Anxiety & Panic
is scary, when you have no idea what it is or what to do and feeling afraid is a symptom. One minute you seem to feel OK, then the next minute it all changes. Many of the symptoms of anxiety and panic can feel similar to other issues & have you thinking for a second that what you are experiencing COULD be something life-threatening or just terrible. For example
Heart palpitations & tight chest - ‘“it feels like I could be having a heart attack”
Dizziness & feeling faint - “It feels so strange, I cant see, I could have a brain issue”
Shaking & sweating -”This shaking is strong, it could be a nervous disease.'“
Mind flipping over, cannot think straight intense fear - “I cant think straight, my brain in failing me I am going mad”
Stomach & tummy cramps “I feel I have something really wrong with me,”
Ears ringing, small noises very intense “I cant cope, this could be something terrible, I’ve googled and it could be cancer”
Rapid breathing, hyperventilating - “I feel that I don’t have enough oxygen, I could be dying”
Tingling in the arms - “I have MS" I am sure”
Jaw ache, headaches “this could be forever I can’t cope, or a brain tumor or something”
This is just a small list of some of the symptoms we can experience from our stress response, anxiety, & some of the thoughts that the symptoms could provoke. It is normal to have a thought like these ones after all how can you tell what you’re experiencing? The symptoms feel so intense, it’s easy to see why you would think that, however, if you experienced those symptoms because of a cause of anxiety, that provoked thoughts of the ‘WORST’ and then believed them, the thoughts would have been the cause for intense panic and potentially an anxiety dis-order.
Anxiety can be caused by fear and anxiety is a fear based emotion so, anxiety also causes fear = anxiety circle.
It is very important to know this, because if you are coming here afraid of anxiety, and even the word “anxiety” this is a cause for more anxiety. If you have experienced a panic attack and are afraid of panic, this is a cause for more anxiety.
Being afraid is not your fault, but it is a huge cause.
So what is anxiety?
Senses
When the mind senses a perceived danger/threat to health and wellbeing from signals given by our mind and body, it can then begin our natural survival mechanism which can be also called
Anxiety - Stress Response - Fight Flight Freeze Response - Human Survival Mechanism
Stress response
The part of the brain called the Amygdala sends a signal to the adrenal glands to start the stress hormones such as
Adrenaline and cortisol to enable you to Fight, Flight, Freeze from the danger.
Which causes Body symptoms, such as:
Tension
Racing heart
Heart palpitations
High blood Pressure
Cramps
Lack of a full breath
Dizziness
Blurred vision etc
Symptoms that can easily at first and with no knowledge of anxiety be perceived to be something similar to another health problem = more fear = more anxiety = fear circle.
Scanning/Alert
The amygdala’s job is not finished there, it has a job to keep scanning for danger until it senses you are safe.
Which causes mind symptoms, such as,
Intense Fearful focus,
Worst case scenario thinking
Can’t seem to stop this negative focus
You can easily end up blaming the situation, place, person, thing for the anxiety = anxiety disorder fear circle
Mini holiday
Also the part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex that is responsible for enabling you to think with clarity, organize your behaviour, speech, and reasoning, stands down to give all the priority thinking to the amygdala.
Which causes mind symptoms, such as
Cannot access any clarity
Cannot seem to be able to think straight
Thinking & feeling like you are going crazy
These are scary thoughts and it is easy to see that these, unaided and unmanaged could cause more fear = more anxiety = fear circle.
Causes
Anxiety is your natural human reaction to causes of health and wellbeing unsafety such as
Fear
Stress
Blocking of emotions
Vitamin and mineral deficiency
Overwhelmed with problems and no solutions
etc There are many factors that could cause your general wellbeing needs to not have been met
OR anxiety can be caused by a hormone imbalance. If the hormones are going through a process of imbalance such as
Puberty, teenage hormones
Periods before and after
Pregnancy
Postnatal
Starting the contraception pill
Coming off of a contraception pill
Taking hormone supplements
Menopause
The unbalance in hormones can also the stress hormones.
*Until the hormones balance themselves out you can look after your human needs to help support the rebalancing of your mind and body.
Also there are things that we consume that can have symptoms very similar to anxiety, that could cause you to then be anxious because of the stress from the symptoms. Stimulants such as
Caffeine
Sugar
Alcohol
Nicotine etc
How can the mind and body sense danger?
The mind and body work together communicating back and fourth all the time. They are a team, the body can sense unsafety from what we are doing such as
Prolonged tension in the body
Not getting a full breath
Rushing all the time
Pain etc.
The mind can sense unsafety from our thoughts, and our senses such as
Fearful thoughts
Thoughts of problems with no idea of solutions
A loud uncertain noise or one that reminds you of a traumatic time
A smell of something that isn’t right or one that sparks memory of a traumatic time
Witnessing or hearing violence physical or verbal or remembering a past one experience
A taste that of something that isn’t right or that reminds you of a traumatic time
Learnt negative thought patterns
A negative perception
Unprocessed trauma
If the mind and body get a sense of real unsafety it can start our stress response, this response is a natural human mechanism for survival & it is right to. You cannot keep living in survival mode for too long, it is not good for your immediate and long term health. The body needs what it needs to be able to thrive.
You need to learn to relax and calm the mind and body regularly
You need to meet your human needs
You need help with identifying negative thought patterns in order to change them
You need to know that you can to make this happen
You need to act
