Are you anxious?

There is no text book symptom for anxiety.  How you experience it may be completely different to the next person.  Examples of anxiety can include a racing heart, tight chest and sweaty palms.  Some people also experience feeling vibrations in their body or a lump in their throat.

Anxiety is something we all experience from time to time.  Public speaking, going on a first date or walking into a room for an occasion where you don’t know many people are all examples of where anxiety would be a response to the stress level we are experiencing.

But what if your anxiety doesn’t subside, or what if it comes out of nowhere for no reason whatsoever and you cant even begin to understand why you feel anxious?

So, why do we get anxious?  Well, quite simply, our brains are designed to keep us alive and away from threat (think running from the sabre tooth tiger in our cave man days).  Our brains have not developed at all since all those millions of years ago.  It is a very old and simple piece of kit.

The alarm function in our brain, the amygdala, is what alerts us to a potential threat – an angry looking dog running towards us, a car driving faster than we can walk across the road or a loud bang which startles us.  The amygdala is what alerts us to the threat and then sends the signals to the rest of our bodies (in nano seconds) to mobilise us to fight, flight or freeze from the threat.

If you have experienced a lot of stress in your life either growing up through adversity or for a prolonged period, the amygdala can remain in the “on” position.  Where everything you encounter can be a potential life threatening situation.  You become hypervigilant and always on alert to threat.

This indicates that your central nervous system is dysregulated and you need to be able to soothe (regulate) it.  If you live in this state for many years, it can cause health issues like cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

If this is you, there is much you can do to help reduce anxiety and find ways to calm your nervous system, get anxiety under control, give yourself better health outcomes and live a better life.

If you would like support with your anxiety or more information, please feel free to contact me and take a look at my page - avanticounselling.co.uk

See you next time.

Amy