Your Anxiety Guidebook
Need an Anxiety Guidebook? We have one just for you!
The feeling of anxiety is universal – everyone feels anxious about something at one time or another. So, while experiencing anxiety is normal, the feeling can be overwhelming or interfere with our lives in negative ways.
Learning more about anxiety, through resources like The Anxiety Guidebook: Approaching the What’s, Why’s, and How’s of Anxiety and research, is a really good start.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is the feeling of unease when something is wrong even if you don’t know what it is. It may be a feeling of panic you can’t identify. There are several types of anxiety and many helpful therapies and techniques for people who have anxiety disorders.
Some examples of anxiety are:
- Social anxiety (feeling like everyone is looking at or judging you, feeling overwhelm in social interactions, etc.)
- Situational anxiety (worrying obsessively if a situation is safe, if a natural disaster is about to happen, etc.)
- Food anxiety (obsessively wondering if food is safe, nervous about trying new foods, or being seen to eat)
Some types of anxiety disorders are:
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder – the person with GAD may feel generally upset or anxious about a great many things for long periods.
- Specific phobias – intense phobias of certain things such as air travel, the dentist, or escalators that cause the person to actively avoid those things even if they are disadvantaged by this avoidance.
- Panic disorder – this can include having panic attacks for identifiable or unidentifiable reasons, symptoms can include uncontrollable rapid breathing, chest pain, and dizziness.
Do you have all or some of these symptoms? There are other disorders and co-morbidities that have anxiety as an associated symptom like PTSD, OCD, ADHD, ASD and many others.
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Why Do We Get Anxiety?
What causes anxiety?
Some types of anxiety are trauma related but others can be seemingly without cause. There is a theory that anxiety is an over-effective flight/fight/fawn response.
What does this mean? It means that everyone’s neurotypical subconsciousness will see and dismiss many things in a day and that a person with anxiety will examine each one excessively – even if we don’t notice that we’re doing it.
While this is a huge generalization it is important to know that the anxious brain is not out to get you or make your life hard, it is trying to keep you safe but a little too much.
Is Anxiety Impacting My Life?
Think about these questions:
- Do you actively avoid certain places like supermarkets, malls, café’s, etc. because they make you feel scared or nervous?
- Does the thought of meeting a group of new people make you nervous, to the point of not wanting to go?
- Do you cancel plans with friends because there may be new people, loud noises, or crowds?
- Spend considerable energy wondering if your friends and colleagues dislike you?
- Regularly panic over whether or not you turned the stove off, locked a door, or said thank?
This is not a diagnostic, as anxiety can take many forms and diagnosis is more involved than a quick list of general questions. However, if the above scenarios apply to you, there may be value in exploring anxiety disorders as a potential cause.
The Anxiety Guidebook: Approaching the What’s, Why’s, and How’s of Anxiety
Our book, The Anxiety Guidebook: Approaching the What’s, Why’s, and How’s of Anxiety, is a great place to start learning more about anxiety and how to talk about anxious feelings in clear and productive ways.
Have a look at the book to see if it is a good match for you, or schedule a free alignment call to figure out a course of action for your path to better wellbeing.