stress and anxiety : Reduce Your Anxiety

Anxiety is the number one mental health problem for women (and second only to alcohol and drug abuse for men).

What is anxiety and what causes it?

Anxiety is a technical term for worry, that butterflies in the stomach feeling that can easily escalate. Anxiety comes in many forms---from feeling fearful something terrible is going to happen, to stammering and getting tongue-tied, to stress incontinence, to not wanting to leave the house, to test anxiety, panic attacks, and post traumatic stress reactions.

Anxiety’s a big problem today because the world is so much more stressful than it used to be. The increased pace of society, increased rate of technological change, absence of traditional value, barrages of inconsistent world views, terrorism threats and more make for a lack of consistency. The result is increased stress and anxiety or worry. There are other factors that can cause anxiety from being born an excitable reactive type of person, to a childhood of being around overly cautious or overly critical people, and to a stressful lifestyle.

How to reduce anxiety

There are anti-anxiety drugs to take, but unfortunately, many of them have negative side effects and they can be addictive. Fortunately, anxiety is a learned behavior, and can be unlearned. Safe and effective self-care measures abound. One of the best ways to begin to reduce your anxiety is to see how you might be perpetuating anxiety.

Major ways you might be adding to your anxiety include: avoiding situations that cause anxiety, talking to yourself in a negative way (“I’ll never be able to deal with this!”), negative beliefs (I can’t trust anyone), denial of your feelings, lack of assertiveness, muscle tension (if you relax your body, your mind will follow), lack of self-nurturing, poor nutrition, stressful lifestyle, and not having a purpose for your life.

by Dr. Clark