Few Things About Anxiety that Everyone Should Know

Anxiety can be defined as, your body existing in a physiological and mental state of emergency in the absence of danger. You are unable to get pleasure from anything. You feel like they are having a war with their mind.

People think anxiety is a feeling of nervousness and worrying but actually it feels like having trouble in concentrating, sleeping, having intrusive thoughts, uncontrollable feeling of worry, increased irritability , restlessness and a feeling of being on edge even physical problems too.

You, yourself know that anxiety is stupid, you know, that it wasn’t a big deal and it should roll off of you. But that is where the disorder kicks in, suddenly the small thing is very big and it keeps growing in your head, flooding your chest and trying to escape from under your skin. People think there is no such thing called depression and anxiety especially Indian parents; they think their kids are fooling them. They don’t understand what it feels like. The fact that they don’t realize their kid’s illness only makes everything worse. People need to start recognizing how serious anxiety can be.

Anxiety can cause panic attacks, increased heart rate, nausea, sickness, chest pain, stomach pain, shaking, fatigue, headaches, muscle tension and insomnia. A panic attack feel likes a heart attack. It’s so much more than just being sad or hating your appearance. Its constant suicidal thoughts. You isolate yourself from everyone. While having anxiety attack, you feel like you can’t breathe, you can’t make this stop. You feel worthless, stupid, annoying and useless.

How you can treat someone’s anxiety:

Understand differences in how anxiety manifests: When you understand that anxiety is designed to put us into a mode of threat sensitivity, it is easier to understand someone who is feeling scared and acting out by being irritable. You can help people with anxiety issues by understanding that it’s a disorder, you just have to say nice things to them to motivate them.

 Offer support but don’t take over: Support means helping someone to help themselves, not doing things for them. Avoidance is the feature of anxiety. We help our loved ones but can feel ignored by them all the time. It’s not them, it’s their anxiety. They don’t even can figure out what’s wrong with them. It’s best to offer support without taking over or overdoing the assurance.

Avoid stigmatizing them: When your loved one is having an anxiety attack and their behavior is uncontrollable then always remember they are not a bad person, they are just suffering from a temporary problem, post-traumatic stress, obsessional thinking, it can be anything. You can help the person to stay connected to positive aspects of their identity by participating in or encouraging their interests and habits.

Take care of yourself too: Just always remember that you are there to help, you cannot cure their anxiety, and you can just help. If you will take responsibility, you can also get stressed; it’s harmful for you too. So just try to help and give them space so that the person who is suffering from anxiety can take his time to get out of it. Helping someone with anxiety isn’t always easy and you may also feel you are getting it wrong. Remind yourself you are doing your best.