4 Harmful Ways Anxiety Will Affect You and How to Get it Under Control.
Every human experience or will experience anxiety many occasions in their lives. It is an inevitable emotion that cannot be prevented. I have watched the most care free spirits, face anxiety at some point in their life. Anxiety visits us through bills, jobs, children, various relationships and trauma. When anxiety spirals out of control is when it dominates and begin to severely affect us. Unquestionably no person should be made to feel ashamed of any disorders that they may face. However, anxiety was that overbearing emotion where I would usually say, “everyone deals with anxiety” so I felt safe. As time went on, I concluded that being overwhelmed daily is not okay.
Social Interactions
Anxiety affects how you perform socially due to a lack of social confidence. Usually, people with extreme anxiety struggle with social anxiety as well. You are usually worried about what others are thinking and will say about you. The burden is placed on imperfections forgetting that no human on earth resides here being perfect. To add, instead of using imperfections as a way to grow, we often times allow them to immobilize us. From here we begin missing out on possibly fascinating opportunities. For instance, when there is something a person who struggles with anxiety desires to say they often hold back searching for a perfect delivery.
Solution: Social Interaction
First, we can realize that we perfect ourselves through learning, growing, age, mistakes and circumstances that heightened our outlook. Do not allow anxiety to continuously rob you of great human connections. Once again there are no perfect human beings. We are all flawed just trying to find our voice and place in this universe. Of course, I think Tina Turner has the perfect legs and I’ve been aiming for them but I didn’t say she was perfect.
Irritability
“Though we don’t often talk about irritability (an emotional experience leading to agitation and reduce control over our tempers) in the context of anxiety, it’s actually a pretty common symptom” (Virzi). You are damn right it is a pretty common symptom amongst those of us with anxiety. When you are irritable you allow the smallest task to overwhelm you. Take for instance, it could very well be a small task of your manager asking you to grab the fax from the fax machine. It is not so much about the asking that irritated you but more so how you feel at the moment, internally overtaken. To add, there are times that it is deeper causes that will make you feel irritable but small task trigger them. For example, if I am overloaded with work that is the deeper cause but something as small as a question or standing in the line at the grocery store will triggered it.
Solution: Irritability
When dealing with irritability due to anxiety having balance usually helps. The same way the small things could easily work a person with anxiety up it is those small things that help relax you. If you are at work step outside for five minutes and take a breather. You could take a short walk. It is beneficial to reduce the amount of caffeine intake. Overall, it is good to put what you are irritated about into perspective and come to conclusion whether it is worth stressing over or not.
Overthinking
Overthinking is one huge factor of those who suffers from anxiety. Consistently worrying about the past, present and future. Over-thinkers are bothered by mistakes or humiliations in their past. They are so worried with fixing a mistake to the point of ruminating about it. During this stage it is just consistently thinking of how a situation should have played out. Ruminating has gotten me nowhere, I promise. Worrying at this level takes away from living happy and free in the present because you are overthinking past and present situations. The way to fix this is accepting those things we cannot change and fix what we can. Furthermore, usually the fear of the future for over thinkers stems from wanting to keep a grip on life to eliminate stressful situations. While this is a great outlook to have it is unrealistic as well. I say this because there are some circumstances we can control and others are out of our control.
Solution: Overthinking
When trying to process your thoughts that is going a hundred miles an hour realize that your mental health is declining. To add, you are not only affecting mental health but physical health as well. Over-thinking day in and day out will cause your muscle to be tense, headache and severe physical issues. Let’s get a hold of overthinking by journaling. It is power in journaling. You learn to leave your thoughts on the pages and stop obsessing.
Sleep Deprivation
Consistent patterns of sleep deprivation usually come from worrying, fear and overthinking. These are three factors that keep the anxiety filled person up at night. Sleep deprivation is dangerous to the health as well because we all know that sleep is vital to the core. Without proper sleep we begin to fail at our everyday task. Many anxiety disorders are connected to not having proper hours of sleep. This causes anxiety to grow even into depression. In addition, another harm from sleep deprivation is that it will increase the chances of heart attacks.
Solution: Sleep Deprivation
There are so many great remedies that will he us balance anxiety and be reintroduced to better sleep. Meditation helps with relaxation and mindfulness which are two techniques that bring peace and calmness. Taking a nice bath with some calming music of your choice is another way to calm the mind because the body is in relaxation mode. Melatonin, CBD oil and air diffusers assist with better sleep as well. Last but never least I say a prayer through it all.
Anxiety can be hard to manage but nothings impossible and I stand on that. Who want to live a life where they are never really in the moment? There are so many different activities that we could do to reduce and put a cap on anxiety. First, we need to understand never underestimate the small things. Secondly, being defeated should never be the answer even if it gets so overwhelming that you need a professional so be it. It assures us that we do not have to suffer alone nor in silence.
Citations
Virzi, Juliette. “Why Does Anxiety Make Me Feel So Irritable?” The Almighty: Anxiety, 21 Mar. 2020 https://themighty.com/2020/05/anxiety-anger-irritability/ 16 Mar. 2021.