ANXIETY
Six out of ten of their last conversations with people, both professional and personal, confessed to feeling “weird”, “scared”, “worried”, “nervous” or some “pain”. The concept of “anxiety” hovers over these oddities, fears, fears or cravings (sometimes you can test in your environment to see if you get a good or bad balance) and Google the word “anxiety” rises in the middle in March they are high in the summer but stable level and since the end of October, they seem to have started a new climb.
So, anxiety as a concept and in a generalized way seems to preoccupy us, whether we know or not what this discomfort means. Let’s understand the keys to anxiety with the help of Yolanda Morant (Psychiatrist, sexologist and couples therapist, Yolanda Morant, reveals the signs that we are suffering from this disorder), psychiatrist, sexologist and couples therapist, who answers six questions that arise in these days of the pandemic.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is a physical, emotional and behavioural reaction that conveys information about the presence of a change in the environment or existence. Peligro Our physical or mental integrity. That is the set of sensations and/or symptoms we may present to prepare us for change or adversity. Fight or fly through.
However, when what we believe can alter our well-being does not actually exist, i.e. it is a thought or imagined fear; either our symptoms are too intense or instead of preparing us for change in an evolutionary way, we block, preventing us from using our repertoire of adaptive tools to deal with the problem.
Ultimately, anxiety is similar to fear, but something that isn’t true, or at least shouldn’t cause us such uneasiness. By not being authentic and not being able to “control” it, we lose defence strategies that generate critical, self-perceived feelings of inadequacy and capacity within us.
Are there different types of anxiety?
Not exactly, we have already defined that anxiety is a psycho-physiological reaction, but we can say that it can present itself in several ways.
Some people experience anxiety in the form of a “crisis” in the presence of specific situations or objects and this is what we know as “specific phobias”.
In other cases, anxiety shows a feeling of inner restlessness that stays in the body throughout the day and leads us to constantly worry about anything that might happen, but it is not particularly concerning. This is called “generalized anxiety disorder.” In this case, the most obvious component is cognitive or romantic.
Sometimes we suffer from repeated anxiety “crises”, appearing and disappearing for no apparent reason. This is what we call “panic disorder” or “episodic paroxysmal anxiety”. This mode of presentation is extremely debilitating, and since the individual has no identifiable factor as the origin of the crisis, sufferers limit their activities for fear of facing a crisis at any time. We call this “anticipatory anxiety.”
As we can see, although this is not always the case, the “anxiety crisis” is a fundamental element of these disorders. Having an anxiety crisis is a very unpleasant physical sensation of “imminent death” whose primary component is physical.
How do I know if I’m experiencing anxiety?
As we have already developed, anxiety has three components that are not always easily divided:
The physical component refers to all the symptoms felt in the body: sweating, tachycardia (“the heart seems to be racing or exploding), shortness of breath, dizziness, tremors, etc.
The cognitive component refers to such beliefs or thoughts that appear repeatedly and cause inner restlessness, such as: thinking we are going to have a heart attack, thinking we are going crazy, fearing to faint, etc.
The behavioural component refers to the attitude we take in the face of these discomforts, which is usually avoidance or escape from all those situations that involve what might make us uncomfortable.
What we know today is that such anxiety produces a “crisis” and then disappears without happening, meaning it is self-limiting whether we treat it or not. However, we cannot forget that the moment of the greatest clinical manifestation is very sad and generates a lot of discomforts, for those who suffer from it and those who are close to them.
It is therefore essential to include psycho-education in its treatment: explaining what a crisis is, how and why it appears, what we are going to feel and what we can do about it, and showing the physical and emotional “signs” that the patient gradually becomes aware of. What is that a crisis can emerge in order to manage it more effectively, thereby providing greater security and capacity for handling and self-regulation?
When to worry about anxiety?
All emotions give us information about the context we live in or what we may need to adapt to the needs of the context, so in general, it is healthy and necessary to have this information to adjust and adapt our response to the situation.
However, there are contexts where we are overwhelmed by the emotional charge involved (for example, unexpected news such as a loss) or when other areas of our lives require our full attention and we are less prepared and able to cope. Strategies are “low battery”.
When we feel blocked and dark by the difficulty of managing these situations, we realize it (awareness is sometimes the most complicated part because it means recognizing the insecure situation) and ask for professional help (revealing our fragility to others) although that includes).
In any case, let us remember that it is not about “not being able”, “being strong enough” or “being weak”; instead, at that moment we need external support and tools to help us find or learn and reduce the level of pain to be able to cope. Stressful situation.
Are the chances of getting anxious in the current context?
An increase in anxiety is evident in the current pandemic. However, it can be considered contextual and appropriate to the context. Remember that anxiety is a psycho-physiological reaction, similar to fear, that lets us know that there is “something” that threatens our feelings. Honesty is survival, letting us in. Be alert to protect yourself from that danger.
A pestilence has tested us, shown us our vulnerability as beings, and therefore revealed once again our insecurity. Therefore, fear and anxiety arise because we are still facing something unknown, which generates uncertainty, and our body and mind prepare for it. However, we cannot forget that mismanaged fear stops us from adapting to block us from responding to the situations we face.
How can we help someone with anxiety?
It’s common to hear phrases like “don’t worry”, “you’ll get through it”, “it will definitely work out”, and “don’t let it happen”. They are phrases that help little or nothing, and the messages we send back to the affected person are very poor. These messages are:
- It doesn’t matter what you feel.
- That’s what they feel, depending on the situation
- You are the feeling and you don’t have to feel it
The fact is that emotions are unique to each other, so no one can say whether what another person is feeling is appropriate for the situation or not.
Realizing that when a person is under stress we are the only one who needs to be present, that we do that support job and that we return that look. Most of the time you don’t have to say anything or do anything extra. Once the episode is painful, yes, you can offer yourself alternative and professional help so that you can resolve what scares or distresses you and work through the anxiety.
If all we have to do is help ourselves, we have to do something similar, albeit more complicated. The important thing is to “realize” that we are in a situation where support for these stones on the path between instability will be of great help.