Understanding Anxiety
1. Anxiety is a real medical condition.
All of us feel worried about things from time to time. This is a natural response to a threat or perceived threat. It can cause our heart to beat faster, our breathing to get faster breathing, or create fearful or obsessive thoughts. These instincts help us to avoid danger and make sure we are safe.
Anxiety, however, is more than just feeling worried. It’s a diagnosable medical condition and includes a range of disorders. Someone suffering from an anxiety disorder is not able to regulate their worry or fear, and this can affect their sleep, work, relationships and ability to function in day-to-day life.
2. Anxiety is hard to just ‘snap out of’.
People struggling with anxiety can often feel frustrated when they can’t regulate their worry or fear, and the impact it has on them and the people around them. Anxiety is not something people can just ‘snap out of’. The good news, however, is that it’s treatable through highly effective tools and strategies. These help people reshape their thinking and behaviours around anxiety.
While every person’s journey is different, the process of learning and understanding anxiety symptoms enables people to change their thought patterns. It is very possible for those living with an anxiety disorder to overcome their fears, and many people can reduce or eliminate symptoms within months of support from a mental health professional.
3. Anxiety is not a sign of personal weakness.
People suffering from anxiety have ongoing, repetitive problems with managing their levels of fear and stress. These disorders generally have the same cause and effect on those suffering: a person with anxiety will struggle to control their negative emotions in certain situations and seek to avoid this reaction by avoiding the situations causing anxiety.
This is not a personal failing or weakness of character – our bodies are wired to avoid fear and stress, so when we become overwhelmed by these signals from our brain and nervous system, it can be very hard to know how to respond.
So now we understand a bit more about anxiety, what can we do?
If you’re struggling with anxiety, you don’t have to do it alone. If you feel you are worrying constantly, you may benefit from speaking to your doctor or a mental health professional. They can help you learn strategies which work for many people, so anxiety has minimal impact on your daily life.
Do you think someone in your life might be suffering from anxiety? The more you learn and understand about anxiety, the better equipped you’ll be to talk with them and offer support.
There are plenty of resources online, and we’ve created some you can download here:
Click to download your own copy:
If you’d like to find out more about Outback Futures telehealth, call or text 0417 703 729 to chat or make an appointment. Find our Upcoming Clinics here.
In an emergency or life threatening situation call Lifeline on 13 11 14 for 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention.
