Many of us will experience anxiety at some point in our lives. It indicates discomfort in situations and is a natural response of our mind when it detects any perceived or real danger in the environment.
However, when anxiety becomes excessive, it can affect us mentally, emotionally and physically in negative and destructive ways. It can impair our ability to think clearly and make thought-out decisions; it can cause pain and tension in our body; and it can cause us to feel stressed and irritable to the detriment of our relationships.
If you find your anxiety is consistently spiking high or feels beyond normal, there is help at hand for you – anxiety is a disorder shared by many and there are a variety of treatments available. Online therapy platform BetterHelp, for example, offers affordable, discreet and licensed therapists who can help you work through issues with anxiety and guide you on path to healing.
In the meantime, read on to find out if you exhibit these signs and should seek help for anxiety:
1. Feeling overwhelmed and out of control. People with anxiety often feel like they are “drowning” or “spinning out of control” in their work or personal lives. It can be hard to verbalize what they are feeling and, as a result, their mind and body suffers. This can also manifest itself in panic attacks where the person feels an overwhelming dread and a sense of being suffocated.
2. Constant worry about events that are unlikely to happen. Anxiety can be coupled with a realistic sense of risk. However, when it becomes chronically elevated, people with this disorder often create or believe threats that are perceived and are resistant to reassurance that they may not be real. Because of their heightened fear, people with anxiety also tend to catastrophize and believe in the worst-case-scenario.
3. Body aches and pains. Anxiety will somaticize itself, but many of those cases are manageable or go away with time. However, people with excessive anxiety can experience anything from stomach pains, headaches, rapid heartbeats, dizziness and a shortness of breath which can interfere with daily life and become serious problems in and of themselves. Sunday Scaries products can help with anxiety of this magnitude.
4. Problems with sleeping. People struggling with this disorder lay in bed at night worrying and stressing about things, which then affects their ability to sleep or sleep deeply. Other times, they are unable to fall back asleep after waking up in the middle of the night and experience an increase in disturbing nightmares. Sleep problems can be serious, pulling the affected person into a vicious cycle of tiredness which consequently heightens the anxiety.
5. Increased negativity and conflicts in relationships. People with increasing anxiety often feel pessimistic, irritable and on edge. They find that things that once never bothered them are now overbearing, such as cluttered spaces. This leads to decreased sociability and increased conflicts in their relationships where loved ones may feel they have done something wrong to offset an argument.
Anxiety, particularly when it is as heightened as this, deserves some help. When you take care of your anxiety, whether by confiding in a trusted friend, seeking a therapist or simply admitting that you need help, you in turn take care of your emotional and physical health and invest in an improved quality of life.
Thank you for sharing the post. So important to ask for help.
Reaching out for help is hard, but it’s one of the key things to do if you’re anxious, or stressed.
Thank you for this post! I live with anxiety and it can be so difficult to deal with.