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How to Manage Anxiety In Times When You Have Every Reason to Be Anxious
Just because it’s reasonable it doesn’t have to be left untreated
Sweaty palms, elevated heartbeat, palpitations, trouble with breathing, eating, sleeping. We’ve all been there. The first day of school, the first day at a new job, an uncomfortable discussion, delivering or hearing bad news, triggering situations — all reasonable events that can cause anxiety.
Anxiety is our body’s natural response to stress. It’s a feeling of fear or apprehension about forthcoming events. Uncertainty triggers it more than bad news because we can’t prepare for uncertainty.
If you are prone to getting anxious regularly, it is because your body cannot tell the difference between real and perceived threats. Our brains react to real events the same way as it does to imagined events.
When we don’t know what will happen it might send our brains into imagining the worst that can happen — as a preparation to be able to give the quickest possible answer, mobilising all resources, deciding on fight or flight.
Anxiety on its own is not bad — it is a sign that something disrupted our feeling of safety and our body responds first to keep us alert.
