Living with anxiety
What is anxiety: It is a feeling which is often unrelated to one’s understanding of what one needs to be anxious about. When one is anxious one first needs to check internally and externally to see if there is a reason for it. Is one in physical danger? Is one about to be tested to see if one is going get a job, be turned down for a date, find out something terrible has happened, or about to risk doing something one has never done before. If any of the later than some anxiety is normal and will pass.
The worst anxiety is that free floating anxiety (generalized anxiety) which just appears for no discernable reason. Internally it is saying that one needs to be on guard or even extremely fearful. Sometimes the anxiety morphs into panic. When panic arrives, one may feel unable to breathe or to move. One may notice one is involuntarily holding one’s breath. This is an overwhelming feeling. The panic is acting as if one is in acute danger and unable to respond to the danger. It may feel as if the strong, abled person one is suddenly is gone and one is, thus, unable to protect oneself.
It may feel as if one is the anxiety or the panic as if there is no “you” to respond to the anxiety. One may then become anxious about the anxiety or panicked about the panic and then becomes more anxious or panicked.
The first step in healing or learning to manage the anxiety is to remind oneself:
Written April 4, 2022
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
What is anxiety: It is a feeling which is often unrelated to one’s understanding of what one needs to be anxious about. When one is anxious one first needs to check internally and externally to see if there is a reason for it. Is one in physical danger? Is one about to be tested to see if one is going get a job, be turned down for a date, find out something terrible has happened, or about to risk doing something one has never done before. If any of the later than some anxiety is normal and will pass.
The worst anxiety is that free floating anxiety (generalized anxiety) which just appears for no discernable reason. Internally it is saying that one needs to be on guard or even extremely fearful. Sometimes the anxiety morphs into panic. When panic arrives, one may feel unable to breathe or to move. One may notice one is involuntarily holding one’s breath. This is an overwhelming feeling. The panic is acting as if one is in acute danger and unable to respond to the danger. It may feel as if the strong, abled person one is suddenly is gone and one is, thus, unable to protect oneself.
It may feel as if one is the anxiety or the panic as if there is no “you” to respond to the anxiety. One may then become anxious about the anxiety or panicked about the panic and then becomes more anxious or panicked.
The first step in healing or learning to manage the anxiety is to remind oneself:
- One is not the anxiety or panic. One has anxiety or panic.
- One has a relationship with the anxiety or panic. The strong, competent part of one can decide what relationship one wants with the anxiety/panic.
- One is stronger than the anxiety or panic. One may notice in a real emergency or dangerous situation one has a good track record of handling the situation. One may notice if one did not have time to become anxious one just acted. This is normal.
- The long-term goal is to learn to be with the anxiety/panic; to not feed it by labeling it or telling oneself it is terrible or something bad will happen. The goal is to just notice it without commenting on it. Even though it is uncomfortable one wants to just notice. If one says anything at all one just says, “Isn’t that interesting.”
- To decide the relationship one wants with anxiety. Some people write this down daily and share it with someone – partner, counselor, or other person they trust. One person I know prefers not to mention the anxiety but simply texts me in the morning saying something like “I am going to be amazing today.” Or “I am a powerful woman and can handle life on life’s terms.”
- Generalized anxiety lies to one. It is not reporting a shared reality.
- Generalized anxiety is common. Otherwise, there would not be diagnostic label for it. There is no reason to be embarrassed or shameful.
- The better one takes care of oneself emotionally, spiritually, nutritionally and physically the more effectively one can face anxiety head on when it visits.
- To avoid use of excessive alcohol, excessive caffeine or any other substance which can aggravate the anxiety.
- Medication such as an antidepressant which also targets anxiety can sometimes takes the edge off. Never, ever use Xanax, klonopin or any other anti-anxiety medication on a regular basis. Those drugs work well on a one-time basis such as a fear of flying and one has to take a flight. These medications are very addictive and regular use will result in increasing the symptoms. Some doctors will insist they are safe to take regularly. They are wrong. Alcohol is a depressant. Do not use to treat anxiety/panic. Research results on use of marijuana are not consistent. I do not recommend. It is easy to get addicted to/dependent on and impaired with frequent use. A few people have psychotic reactions to regular use of marijuana. Eventually we may find some forms of marijuana may be helpful, but it is too early to tell. There are also studies being conducted on the use of other drugs to treat anxiety and panic disorders.
Written April 4, 2022
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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