What is Anxiety and How do I Manage it?

We all experience anxiety at times. Anxiety consists of a feeling of fear, physiological changes in our body, and worried thoughts. It is a completely natural response to stress that is a part of our evolution and instinct to survive. Anxiety alerts us to possible danger or threat activating our ‘fight or flight’ response system.

What is our ‘fight or flight’ response system? When we are triggered (experience real or perceived danger), our body experiences many physiological changes to survive the threat. When our bodies enter the ‘fight or flight’ response, our primitive brain takes over while areas of our ‘thinking brain’ shut down. There are important evolutionary purposes to having our primitive brain take over during situations of threat to increase likelihood of survival. Once the danger or threat has passed, our body is meant to go back to a normal state of arousal resulting in our logical brain coming back online allowing us to reason and think clearly once again.

So, when is anxiety no longer helpful? Anxiety can significantly impact our quality of life when it causes a constant state of fear, excessive worry, unnecessary avoidance, uncontrollable intrusive thoughts, negatively impacts our daily functioning, negatively impacts our social relationships, or no longer feels manageable.

What can we do to manage our anxiety? Anxiety affects our thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and our physiological symptoms. When we begin to identify the ways in which these areas are being affected, we can use these areas as intervention points. We can challenge the irrational thoughts accompanying anxiety, we can change our behaviours, or we can manage or calm our physiological responses.

For example, we can use a grounding exercise when we notice we are beginning to feel anxious or panicked. Grounding exercises will help de-escalate our physiological system and turn our ‘thinking brain’ back on. When our rational brain is back ‘online’ we can begin challenging the irrational thoughts that are accompanying the anxiety. We can also change our behaviours such as switching our environment, talking to a friend, or engaging in a self-care activity.

It is also important to identify triggers causing the anxiety and understand how certain thoughts or behaviours may be perpetuating the anxiety. It may also be necessary to create a daily routine that incorporates activities that proactively help to control or counteract the anxiety. Counselling can help you further explore causes of anxiety, identify triggers, challenge thoughts, help you come up with a daily routine that supports your emotional and mental health, and provide tools and strategies to help manage anxiety when it arises.

Anxiety Canada is a helpful resource to learn more about anxiety, anxiety disorders, and tools to manage the symptoms.