To Conclude...

Since this is my final post on this blog, I would like to quickly reiterate some key points about anxiety and anxiety disorders.

• Remember: the best and most natural way to deal with anxiety is to keep up with your body. This means exercising, eating right, getting enough sleep, meditation, and knowing yourself and how you deal with stress.
• There are many different types of anxiety, not just generalized anxiety disorder. There is PTSD, ODC, along with many, many others.
  
• Look at stressful situations with humor in mind. Remember that nothing is ever as bad as it seems, and that every experience is a learning experience. (Just remember "The Pizza Boy"!)
  

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Level of Adults With Anxiety

http://www.symtoms.org/anxiety_symptoms.html

This graph demonstrates the different amounts of adults with the different types of anxiety disorders. It is important to remember that there are different types of anxiety, not just generalized anxiety.

The Stress Container

It is important to remember that stress is the main cause of anxiety. They are actually placed in the same category and treated similarly. This diagram shows the different types of stresses, and how much of each type a person with anxiety has. Daily stresses of the day's activities and relationships cause about a quarter of the stress, daily worrying and anxiety cause another quarter, another quarter is filled with unresolved issues caused by the anxiety and stress, and when the day is done, there is very little room left over for stress before a major meltdown. Taking away the "not dealt with by REM," and the daily negative introspection categories leave much more room for a healthy, normal life style. This diagram gives a great visual as to why it's important to take into consideration all of these methods of dealing with anxiety, because they eliminate so much stress!!

The Vicious Cycle

This diagram from www.anxietyuk.org perfectly describes the process of anxiety for a person who is unable to comprehend it, or it can help a person who actually has anxiety understand what it happening to them, from my personal experience. It's a little hard to read here, but it basically shows a cycle (which helps show that anxiety is a vicious circle as well), with "feelings," "thoughts," and "fear" as the three main categories. "Feelings" include the physical effects your body may feel such as a rapid heart beat and feeling shaky or sweaty. "Thoughts" includes the irrational feelings that anxiety causes you to feel, such as "I might die," or, from "The Pizza Boy" example, "there is someone at my door trying to hurt me." Finally, these thoughts and feelings lead to the fear that something is seriously wrong. Below is the explanation provided by www.anxietyuk.org.

The ‘fear of the fear’ often makes us feel worse as we are literally on edge waiting for bad feelings to happen; we stop doing things that we link with the negative (bad) feelings or thoughts. This is called avoidance. The more that we avoid the thing that we link with feeling bad, the more we think of it as being dangerous.

This means that the next time we have to face the situation or event, our body tells us that it is dangerous and the fight, flight or freeze response kicks in. We feel that we either need to run away from the ‘dangerous’ thing, fight it or we feel that our body is frozen to the spot.

Either way, our body is not happy when we feel all of these horrible feelings and think horrible things. By understanding why we feel this way, we can then take away the ‘scared’ feeling because we know that it is just our body reacting to something that it thinks is scary, even though it is actually harmless. No-one ever died from having anxiety!

Medical News Today

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/anxiety/what-is-anxiety.php

^^This link I just posted is a great resource for anxiety information if you are looking to learn more. I came across it while searching for information for my posts, and noticed that it is just a well-rounded, accurate site which covers many of the concerning areas of anxiety. If you're curious, check it out!

Medication

A popular way of treating anxiety symptoms and disorders is through medication. Medication is very effective and dependable, but there are many draw-backs from using them. According to Helpguide.org , here are the most common side effects of using medication to control your anxiety:

• Drowsiness, lack of energy
• Clumsiness, slow reflexes
• Slurred speech
• Confusion and disorientation
• Depression
• Dizziness, lightheadedness
• Impaired thinking and judgement
• Memory loss, forgetfulness
• Nausea, stomach upset
• Blurred or double vision

A common trend with anxiety-regulating medication also seems to be addiction. My aunt has had anxiety problems all of her life, and she chose to control it with medication. In the past 4 or so years, I have seen her on and off of countless medications, each one with a new promise to cure her anxiety. Although the medication does take the edge off, she has gained a good deal of weight that she cannot lose, she is much more irritable, she has diet issues, and she is now dependent on these medications as well. Not only is she dependent, but the longer she is on one pill, the higher her need for it is. That is, the longer she is on one type of medication, the more her body's need for it keeps increasing. Because of this and my own experiences with anxiety-controlling medication, I have chosen to stay away from it and depend on more natural ways of controlling it such as vitamins, exercise, meditation, and relaxation.

Control It With Humor

I was fifteen years old, and home alone at night- something that never happened, because I had so much anxiety about people breaking into my house. My parents were at a friend's house with my little brother, and would not be home for an hour or two. I took the situation as an opportunity to be brave and prove to myself that nothing would happen to me if I was home alone at night by myself. I turned on every light in my house and went upstairs to play on the computer.

A few minutes later there was a knock on my door. Most people would just go answer it, right? Instead, my heart started pounding, I couldn't breathe or move, and I convinced myself that someone was trying to get into my house. I stayed upstairs at my computer, praying that they would go away. After knocking for a few more minutes, they did. I was so incredibly relieved. I went back to my computer, and heard the car leave my driveway.

About five minutes later I heard another knock at the front door. I automatically panicked and called my parents, hysterical. The person at the door was pounding and pounding and would not stop. I was crying, and calling people to come and see who it was, because my anxiety had convinced me that it was someone trying to hurt me. There was no thinking logically at the time. I felt a little better knowing that my parents (as well as my friend's parents) were on their way, and I finally heard the car pull away again. Three more times I heard the car pull in and out of the driveway, and each time, whoever it was came banging on the door and would not stop. Finally, my parents arrived, and the car pulled into the driveway for the 6th time. My father ran over to the car, ready to hurt whoever had been pounding on the door all night. Inside was a 17 year-old pizza delivery boy who had been given the wrong address. He kept driving back and forth to a pay phone...and every time he spoke to the family who was actually expecting the pizza, they would say, "We're sorry! We didn't hear you knock. Come back, we'll open the door this time."

Anyway, this night is now known as "The Pizza Guy Night." My friends and family always know to call before they visit or else I will go into hysterics as I did that night. It's really funny to look back on in retrospect, and this is only one example of how people with anxiety can use humor to control certain situations. For example, if someone were to knock on my door at night when I was home alone now, I would remember "The Pizza Guy Night," laugh, and open the door.
http://todaysfacilitymanager.com/facilityblog/wp-content/uploads/583999122344774pizza-delivery.jpg

Meditation

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Meditation has proven to be one of the most successful ways of dealing with stress and anxiety. There are different ways of meditation, it does no necessarily mean that you have to sit Indian-style on the floor with your eyes closed. (If you want to, though, you can!) Honestly, the most effective way of meditating that I have come across is the kind that no one notices. For example, if you are in the grocery store and panic strikes, what are you supposed to do?? You can't run away, you can't cry, and worst of all, you're in public! It is SO easy to do deep breathing. If you concentrate on what you are doing, tell yourself it's all right, and deep breathe for as long as you need, the anxiety is certain to disappear, and as a bonus, no one will notice what is going on. I find myself doing this all the time, and it has proven to have made me a much more relaxed person in general.

Yoga, pilates, or even just going to the gym to work out counts as different forms of meditation as well. You've got your deep breathing in there, and at the same time you are thinking about something other than whatever is bothering you. You will also get a good workout while doing this, and meditative exercises have proven to be extremely healthy on both body and mind.

Depending on the person, I know religion has been an enormous part of people's meditation. Praying has to be one of the most relaxing and stabling activities that a person can do.

Below is a link to an article that I read a few months ago when doing research on anxiety. It is called Mindful Meditation: Reducing Anxiety by Focusing on the Present Moment. The article gives a lot of great information on "mindful meditation," which is a method of meditation that includes the idea of living in the moment. If you want to learn more about mindful meditation, give it a shot!

Click:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/01/11/mindfulness-meditation-reducing-anxiety-by-focusing-on-the-present-moment/

Keeping Up With Your Body!

Eliminating stress and anxiety is a tough thing to do. They key is to know your body and what positively and negatively affects it. For example, I know that caffeine has a major effect on how much negative energy I have that day, or even the day after. Caffeine is a drug in coffee, chocolate, and many sodas that is also used as a medical stimulant in some cases. This stimulation in your brain makes someone with anxious tendencies much more suseptible to stress. This is only one example of something I know of that acts as an agent to my anxiety. It is, of course, different for every person. Trial and error is the best way to see which diet and even which lifestyle affects your body in the best way. Below is some information I retrieved from a chart on www.symtoms.org/anxiety_symptoms.html. It lists many possible habits to adopt in order to have the most anxiety-free lifestyle.

Self-Help Tips for Controlling & Reducing Anxiety:

Exercise regularly: Exercise is an effective treatment for anxiety. Yoga and aerobic activities are particularly calming.

Get enough sleep: Lack of sleep can exacerbate anxiety. Getting the Sleep You Need describes the importance of a full-night’s rest and offers tips on how to sleep well.

Eat a healthy diet: Healthy eating can help you in your battle against anxiety and stress. Make sure your diet includes plenty of fruits and vegetables.

Meditate: Many types of meditation have been shown to reduce anxiety. Common types of meditation include mindfulness, walking meditation, and transcendental meditation.

Practice relaxation techniques: Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and visualization can help reduce anxiety.

Avoid alcohol and drugs: Don’t use substances to cope with your anxiety. They can make the problem worse, and eventually will cause problems of their own.

Eliminate caffeine: Stop drinking or cut back on caffeinated beverages, including soda, coffee, and tea. Caffeine can increase anxiety, cause insomnia, and even provoke panic attacks.

Cultivate a support system: Spend as much time as possible with people who make you feel good and are emotionally supportive. The more social support you have from friends and family, the less vulnerable you will be to anxiety and stress.

What is Anxiety, and What is An Anxiety Disorder?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines anxiety as follows:

1 a : painful or apprehensive uneasiness of mind usually over an impending or anticipated ill; b : fearful concern or interest; c : a cause of anxiety

2 : an abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by physiological signs (as sweating, tension, and increased pulse), by doubt concerning the reality and nature of the threat, and by self-doubt about one's capacity to cope with it

**

Anxiety is certainly a speedbump, smack-dab in the middle of the road to happiness. It is built-up adrenaline that more or less has no where to go. When a feeling like this, or the definitions above occur, it is generally thought of as anxiety. Sometimes anxiety is quite easy to ignore- just count to ten! Other times, it can be an extremely intrusive disorder that seems like it can control your life. www.kitchentablemedicine.com/what-is-anxiety/

How can someone tell the difference between an anxiety "event" and an anxiety disorder?

What I call and anxiety "event" is something that can be brushed off without having to take drastic measures to do so. It can be uncomfortable, annoying and even cause anger, but it will most likely be somewhat easy to extinguish. For example, what if you have an exam in twenty minutes that you haven't even studied for? What chapter is it on again? You may start to sweat, feel flushed, or even feel your heart flutter in an uncomfortable way, and sometimes it is hard to breathe- this is because you realize that you really need to pass the test, and there is just no way that is going to be possible.

On the contrary, and anxiety disorder is much more prominent, and seems to control your life. Everything makes you feel as described above, but you feel this way a majority of the time for no reason at all. These disorders could be caused by many things, whether you have generalized anxiety, or have had something traumatic happen in your life (a disorder which can also be diagnosed as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Both kinds of anxiety are irritating, and there are many, many things that someone could do to help or even prevent them.

For example...