We all feel a bit of anxiety in everyday life. Perhaps you feel it just before you speak in public, or it comes when you’re waiting for the results from your doctor’s visit. You might feel anxious on a first date, or it hits you when you see a dog on your walking path. Whatever the case may be, anxiety is a reality for all of us. However, some forms and experiences of anxiety are problematic, and these require intervention through lifestyle changes and also through counseling.

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How Does Anxiety Affect People?

Anxiety affects a person’s body, emotions, and mind. When you’re in danger, your sympathetic nervous system kicks into high gear to help you either fight or flee from the situation. Your body redirects blood flow from organs that don’t need it at that moment toward your muscles. Your heart rate increases and your senses are sharpened. All of this is how your body prepares you for action, and your body is just doing what it is supposed to be doing to protect itself from harm.

This is all well and good, but excessive anxiety, which is often termed an anxiety disorder, means that your body starts to react as though it is being threatened in a life-and-death situation, when in fact it is not.

When you have excessive anxiety, an everyday occurrence such as setting foot outside your door, meeting strangers, or going to the grocery store becomes an ordeal. The physical, emotional, and mental effects of anxiety can linger long after the perceived danger has passed, and they can begin to disrupt everyday life and undermine one’s quality of life.

Some of the common mental, physical, and emotional symptoms of anxiety include the following:

  • fatigue
  • increased sweating
  • headaches or other aches and pains
  • breathing rapidly
  • having deep and irrational fears of certain situations, places, or objects
  • increased or irregular heart rate
  • panic attacks
  • nausea
  • disruptions in short-term memory
  • feeling on edge
  • irritability
  • grinding your teeth
  • muscle tension
  • changes in your libido or sex drive
  • upset stomach
  • difficulties with sleeping
  • difficulty concentrating

How can you tell if your anxiety is a problem, and that it goes beyond the usual physiological response that people typically experience in stressful situations? One way to determine this is to consider why you get anxious. If you get anxious over everyday things like leaving your house, that may be a problem.

Further, if the symptoms of anxiety are present and worsen over time to the point where they interfere with day-to-day life, and this happens on most days and extends over a period of about 6 months, it may be an anxiety disorder that requires a health professional’s intervention. Your anxiety is supposed to be a helpful physiological response. When it stops being helpful and becomes a hindrance, you should seek help.

There are a few ways to deal with anxiety, and these include using both self-help methods or looking into therapy and medication. There are several things you can try on your own to reduce your anxiety, including:

  • Knowing your anxiety triggers
  • Limiting your intake of caffeine and alcohol, as these can exacerbate anxiety symptoms
  • Sleeping well
  • Eating healthy, fresh food
  • Getting exercise to relieve tension and release neurochemicals that increase your feeling of well-being
  • Practicing mindfulness to relax your mind and cope with stressful situations
  • Using muscle relaxation techniques to relax and relieve tension in your body

In addition to this, counseling and medication may help address anxiety. Exposure Therapy is where your counselor will slowly expose you to anxiety-producing situations or objects, often using systematic desensitization. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the most widely used therapy for anxiety disorders. It helps you identify and understand negative thinking and ineffective behavior patterns, replacing these with more realistic and healthy thoughts, as well as more effective behaviors and coping mechanisms.

In addition to these therapeutic techniques, medication may also be prescribed by your doctor depending on the type and severity of your anxiety. These medications may include different types such as anti-depressants, tricyclics, benzodiazepines, or others such as beta blockers. Medications affect people in different ways, so it is important to work with your doctor to find the right medication and the dosage that works best for you.

Conclusion

We all feel anxious in certain circumstances. That anxiety, however, is helpful and can help keep us focused. Too much anxiety is not helpful, and it needs to be addressed. This can happen through counseling and in some instances with medication. Loma Linda Christian Counseling can help you work through your concerns and any issues that stand in the way of your flourishing and good quality of life.

Through medication and effective and rigorous counseling techniques, you can bring anxiety under control. These, when combined with and rooted in a Christian faith-based outlook, can help you thrive to be the person God intends you to be. If you want to find a Christian counselor in the Loma Linda area, consider Loma Linda Christian Counseling, and contact us for a risk-free trial session.

Get connected with a Christian Counselor
Please contact our reception team at
(424) 438-2888