Is anxiety causing a decline in your mental health?
Unfortunately, anxiety disorders are the most common form of mental illness in the United States, affecting 40 million adults over the age of 18 (roughly 18% of the population). Anxiety costs more than $42 billion annually in mental health bills, showing how widespread and severe this disorder has become.
This statistic is a considerable number of people who suffer from some form of anxiety. So what does an anxiety attack feel like? And what are some common anxiety disorders?
With so many people suffering from anxiety, it seems of utmost importance to find the triggers for this disorder and avoid them. What can we do to feel better? You’ll find the answers to this question in this article and the actual habits that make anxiety worse, in general.
What Does An Anxiety Attack Feel Like?
Everyone feels anxious at some point in their life. Normal life struggles due to work, parenting, or marriage can produce anxiety in your life. But typically, when these problems are solved, your fear subsides.
But for some people, their anxiety doesn’t go away. The mental health struggl grows, causing excessive fear and nervousness to the point where it decreases mental health. It interrupts life and relationships. You may start having panic attacks. These attacks can produce devastating distress that lasts for some time. Your heart may beat faster. You may sweat or have a hard time breathing.
Anxiety attacks can come at random times. You may not know what triggers these attacks, which is stressful. This causes you to worry about having another attack, only increasing your anxiety.
What’s the difference between anxiety and a panic attack
Anxiety disorders affect one in five adults in the United States. Anxiety makes you constantly worry about things in your life, like your health, money, or family, even when things are okay. You may end up with lots of headaches, body aches, or strange pains due to all the worry.
Panic attacks are more sudden experiences of panic or fear that come over you. These are triggered by something. Some people even feel as if they have a heart attack or feel as if they can’t breathe. If you suddenly experience this kind of attack, you likely have a panic disorder. A panic disorder is just one form of anxiety disorder common today.
The many forms of anxiety
There are five common anxiety disorders. These anxiety disorders affect people so much that they can’t function in their work or relationships. These forms of anxiety include:
- Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Panic disorders
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Phobias
Generalized anxiety disorder
If you suffer from a generalized anxiety disorder or GAD, you will suffer from persistent nervousness and apprehension even when there isn’t any reason for it. You may worry about your health, your children, your work, or your relationships. Everything in your life will cause you extreme worry and agitation. GAD can affect the way you function at work, in your family, or in other relationships. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, GAD symptoms include:
- Can’t relax
- Can’t focus on something for very long
- Insomnia
- Constant worry and fear
- Feeling edgy, irritable
- Tired all the time
Panic attack disorder
If you suffer from panic attack disorder, your panic attacks seem to come out of nowhere. These attacks cause you to feel out of control. The panic will peak rapidly then finish leaving you feeling drained emotionally. Panic attacks may be triggered by a certain situation or thing you feel afraid of. During a panic attack, you may feel physical side effects such as
- Rapid heart rate
- Hard time breathing
- Sweating
- Shaking
- Choking
- Feeling of doom
- Feeling out of control
If you have panic attacks, you’ll worry about when the next episode is going to hit. This anticipation increases your anxiety, and you’ll try to prevent an attack by avoiding situations that could trigger another attack.
This awareness can be complex, especially if you do not know what caused the attack. Knowing what triggers your panic attacks can be helpful unless it’s situations you must be in, like work, school, or at home.
Panic disorders often run in families. But not all family members suffer from them. Studies show that your unique biology may affect your panic attacks. If you think you have panic attacks, visit your doctor to ensure you don’t have an outstanding physical condition causing the panic attacks.
Here are common physical conditions that may look like anxiety or panic attacks include:
- Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
- Endometriosis
- Lyme disease
- Adrenal insufficiency
- Crohn’s disease
- Fibromyalgia
- Hypothyroidism
- Ankylosing Spondylitis
- Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)
Once you’re diagnosed with a panic disorder, your doctor may suggest medication or psychotherapy for treatment.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic stress, PTSD, sometimes happens if you experience an extraordinarily shocking or scary situation. This intense fear doesn’t leave you because the event was so traumatic. Doctors aren’t sure what causes PTSD, but it may happen when you have:
- A very stressful event happens in your life.
- Family history of anxiety, depression, or mental illness
- Your temperament is prone to PTSD
- Brain chemicals or hormones aren’t able to respond well to stress
- A dangerous situation occurs
- You observe a violent crime
- Sexual abuse
- You get injured in an accident
Some things help you get through PTSD, such as support groups, strong family ties, and community. Also, learning some mental health strategies to cope with your PTSD is helpful. Also, taking classes on what to do in emergencies may help you face fear.
Typical Phobias
A phobia is a strong abhorrence or fear about a thing or a circumstance. Phobias cause exaggerated reactions to everyday experiences or things. You may avoid situations where you’ll come in contact with a sure thing, constantly worry about a specific object, or feel extreme anxiety if you’re in a specific problem or come face to face with an object. There are several common phobias, including simple phobias, social phobias, agoraphobia, and separation anxiety.
Simple phobia
Simple phobias are overwhelming fears or anxiety about situations or objects. Some examples of specific phobias include the fear of:
- Fear of blood
- Fear of flying
- Fear of bugs, animals, snakes
- Fear of heights
- Fear of hospitals or medical procedures
Social phobias
Social phobias or social anxiety is when you experience an inordinate fear of social situations. The fear of these situations can be so intense that you worry that others will notice your anxiety causing you to avoid social interactions. Social phobias can cause their sufferers to avoid all social situations to alleviate the stress of the anxiety. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, if you have a social phobia, you may experience these symptoms in social settings.
- Excessive blushing or sweating in social situations
- Shaking and shivering
- Heart rate elevated
- Can’t think, feel as if your mind is empty
- Nausea, stomach-churning
- Can’t look people in the eye
- Speaking too softly
- Speaking too loudly
- Extreme fear and embarrassment
- Fear of being judged
Agoraphobia
If you have agoraphobia, you will be anxious about at least two or more conditions. Riding trains, buses, or airplanes
- Open spaces
- Closed spaces
- Crowds
- Being alone
Separation anxiety
Many people think that only kids suffer from separation anxiety, but adults can suffer from it, too. Separation anxiety causes you to worry about saying goodbye or being away from specific people you feel very connected to. You fear something bad will happen to them or you if you get separated. You may have nightmares about being away from these people. Sometimes those who suffer from separation anxiety also have physical symptoms like nausea or heart palpitations from separation.
With so many suffering from anxiety, the question remains: what can we do about it? Here are ten habits that make anxiety worse and how to avoid them.
10 Habits That Make Anxiety Worse (And How to Avoid Having Them)
1. Overthinking
Overthinking creates problems that don’t exist. Sometimes, they might exist, but dwelling on the issues will not provide answers. You will only worsen your mental health, making your anxiety worse.
How to avoid it: If possible, set time aside each day for ‘worrying.’ This might sound counterproductive to anxiety, but having a specific window of time allocated to overthinking will allow you to get out all your thoughts and feelings and move on. This way, you’ll have more energy to devote to other things throughout the day. You might also try a mindfulness practice such as meditation or yoga to help you quiet your thoughts.
2. Obsessive behaviors
Just like overthinking, obsessing, and fixating on issues does nothing to solve the actual problem. Though it is essential to come to a solution, you won’t get there by overanalyzing. We spend so much time in today’s world solving problems, using critical thinking, and obsessing over answers. What if we just escaped all of that obsessive behavior and just lived? To overcome anxiety, you must find a quiet place in your mind and delve into it often.
How to avoid it: Just let the thoughts flow through you, but don’t attach yourself to them. Only focus on the things you can change and forget about the things you can’t. If something doesn’t feel right in your life, either release it or confront the problem directly to find peace of mind.
3. Setting Unreasonable expectations
Many people with anxiety have a great fear of the unknown. They want to have expectations for everything, so it makes the future seem less scary. People with anxiety can sometimes have unreasonable expectations, which makes the anxiety worse when they aren’t met. Expectations usually lead to disappointments, so stop trying to predict the future. Usually, life happens much differently than we expect, and trying to foresee events in the future will only lead to more significant anxiety when the event doesn’t happen. Not to mention, you’ll obsess over the perceived event until it happens, making it impossible to live in the present.
How to avoid it: Focus on living in the now. Make your life so exceptional that you have no time to worry about the future. Make your life your greatest joy so that those pesky expectations don’t come back to haunt you later. You create your reality, so make it what you want rather than expecting things just to come your way.
4. Avoidance of your problems
Avoiding anxiety might seem like the answer, but this makes anxiety worse. You’ll have to deal with the repressed emotions later and in much greater magnitude. Getting help for your disorder and recognizing your problem is the first step to recovery. Avoidance can also be thought of differently – that of avoiding what scares us so that we don’t have to deal with the consequences. However, this will not encourage growth, and avoiding what brings you to fear will only magnify it in your mind.
How to avoid it: First of all, you need to accept that you have anxiety. Then, it would be best if you worked on getting help in whatever way you see fit. Don’t just wait for someone to help you; sometimes, you must take matters into your own hands to move forward in life. Also, don’t avoid situations, people, or places just because they seem scary. Confront your fears head-on, which will make them shrink once you see that your mind created this fear based on perceptions, not reality.
5. Denial
Similar to avoidance, denial will also wreak havoc on your anxiety. You can’t just go through life with your head in the sand and not confront your issues head-on. If you choose to take this route, you’ll have to fight a much more powerful beast later on, so taming your demons now will serve you well.
How to avoid it: Stop denying your anxiety, and gently accept that you might need help. However, please don’t beat yourself up over it; we all have issues and need help at certain times in our lives. Once you accept that anxiety does control your life to some extent, you can go about overcoming it.
6. Relying too heavily on medications
Of course, the medication should never be ruled out for treatment. Still, when you use medication as the only source of relief from anxiety, you’re cheating yourself out of true healing and recovery. You see, we all have the power within to heal, but we have to access it. Medication can help to some extent, but other forms of healing are just as, if not more, effective.
For example, take this ground-breaking study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association(JAMA). The researchers found that mindfulness meditation can provide just as much relief for anxiety and depression as antidepressants do. So, why subject yourself to toxins and harmful side effects when you can heal naturally without the side effects?
How to avoid it: Only you can choose how you want to overcome, or at least manage, anxiety, but at least open your mind to alternative ways of healing. Meditation, yoga, working out, hiking, arts and crafts, connecting with others, nature, eating whole foods, getting enough sleep, living a low-stress lifestyle, and working on positive thinking are some of the many healing modalities you could choose from.
7. Helplessness
When anxiety grips you so tightly and you can’t seem to escape its wrath, giving up can seem like a viable option. You feel helpless to make any change and don’t know where to turn. It’s pretty easy to get lost in the mind and let it take you over, but remember that everyone must hit rock bottom to appreciate life and make a change truly. Anxiety can make you feel helpless like you have no control over your body or mind. But remember that you DO have a say in how you think. You CAN make a change with perseverance, support, and willingness.
How to avoid it: When you feel helpless, try to go into a meditation practice or just become mindful of your body. Remember that you have a beating heart and came here for a reason. Don’t ever let your mind convince you that you can’t make it here because you certainly can, with a bit of faith and effort.
8. Trying to control every circumstance
Another bad habit that anxiety often causes is trying to control every aspect of life. People with anxiety usually fear the unknown, so they try to control whatever they can so they don’t feel helpless and powerless. However, trying to control everything will make life very regimented, tense, and unenjoyable. Even though the unknown can seem scary, something must be said about the anticipation and excitement of not knowing what will come next.
How to avoid it: Remember that you can’t possibly control everything in life. Focus on only the things you can control so that reduced mental health won’t appear to control YOU.
9. Using food, alcohol, drugs, or tobacco to bury your feelings
Using a substance outside of ourselves to get temporary relief will never lead to long-term healing. Food, drugs, and alcohol can provide temporary happiness, but it won’t compare to what you can feel by going within yourself. By releasing all those demons and learning to live in the moment, you can free yourself WITHOUT using harmful substances.
How to avoid it: When you feel the urge to self-medicate, or binge on food, use that moment as a valuable learning experience. Truly examine your feelings, and ask if your body, mind, or spirit will really feel better by absorbing the energies from these substances. If the answer is no, then ask yourself what other activities you enjoy that you can do to manage anxiety. Maybe you enjoy biking, hiking, drawing, or catching up with friends. You can ALWAYS choose to do better for yourself, but you have to make yourself a priority.
10. Perfectionism (causes even more anxiety!)
So, just like trying to control everything, perfectionism will only lead to unhappiness and frustration down the road. After all, if life were perfect, we wouldn’t have so many problems. In other words, life will never reach perfection, so accept the beauty you find in the imperfections.
How to avoid it: Create your happiness, don’t beat yourself up when you fail, or try to control things outside yourself. You’ll have to let go of perfectionism gradually, but it will serve you well in the long run.
Final Thoughts About How You Can Avoid Anxiety and Have Better Mental Health
Anxiety affects so many people today. Although it’s a growing concern, there are certain habits to practice to avoid anxiety or at least reduce it in your life. Following these helpful tips can equip you to fight anxiety when it threatens to overwhelm your life.
Whether you stop overthinking and obsessing over things, lower your expectations, or stop worrying about things that are out of your control, you’ll find relief by practicing these habits.
Don’t try to implement these suggestions all at once. Take your time. Start with one suggestion, master it, and enjoy the results. Implement one or two more tips over the next few weeks. You will feel inspired to keep working through the list as you see improvement in your anxiety levels.
Anxiety steals your life’s best joys, so fight back with proven ways to reduce your anxiety and enjoy better mental health again.
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