What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a state of apprehension or fear resulting from the anticipation of a real or perceived threat, event or situation.

How anxiety affects us:

Physically – Symptoms

Emotionally – Fear

Cognitive – The way we think

Behave – Avoidance Behaviour

If we look up the word anxiety in the dictionary, we find the explanation:

“An uncomfortable feeling of nervousness or worry about something that is happening or might happen in the future”.

Anxiety is normal. Everyone feels anxiety at times, from one extent to another, it is part of being human, it’s the body’s way of signalling a problem or a threat; crossing the road in busy traffic or going through financial/family difficulties, sitting an exam or losing a job etc. It is when anxiety takes control of your life and stops you from doing certain things that it becomes a disorder. When you start to avoid things or everyday situations feel threatening all adds to the problem.

When we are anxious the body is tense which alerts the nervous system that something is wrong. Adrenaline rushes into our bloodstream to enable us to run away or stay and fight (fight-or-flight response). This happens whether the danger is real, or even if we believe the danger is there, when actually there is none. It is the body’s alarm and survival mechanism. Primitive man would not have survived for long without this life saving response. It works so well, that it often kicks in when it is not needed; when the danger is in our minds rather than in reality. We think we are in danger, so that is enough to trigger the system to go.