inside your control (e.g. your actions, what you eat, who you spend time with), and outside the circle, write down what is outside your control (e.g. other people’s actions, the weather, what school or uni work you are assigned)
Journalling – in a new notebook, write down whatever thoughts and feelings come to your mind to take them out of your mind and onto paper to make them more objective and rational
Realistic scenarios – draw a table with three columns and in the first row cells, write down “Worst case”, “Best case” and “Most likely case” respectively, then for each row write down scenarios that are causing you anxiety (e.g. “Worst case” = “I am going to fail the maths test”, “Best case” = “I get 100% on the maths test” and “Most likely case” = “I will try my best to study for the maths test and most likely pass it as I have done for all previous tests”)

References

Newby, J., Mason, E., Kladnistki, N., Murphy, M., Millard, M., Haskelberg, H., ... & Mahoney, A. (2021). Integrating internet CBT into clinical practice: a practical guide for clinicians. Clinical Psychologist, 25(2), 164-178.

Soysa, C. K., & Wilcomb, C. J. (2015). Mindfulness, self-compassion, self-efficacy, and gender as predictors of depression, anxiety, stress, and well-being. Mindfulness, 6(2), 217-226.

Legerstee, J. S., Garnefski, N., Verhulst, F. C., & Utens, E. M. (2011). Cognitive coping in anxiety-disordered adolescents. Journal of adolescence, 34(2), 319-326.

Hollon, S. D., Stewart, M. O., & Strunk, D. (2006). Enduring effects for cognitive behavior therapy in the treatment of depression and anxiety. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 285-315.

Leahy, R. L., Holland, S. J. F., & McGinn, L. K. (2011). Treatment plans and interventions for depression and anxiety disorders, 2e.

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agonising over anxiety

#anxiety #worry #anxious

This Saturday we have a big footy match, and we have to win it to make it into the finals.

The whole school is being really supportive, and all my friends are saying it will put our school “on the map” if we make it.

It’s all I think about to be honest and I’m so excited! But at the back of my mind, I just keep thinking, “what if we lose, what if I don’t play well?”

The truth is I hate big crowds and everyone watching me – I don’t want to stuff up but I just can’t help thinking that I’m going to do something wrong. My mum and dad say it’s just pre-match nerves and that “you’ll be fine, you’re a good player.”

But deep down I think my anxious feelings are going to impact the way I play. I sometimes just freeze up when we get onto the field and being worried, I’m going to make a stupid mistake makes me nervous and I then don’t play well.

I know I worry too much about it, it’s just a game but I know if I blow it, I’ll probably get dropped from the side or have to go to a lower grade team, not the one that I’m in now. All my mates are on the team and they’ll just drop me as well. My parents and school will probably be so disappointed in me.

The match is coming up, but I’ve not been able to eat or sleep.

…

Everyone gets anxious and lots of school kids suffer from anxiety about all manner of things which can be a serious issue. Sometimes anxiety can be so bad that people just can’t cope with everyday life until they get professional help or medication.

This worrying can have a snowball effect – you worry about one thing then you worry about everything.

MaxiMinds has tools and readings to help you start to overcome your anxiety. The first thing to remember is that you’re not alone. At some stage virtually everyone gets anxious about things, even people who seem highly confident and successful.

There are several steps to identifying and overcoming anxiety. Short term steps include things like deep breathing (closing your eyes and just breathing) and gradually relaxing your muscles can help, putting you in a more relaxed and less anxious mode.

More intense activities centre around things like therapies that drill down into just how you’re feeling and why. These include cognitive restructuring, benefit questioning and mindfulness, all steps towards identifying and overcoming deep anxiety, giving you better understanding and tools that can help find a path out of constantly having feelings of anxiety.

To find out more about anxiety, visit the link below. And don’t worry, there’s always professional help if you need it.

Learn more about not to stop agonising over anxiety

MaxiMinds is not an emergency mental health service. If you or someone you know are in urgent need of help, please present to the emergency department at your nearest hospital or contact the following mental health crisis teams.

Emergency 000 | Mental Health Line 1800 011 511 | Lifeline 13 14 11