Are we helpless in the fight against anxiety?

"The feeling of having in the middle of my body a ball of wool that quickly winds itself up, its innumerable threads pulling from the surface of my body to itself" (Franz Kafka).
 
What is anxiety?
 
Anxiety is more than just a touch of nerves.  As we shake and sweat, it feels like adrenaline is flooding our body, and we are left tense and irritable as our thoughts go wild.  We are put in a constant state of fight or flight, and so our body is ready for action but our mind is left dazed and confused. 
 
Anxiety tends to be organised into the following disorders –

• Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) – This is “the presence of excessive anxiety and worry about a variety of topics, events, or activities. Worry occurs more often than not for at least 6 months and is clearly excessive” (DSM V).
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – This is a response to a traumatic event, and it falls within this classification when anxiety is accompanied by –
  • Flashbacks of the traumatic event,
  • Avoidance of places and people that may trigger thoughts of the traumatic event, and
  • A feeling of detachment.
• Phobic anxiety disorders – This is a disproportionate fear of something.
• Panic disorders – This is where you have a panic attack which includes shortness of breath, heart palpitations, and often a fear that you are going to die as a result.
• Social anxiety disorder – This is a fear of social interaction.

 
Often anxiety and depression arise together.  According to Dr Gregg Henriques, this is because “they both respond to problems in living and functioning”.  Henriques explains that “anxiety orients toward future problems to be avoided” and “depression toward past losses and the futility of future investment” (Dr Gregg Henriques).
 
Anxiety on the increase?
 
The Office of National Statistics reports that 20.9% of people rate their anxiety levels at 6 or more out of 10, and Anxiety UK reports that the economic downturn has only made things worse:  "What we are finding is that people who might ordinarily have managed their anxiety quite well have been tipped into new territory by being made redundant or having to adapt to new life circumstances" (Nicky Lidbetter). 
 
Some argue that we have become more anxious because we have more choices in life.  According to Professor Pieter Kruger, “from research we know that people with no choice are significantly more resilient because they can blame life or other people when they make a wrong decision.  But if you make a wrong decision having had a range of choice, you have no one to blame but yourself. We become much more obsessive because we want to make the right decision every time”.
 
Arguably an evolution in the way we use technology has served to worsen our anxiety levels.  I have previously written an article on digital addiction (please see links section below), and Claire Eastham adds that technology offers us “a window to the world that not only provides a constant stream of news (which in itself can be a cause of anxiety) but also enables me to keep up with anyone from friends to Kim Kardashian”.  Is it any wonder that we are anxious?
 
If anxiety attacks, how can we fight back?
 
Here are some ideas - 

• De-catastrophise the symptoms – Recognise the symptoms (thoughts racing, heart fluttering, shortness of breath) as anxiety and (subject to a medical checkup) not signs of something else.  Once you name it, you can begin work on taming it.

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) – Some clients have found CBT particularly useful because it offers a structured way to tackle anxiety.  CBT can help you to challenge unhelpful thinking patterns (such as catastrophising, black or white thinking, personalisation, etc - for a full list of unhelpful thinking patterns, have a look at my CBT toolkit which can be found in the links section below).  The idea is that if you change your thoughts or perspective, you can change the consequential emotion (in this case, you can reduce your anxiety).  Often you have to ask yourself ‘What is the worst that could happen?’, or ‘On a scale of 1-100, how bad would it really be?’  And compare this with the anxiety you are suffering now.

• Take relaxation seriously – To counteract the fight or flight state, we need to ensure that we are relaxed.  Too often my clients are willing to explore relaxation methods in the therapy room, but they are not willing to dedicate sufficient time or energy to it in their daily lives.  Relaxation takes dedication, and yet other activities end up filling our time, even when it is activities that are, by our own admission, less important to us than our emotional wellbeing (such as getting updates on social media).
• Mindfulness – This is a useful tool to help you to focus on the here and now.  For example, if you remain focused on your breathing, this will help you to remain anchored in the present, and you are less likely to race after anxious thoughts about the future possible, might never happen.
• What does our anxiety tell us? – Sometimes our anxiety is carrying important messages.  We all need a measure of fear in order to keep us safe, but we can work at ensuring that we manage our fear, and we reflect on it, making a decision about whether or not it is proportionate, and whether or not it is realistic.
  

Dr Gregg Henriques offers the following structure as a starting point in assessing our anxiety (and, in fact, our depression) –

1. Are our basic living needs being met?  These include food, shelter and security.  Perhaps our anxiety (or depression) is as a result of these basic needs failing to be met.
2. Are we feeling valued by others and ourselves?  Is there a good relationship between our private and public selves?  We can look at the quality of our relationships to help us decide this.  These are known as our psychosocial needs, and if these are not being met, we may find some sort of explanation for our anxiety or depression. 
3. If the above needs are being met, it may be that we have a particularly anxious or depressed temperament. 
4. We may be feeling anxious because we have developed unhelpful coping mechanisms.  For example, in order to cope with potentially fearful social interaction, we might tend to avoid social situations altogether.  As a result, we will end up feeling more anxious about socialising. Our avoidance would be viewed as an unhelpful coping mechanism.
5. Another example might be someone who fears their strong feelings, and so he blocks those emotions, or he becomes overwhelmed by them, instead of allowing himself to become aware of, and responsive to, those feelings.  This would lead to an anxious or depressed state. 

 
Anxiety is real, and it is horrendous when it takes hold.  And perhaps it is on the increase, with the onslaught of a changing economy and ever-evolving technology.  But there are ways to fight back.  That much is within our control.
 
Chris Warren-Dickins BACP Registered Counsellor
E:  chris@exploretransform.com
T:  07816681154
W:  www.exploretransform.com
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Links

Link to my article on digital addiction

Link to my anxiety toolkit - wellbeing tips and further resources to tackle anxiety

Link to my CBT toolkit, including a daily mood log and other such resources