What Does Anxiety Look Like?

Some of you may be asking, "What is Anxiety?"

Others may know what Anxiety is but are uncertain about how to deal with and overcome it. It can be challenging to understand what someone living with Anxiety feels like, both physically and psychologically.

Let me start by asking you to imagine driving a vehicle with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. You are literally stuck! Have you ever put your clothes on backward without realizing it in the morning? You go about your day, get to work, and something just feels awkward. You feel uncomfortable in your own skin and realize what you've done. This is what it can feel like living with Anxiety!

Not only is there a physical feeling, but there is also an emotional and psychological component. Along with that comes thoughts or feelings of anxiety. Anxiety is your brain's way of telling you that you are in danger, whether it's perceived or actual danger. The brain and body respond the same way.

Someone living with Anxiety often uses their fight or flight response in a counterproductive manner. What do I mean by that? Our brains are hard wired to protect us so if there is a sense of danger or perceived danger, our brain sends a signal to the rest of our body to respond.

Living with Anxiety we feel compelled to act on that signal to alleviate or neutralize the anxiety/fear at hand. Often, the relief is temporary, until the next anxiety provoking situation rears its ugly head, and the vicious cycle starts all over again!

Some of us live with a constant level of Anxiety, unlike those that do not experience Anxiety disorders. Our body has a difficult time coming back to homeostasis and can remain in this hypervigilance state of Anxiety.

Those living with Anxiety often have heightened levels of stress. The warning system in the brain does not work properly at times for individuals with Anxiety. Their brain can trick them into believing things that are not real.

Personally, for me, merely having a thought, worry, impulse, or catastrophic image would mean it was going to come to light. In other words, if I merely had the thought, it became real.

How to we break the cycle of Anxiety? Stay tuned for my next blog, where I will show you how to jump out of “the vicious cycle".