Is Anxiety Impacting Your Life More Than It Should?
Is Anxiety Impacting Your Life More Than It Should?
Anxiety—as unpleasant as it can be-is a genuine and utterly normal part of the human experience. It's our original defense against any potential threats or danger in our environment.
But sometimes, constant worries and overthinking can turn into an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are mental health conditions that intensify worries and fears that don't go away by themselves over time. If left untreated, they may worsen and ultimately have a very negative and intrusive impact on your quality of life.
So how can you tell if anxiety is impacting your life more than it should?
Here are a few ways to tell:
You isolate yourself. Feeling lonely and detaching yourself from the world can be a cause and a symptom of anxiety. Some people may experience anxiety because they feel alone to start with, while others feel the need to be alone to reduce their anxiety.
You consider yourself an 'overthinker.' Do you find yourself overthinking all of the time? Are the thoughts so disruptive and pervasive that you feel like your own mind won't let you be? While you don't have to have an anxiety disorder to be ruminating, but when you find yourself obsessively thinking and worrying about things out of your control, you may have an anxiety disorder.
You’re impatient and irritable. Anxiety can make you short-tempered and put you in a bad mood. This is because being in this state causes your stress response to activate. Your body senses potential dangers in your environment, so smaller and smaller things become more intolerable and feel more threatening.
You have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. Even though you feel exhausted at the end of the day, you feel like you can't stop and rest. Or, you constantly wake up in the middle of the night due to anxious thoughts and feel fatigued when you get up in the morning. Ultimately, it turns into a vicious cycle, and you may start to become fearful of falling asleep, only to cause more problems in your sleep routine and schedule.
You experience unexplainable or strange physical symptoms. Stress and anxiety affect more than just the mind but also the body. Stress stimulates our fight or flight response, which is excellent for short-term moments when you need to avoid danger. However, when the system is in play every day just from going to work, your body is constantly in this state when it's only meant to be in it for a short period. This results in unusual stomachaches, headaches, digestive issues, amongst other symptoms.
Does any of this sound familiar?
We all experience anxiety from time to time. While it can be uncomfortable, the good news is there are many tools and resources to help you manage your symptoms. The key is to recognize them, so you can seek the right strategies in reducing them.
If you feel you could benefit from additional help in managing anxiety, please email us at mmastny@mentalwellnesscounseling.org to schedule a free consultation call.
Resources
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/
https://www.verywellmind.com/repetitive-thoughts-emotional-processing-or-rumination-3144936
https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety-insomnia
https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/fight-or-flight-response/
‘https://www.healthline.com/health/physical-symptoms-of-anxiety
