When Anxiety is Doing Exactly What It is Supposed to Do

              Anxiety is a universal human experience. 1 in 5 American adults report being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Because so many of us have had experiences with anxiety misfiring, we’re getting accustomed to trying to explain away our anxiety, but what happens with anxiety isn’t misfiring? How can we tell and what are we supposed to do with that?

To begin with, some of you may have bristled at the idea that anxiety is universal. So let’s start with defining this. What is anxiety? Anxiety is a feeling of dread, fear, and uneasiness. It’s typically in response to a threat in your vicinity. Think of anxiety as your brains search and detect mechanism, seeking out threats in order to keep you safe. We all need a degree of this to keep ourselves alive.

How might anxiety feel? Anxiety has mental, emotional, and physiological components. Some common signs include:

·        Feeling nervous, restless or tense

·        Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom

·        Having an increased heart rate

·        Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)

·        Sweating

·        Trembling

·        Feeling weak or tired

·        Trouble concentrating

·        Perseverating

·        Having trouble sleeping

·        Experiencing GI issues

·        Having difficulty controlling worry

·        Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety

When anxiety is misfiring, these symptoms can be extraordinarily uncomfortable. When anxiety is necessary, these symptoms can be life-saving. To put it clearly, these symptoms serve a function. To use sleeplessness as an example, if we’re running for our life, our brain is not going to think “You know what, now is a great time for a nap” because that nap could mean the difference between life and death, the thing you are running from could catch up to you and kill you.

              There’s a lot of information out there about what it’s like when you’re finding yourself feeling anxiety inappropriately but what is happening when is it NOT misfiring? Anxiety is NOT misfiring when you’re in the presence of a threat to your being. For example, if you’re in the midst of a natural disaster and find yourself feeling any of the previously mentioned symptoms, that’s your brain doing exactly what it is supposed to do. If you find yourself feeling anxious around the political landscape and seeing basic human rights be stripped from yourself and others, that’s a threat to your being and your brain doing exactly what it is supposed to do. If you find yourself feeling anxious around the increasing violence worldwide, that is a threat to your being and anxiety is performing just as it should.

So what do you do with this? Similarly to when anxiety is misfiring, the name of the game is still calming your physiology. When you’re feeling anxious, your brain is flooding and it makes it challenging to problem solve. To calm your physiology, grounding exercises can be invaluable. Breathing techniques like box breathing and three breaths in a minute serve to de-flood your brain. The 5-4-3-2-1 senses exercise can allow you to root into your present moment. Taken together, these create the space for you to engage in more effective problem solving- potentially saving your life.

Anxiety is not simply something to be shut down or removed; it provides a necessary function for the survival of humanity. You don’t need to talk yourself out of feeling anxious. Get in touch with your anxiety. Learn what it is attaching itself to and, if you find it’s attached to a threat to your being, seek safety and use tools like the circle of control and the circle of influence to give your direction on what to do next. If you’re struggling to tell the difference between anxiety firing appropriately or inappropriately, click the button below and let’s have a conversation.