What causes anxiety?

Mild anxiety is vague and unsettling, but severe anxiety can be extremely debilitating. Anxiety is often triggered by stress in our lives. some are more vulnerable to anxiety, but even those who become anxious easily can learn to manage it well. We also make ourselves anxious with 'negative self-talk' - a habit of telling ourselves the worse will happen!


How can I recognise anxiety?

As well as feeling apprehensive and worried, you may experience some of the following physical symptoms:
tense muscles - trembling - churning stomach - nausea - diarrhoea - headache - backache - halt 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.



How can I help my anxiety?

Firstly, avoiding situations which make you anxious might help you in the short time, but the anxiety keeps returning and has a habit of spreading to other situations. This can lead you to avoiding things like shops, crowded places, and so on. Instead of avoiding: Learn to manage the stress in your life. Keep an eye on pressures and deadlines.
Learn a variety of relaxation techniques. physical relaxation really does help. Ask your counsellor or psychologist to help with techniques.
Look after your physical self. Eat healthily, get regular exercise and try to keep a regular sleep pattern, avoiding alcohol and illegal drugs.
Practice deep abdominal breathing. There are helpful techniques to make this really effective - ask your counsellor, psychologist, or medical practitioner.
Learn to replace "negative self-talk" with "coping self-talk". When you catch yourself thinking something negative like "I can't do this", 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. You could make a list of the negative thoughts you often have and write a list of positive, believable thoughts to replace them.