Anxiety
Your body’s shaking, your heart’s pounding, it’s getting harder to breathe and your mind is racing with worries, fears and what if’s. This is anxiety!
Everyone feels anxious sometimes. Maybe about a job interview or trying something new or scary. This can be good because it helps deal with stress, keeps us safe, focuses our attention and it usually goes away pretty quickly.
But Anxiety is when those feelings don’t go away, or they’re over the top for the situation that’s happening or you cannot control those feelings and it affects your life in negative ways. There are 5 main anxiety disorders. The first is Generalized Anxiety Disorder - if you have this then you worry about everyday things like sports, school and other common situations. But you worry alot and often! Enough that it can stop you doing normal things and disrupt your life.
Next there's OCD which stands for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. OCD is where you have repeated thoughts, feelings or ideas and need to complete an action to relieve the anxiety you feel. For example being worried about germs, so repeatedly washing your hands. Or where you have to make things perfectly straight and even to feel settled. The other types of anxiety are: Panic Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Phobias.
I have Mild Anxiety. I mostly hide it pretty well. Most people don’t notice but my family and close friends know that quite often I feel like I’m going to be sick, my heart races, I shake my hands, nervously yawn or deep breathe and panic that I’m doing the wrong thing...a lot! And this is just on a normal school day!
These are all normal symptoms of anxiety. Other symptoms are feeling tense or restless, sweating, shaking, having chest pains and struggling to breathe. Anxiety runs in my family. My dad feels a lot of the same symptoms as I do, especially around groups of people. His Mum, my Nana, is more anxious than I am!
Most researchers believe that anxiety is genetic but can also be influenced by environmental factors. In other words, it's possible to have anxiety without it running in your family. There is a lot about the link between genes and anxiety disorders that is not understood, and more research is needed.
People cope with their anxiety in different ways. I deal with mine by taking deep breaths, I practice what I might have to say out loud and I talk about it with my Mum, even though she sometimes gets frustrated with my worrying. I also take rescue remedy, which is a herbal stress reliever...but I don’t think that helps! Counting to 10, writing down the worrying thoughts and using aromatherapy are also some ways to cope.
I’m lucky my anxiety is mild because for some people it can really affect their lives, friendships and families. I still go out, do the things I’m worried about and I always feel better once I’ve done it. I’d like to be free of anxiety but for now I will just smile, breathe and fake it, till I make it!
