Common Concerns
Anxiety:
What? Me Worry?
Introduction | Physical Reactions to Anxiety | Generalized Anxiety Disorder Screening | Short Term Solutions | More Effective Solutions | Seeking HelpIntroduction
Most of us experience feelings of anxiety in our lives. It can often occur right before coming back to school or leaving home for the first time, or before an important event, job interview, exam, or a new social situation, or first date. Not only is anxiety a common human emotion, but some amount of anxiety can be helpful. Maybe when faced with a looming deadline for a paper for a class, or an important event, anxiety might motivate you to better prepare for an exam, complete an assignment on time, or give a great presentation to your class.
However, too much worry and anxiety, that seems unrelenting, somewhat irrational, and extreme in nature, can have the opposite effect. Instead of feeling energized, it can be very emotionally draining and can interfere with your life in many areas. Excessive anxiety is a real medical condition that can minimize your ability to focus, result in physical symptoms, disrupt your academic life, and generally negatively impact your daily life.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder is marked by persistent, chronic, excessive, or overwhelming worries and fear. The worrying can go on every day, in some form, possibly all day. The anxious feelings seem impossible to "turn off" and may feel like they are beginning to really take over your life. One might experience panic attacks, obsessive thoughts, nightmares, or frightening physical symptoms.
topPhysical Reactions to Anxiety
As well as experiencing some of the feelings noted above, you may also experience some of the following physical symptoms:
- Tense muscles
- Trembling
- Restlessness
- Churning stomach
- Nausea
- Insomnia
- Diarrhea
- Headaches
- Difficulty concentrating
- Dizziness
- Backaches
- Heart palpitations
- Numbness or "pins and needles" in arms, hands or legs
- Sweating/flushing
It is easy to mistake symptoms of anxiety for physical illness and become worried that you might be suffering a heart attack or stroke. This of course increases anxiety.
Short Term Solutions
- Avoiding situations that make you anxious might help you feel better in the short term. The trouble is the anxiety keeps returning, and has a habit of spreading to other situations. This can lead to you avoiding things like shops, crowded places, lectures or tutorials. So although avoidance makes you feel better -
- Relief is usually only temporary - you may worry about what will happen next time.
- Every time you avoid something it is harder next time you try to face it.
- Gradually you want to avoid more and more things.
More Effective Solutions
The following suggestions can provide some more effective relief for the anxiety you might be experiencing.
- Learn to manage stress in your life. Keep an eye on pressures and deadlines and make a commitment to taking time out from study or work. You might also want to take a look at our information about stress management on our website.
- Learn a variety of relaxation techniques. Physical relaxation methods and meditation techniques really do help. Relaxation and meditation classes and tapes are available at various community organizations and stores. CAPS offers a weekly relaxation workshop during Fall and Winter Semesters that you might find useful as well.
- Look after your physical self. Eat healthily, get regular exercise and try to keep a regular sleep pattern. Avoid alcohol, cannabis and junk food. And think about minimizing caffeine intake as well.
- Practice deep abdominal breathing. This consists of breathing in deeply and slowly through your nose, taking the air right down to you abdomen. Visualize the air travelling right down to your abdomen and say the word "calm" to yourself as you breathe in. Then breathe out slowly and gently through your mouth. As you breathe out visualize the stress and tension leaving your body with your breath and think the word "relax." Deliberately let your muscles go floppy as you breathe out. Take three deep breaths at a time. If you breathe deeply for too long you may feel dizzy from the extra oxygen. You can repeat the three breaths after a short time of breathing normally.
- Learn to replace "negative self talk" with "coping self talk." When you catch yourself thinking something negative like "I can't do this, it's just too hard," try to change it to something more positive, like "This is hard but I can get through it." It can be helpful to think of "changing the tape" that runs through your mind. It is useful to make a list of the negative thoughts you often have and write a list of positive, believable thoughts to replace them.
Seeking Help
Anxiety can be exhausting and debilitating. It often helps to talk to professional counselor who can help you find ways to deal with stress in your life and teach you skills to manage anxiety.
If you think you would like counseling support, please come to our office at 3100 Michigan Union to make an appointment.
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