Anxiety Can be a Good Thing! (Sometimes)

We all experience anxiety, and that’s usually a good thing! If you don’t study for a test, you should be nervous so it gets you off your butt to do something about it! If you are in charge of a newborn’s survival, you are going to start thinking about all of the bad things that might happen so you can protect her. If you get bit by a big black dog it would only make sense that you would panic when seeing another similar beast. This is a built-in alarm in our brain that helps us survive and thrive.

However, it’s common for the wiring to be wrong or for the system to run hot from too many alarms having been triggered. Your therapist knows how to help. First, he will help you realize that the alarm is going off with no actual threat present. If your anxiety isn’t excessive to the situation, then you don’t have an anxiety issue. Yes, it makes sense that you might be nervous giving a speech in front of the class but not to the point in which your mind goes blank, sweating profusely, hearing your heart beat in your ears, and crying. Your therapist needs you to realize first that the anxiety response is disproportionate to the stressor. The emphasis moves then away from the fear and onto anxiety reduction. 

Anxiety manifests in both physical sensations and excessive worries. Your therapist needs you to recognize in the moment that your brain is going overboard. He may spend considerable time dissecting how you talk to yourself about the fear to make certain your self-talk isn’t triggering the alarm. 

When that work is done, he has a whole toolbox of strategies to help reduce your body’s physical response to anxiety. It all relates back to the sympathetic nervous system. This system governs our fight-or-flight response. Again, this response is built in as a survival tool for humans. Imagine walking through the woods and a black bear crosses your path. Your brain recognizes this imminent threat to your life and automatically (this is important) starts a cascade of physiological changes in your body to improve your chances for survival. (You know how chameleons can change their color to hide from predators? This is our cool survival trick.) Our heart races and our breathing increases. This sends oxygen to our muscles and our brain to prepare ourselves to better fight the bear or flee from the bear. Our mind races (increased brain waves) to sharpen our decision making us hypervigilant. Our muscles stiffen, likely to increase our chances of not being seen by the bear. We get a dump of blood sugar that temporarily increases our energy levels. Most importantly, we get a release of adrenaline which gives us short-lived superhuman strength. Pretty cool, huh? 

Your therapist knows it’s not cool at 2pm at work in an air-conditioned office with no bear and no threat. This is a panic attack. Our body is preparing for battle or the sprint of your life, but there is no threat. This is why individuals often go to the ER thinking they are having a heart attack.  

Excessive generalized anxiety or stress causes many of the same physiological changes only less intense but sustained. Once your therapist has convinced you there is no threat and this is just anxiety, you are given the tools to combat these changes. This can be deep breathing which reduces your heart rate and sends oxygen to your muscles to help relax them. It also slows your brain waves and reverses the stress response.  

This can also be meditation, mindfulness, regular cardio exercise, or psychiatric medication. Be encouraged by the fact that we know anxiety inside out and have many approaches to treat it.  

              You see, anxiety isn’t the enemy. In fact, anxiety helps keep us safe, prepared, and motivated. The problem exists when the alarm system stops matching the actual danger. Whether anxiety shows up as panic attacks, constant worry, perfectionism, or trauma-related hypervigilance, therapy helps people recalibrate that alarm. The goal isn’t to eliminate anxiety. The goal is to make it useful again.

Feel better, y’all!