From butterflies in your stomach to a change in appetite, some anxiety symptoms are more obvious than others. Renowned Neuroscientist Dr Caroline Leaf, reveals the symptoms to look out for and what might help manage your mind
Anxiety is an emotional warning signal – a healthy and natural human response to emphasize or any perceived threat you could encounter, because it is energy that may help us ‘sharpen our wits.’
Anxiety is experienced as a sense of unease, worry, and even fear, that may vary from different intensities from mild to severe. This sense can be reflected in our bodies in various ways reminiscent of gut aches, heart palpitations and so forth.
While it’s normal and good to experience occasional anxiety in response to specific situations, reminiscent of a job interview or a crucial exam, when anxiety is unmanaged, it may possibly grow to be a priority for many individuals if it becomes persistent and interferes with on a regular basis life.
Anxiety is experienced as a sense of unease, worry, and even fear
I’ll start by saying that anxiety is a posh condition that may affect individuals of all ages and genders. Nevertheless, with regards to research, there are some potential differences.
This yr, The British Journal of Psychiatry (2021) conducted a study on anxiety within the workplace and located that girls usually tend to experience symptoms of tension than male employees.
Nevertheless, it’s important to notice there’s a big research gap regarding men and anxiety, and research findings could also be affected by biological, psychological, and sociocultural aspects, which may differ from individual to individual.
Some research suggests that children or young people below the age of 18 usually tend to develop anxiety. Research conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health has shown that 31.9 per cent of adolescents between 13 and 18 years old are affected by anxiety.
Aspects contributing to anxiety in children may very well be family environment, social pressures, academic stress, and traumatic experiences. This results in a better risk of performing poorly at school and missing essential life experiences.
What are the predominant symptoms of tension?
For those who think you could be experiencing feelings of tension, step one is to grow to be aware of your physical symptoms. It’s essential to tune into what your body is attempting to inform you, as your body reflects what’s occurring in your mind.
When you’re out of equilibrium because of tension, your body gives you warning signals reminiscent of increased headaches, anxiety attacks, change in appetite, or trouble sleeping. Sometimes, your heart can feel sore due to the excess of stress chemicals flowing through your body.
It’s essential to take note and tune in to those symptoms, don’t just ignore them, because when your body is doing something out of the norm, it’s sending you a message that something in your mind is out of the norm. Whenever you tune into your symptoms and spot what you’re feeling, that’s where you possibly can gather awareness.
Anxiety just isn’t limited to mental and physical symptoms, it may possibly also affect your behaviour and perspectives too. You would possibly end up avoiding certain situations or places that trigger anxiety, or you would possibly seek reassurance from others excessively. You could see life as overwhelming and this may affect your mood.
Anxiety just isn’t limited to mental and physical symptoms, it may possibly also affect your behaviour and perspectives too
Anxiety can subsequently manifest as gastrointestinal issues, resulting in stomach aches, nausea, or irritable bowel syndrome, to say a couple of lifestyle diseases. It may possibly affect your concentration and memory, making it difficult to deal with tasks or remember details.
It’s essential to notice that anxiety is an emotional warning signal that may generally produce other emotions attached to it like depression or frustration, as emotions are likely to work together in clusters. And these in turn show up in your behavioural warning signals, for instance, you could feel irritable, on edge, or easily startled.
Some individuals may even feel a shift of their perspective warning signals that go hand in hand with the emotions and behaviours, reminiscent of a way of impending danger or doom, even when there is no such thing as a objective threat.
What causes feelings of tension?
In terms of the common causes of tension, we must explore the intricate interplay between our thoughts, emotions, behaviours, perspectives and brain responses.
Firstly, it is crucial to grasp that anxiety can arise from various sources. A primary consider anxiety is a thought pattern characterised by stuck considering, worry, and catastrophizing anticipation, also referred to as our ‘what if’ thoughts that cycle like on a hamster wheel.
Our thoughts shape our emotions, behaviours and perceptions in a feedback loop, and influence the discharge of stress hormones and neurotransmitters in our brains, affecting our overall mood and mental well-being. Managed anxiety may have a positive influence and unmanaged anxiety may have a negative influence.
Our environments and the people in them may be the triggers of chronic toxic stress responses
One other common explanation for anxiety may be related to unmanaged and suppressed past experiences and trauma in our lives. Once we encounter distressing experiences or face overwhelming challenges, our mind associates those experiences with feelings of fear and that is wired into the brain and left unmanaged, creating toxic anxiety.
When finding the foundation of your cause(s) for anxiety, you’ll need to think about a mess of things that play into the context of your life.
Our environments and the people in them may be the triggers of chronic toxic stress responses, reminiscent of demanding work environments, relationship conflict, or perhaps a negative friend.
These aspects can play an important role in experiencing anxiety and by embracing, processing and reconceptualizing the anxiety, yow will discover the foundation and alter the way it plays out into your future.
With this in mind, it’s important to notice that anxiety is multifaceted, and its causes can vary from individual to individual. By understanding these underlying aspects, we are able to begin to explore practical strategies for managing and overcoming anxiety, elevating a healthier and more resilient mind.
How can someone tell they’ve anxiety?
Anxiety often presents itself through 4 categories of warning signals:
- emotions,
- behaviours,
- bodily sensations and
- perspectives.
For those who grow to be aware of those symptoms in your each day life, it’s crucial to assemble awareness and ask yourself, ‘how do you’re feeling’, ‘what are you doing’, ‘how does this feel in your body’ and ‘how is that this all influencing the way you have a look at life?’.
Then ask yourself why you is perhaps having these symptoms. Explore this through writing out the answers to those questions, to try to find the roots and origin story. Only then can we reconceptualise and reconstruct the thought(s) and subsequently change the way it plays out in our future.
Feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and fearful is a typical response to difficult situations. While we may not at all times control life’s circumstances, we are able to change what they appear like within us and be empowered to maneuver forward.
What treatments help with anxiety?
Looking for skilled help for mental health is vital. Nevertheless, there are many actions we are able to take as individuals to boost our mental well-being alongside this, which may be empowering.
Although you could not feel powerful whenever you’re anxious, it’s crucial to recognise there’s rather a lot you possibly can do by yourself to assist your anxious thoughts. It comes back to the why and understanding the foundation explanation for why things are out of balance and why we feel what we feel.
Anxiety is an informational warning signal and is the start, not the tip, of the inquiry. They’re signals we want to explore and manage, not suppress or ignore.
Talking to someone you trust and feel comfortable around is at all times advisable. I even have at all times advisable that you just surround yourself with individuals who help your mental well-being, not hurt it.
Remind yourself that it’s essential to surround yourself with people who find themselves good to your mental health. Be aware of how certain people make you’re feeling, and think in regards to the people you might be around when you’re your happiest and truest self—these are the people it’s worthwhile to be around more, especially whenever you feel anxious or fearful!
Remember that establishing boundaries just isn’t only acceptable but needed in life. It’s perfectly fantastic to say no certain commitments, it’s acceptable to interrupt up a relationship that’s consistently causing you anxiety or distress. It’s acceptable to maneuver forward and let go. It’s acceptable to say no! It’s OK to prioritize your personal well-being.
Ensuring you might be moving your body as much as you possibly can each day, is significant to maintaining your mental well-being
Oftentimes, people underestimate that life may be very difficult. We’re always facing stressful situations at work, home… you name it. In lots of cases, our reactions to those situations could make things worse.
Today, lots of us live inactive lifestyles while consuming too many calories, resulting in excess energy. Once we eat greater than we want, we are likely to fidget more, upsetting our blood sugar levels and potentially causing anxiety.
Eating higher is a typical advice for maintaining a happier mind and body, but it surely’s essential to notice how we eat, not only our calories or what weight loss program is trending on social media. Discover what foods suit your overall lifestyle.
Exercise is medicine for the brain. Whether you’re walking the dog or playing sports with friends, at any time when you might be moving your body, you might be burning energy and improving your mental and physical health.
Ensuring you might be moving your body as much as you possibly can each day, is significant to maintaining your mental well-being. Other essential recommendations that may help reduce your each day anxiety are limiting your screen time, catching the morning light, and getting outdoors as much as possible throughout the day.
These lifestyle changes could seem easy, but many individuals forget to prioritise these crucial activities into their lifestyle.
I recently launched a seven-part programme on life transformation platform, Mindvalley, called Calm Mind: A scientific method for managing anxiety and depression, which is stuffed with research-based tools and techniques to provide help to manage your mind, increase your resilience, and manage intrusive thoughts and chronic stress.
My neuro cycle app, is a scientifically proven way of managing anxiety, and therapy if needed.
Does anxiety ever fully go away?
You don’t want anxiety to eliminate anxiety. It’s a really healthy a part of being a human, the hot button is to administer anxiety, as I even have been explaining above. With the fitting mind management strategies – like my neuro cycle app and the principles I explain on this quest, individuals can experience significant improvement in managing their anxiety and making it work for them.
Many individuals can effectively reduce their anxiety through various approaches, including therapy, lifestyle modifications, and mind management techniques.
Remember, everyone’s journey is exclusive. Some people may experience significant reductions in anxiety symptoms over time, while others can have periods of not feeling any anxiety in any respect after which have occasional flare-ups.
Regardless of the way you heal, there’s a primary goal at the tip of the tunnel: developing effective mind-management strategies that may unmask resilience.
Always remember, you should not alone. Where your mind goes, your life follows. An unmanaged mind results in an unmanaged body and can grow to be an unmanaged life.
Dr. Caroline Leaf is a communication pathologist, and clinical neuroscientistneuroscientistN with a psychoneurobiological focus and has a Master’s and Ph.D. in Communication Pathology and a BSc in Logopedics, specializing in cognitive and metacognitive neuropsychology.
She was one among the primary in her field to check how the brain can change (neuroplasticity) with directed mind input. Dr. Leaf has helped lots of of 1000’s of scholars and adults learn find out how to use their minds to detox and grow their brains to achieve every area of their lives and continues to conduct research and clinical trials in mental health and psychoneurobiology and publish in scientific journals.
Dr. Caroline Leaf’s quest with life transformation platform, Mindvalley, called Calm Mind: A scientific method for managing anxiety and depression, is stuffed with tools and techniques to provide help to manage your mind, increase your resilience, and manage intrusive thoughts and chronic stress.
The hunt has seven lessons divided into two parts. Part one deals with the essential principles of what mind management involves, the mind-brain-body connection, how the mind is different from the brain, and what warning signals are vs. signals. Within the second part, Dr. Caroline Leaf gives you a unique method to have a look at mental health and teaches you strategies of the Neurocycle process that may provide help to learn find out how to manage your mental health.
Join Dr. Caroline Leaf on a Mindvalley Quest to unlock your emotional freedom, now available on Mindvalley.