Anxiety
Anxiety is a universal feeling and something we all experience from time to time. Anxiety is our body’s way of responding to danger (real or anticipated) and may become overwhelming when it interferes with our everyday lives and relationships.
Anxiety can be helpful and necessary for survival. For example, if confronted by a dangerous bear who wants to attack us, anxiety may stimulate our fight or flight response and enable us to take evasive action towards safety (i.e., RUN!). Without this life-saving response, primitive man or woman would not have been able to survive.
This alarm and survival mechanism works so well that it often kicks in even when it is not needed – i.e., when the danger is in our heads rather than in our external reality. We think we are in danger and therefore our system is triggered. In doing so, we tend to go into super scanning mode and are constantly on the lookout for danger.
Symptoms of Anxiety
Uncontrollable worry
Increased heart rate
Sleep problems
Excessive nervousness
Butterfly stomach
Poor concentration
Muscle tension
Avoidance of fear
Vicious Cycle of Anxiety