While it might sound (and feel) scary, anxiety is a very common condition that we regularly treat with great success. The level of anxiety that we feel in our daily lives is dependent on our understanding and management of our symptoms. When anxiety grows, it can quickly take over and prevent you from enjoying your life.

What is Anxiety?

Most often, anxiety is an intense feeling of fear, nervousness, or worry that’s unnecessarily strong for the situation at hand. Most often anxiety is forward facing, meaning your fear and worry are directed towards future events or activities. It may be long lasting, even debilitating, and greatly interfere with your daily life. Fear is normal. It’s a natural reflex that helps us navigate stressful situations and real danger. Worrying is normal. Worrying can be helpful when it is important to be prepared and considerate of all possibilities. But when these feelings of fear and worry last too long and feel too strong, you might have anxiety.

Anxiety can have physical symptoms too, and those include:

1. heart pounding
2. numbness
3. trouble falling or staying asleep
4. sweating
5. muscle tension
6. nausea or stomach aches
7. trouble concentrating
8. trouble breathing
9. dizzy, faint or lightheaded
10. trembling and shaking

What Causes Anxiety?

There are several different types of anxiety. The type of anxiety is related to what the fears and worries are about and how they are handled. You might be anxious about something more serious like retirement, medical issues, or bills. Or you might be anxious about everyday things like driving on the highway, impressing your friends and family, or the way you look.

Anxiety isn't caused by any one thing, and most often it’s caused by a combination of things like bad experiences, stress, chronic illness, and chemical imbalances in the brain. So, anxiety can be genetic, or situational, or both. Mental health professionals will identify the root causes, and give instructions on how to treat them.

How Does Anxiety Grow?

Anxiety can come on suddenly, even for people who have no previous history of anxious tendencies. Because of the fear brought on by the sudden onset of anxiety, we begin to avoid the things that scare us. When a “scary” thing is avoided, there is an immediate but short-lived sense of relief. But when we avoid things that make us anxious, it can cause our problems to pile up. When it becomes harder and harder to face a mountain of anxiety provoking issues, a mental health professional can help pull you out of this dangerous cycle of anxiety and avoidance.

How do I Alleviate Anxiety?

Train your Body

1. Calm your body down and control your breathing. Inhale and exhale slowly at a pace that feels right for you.
2. Get up and move. Walk briskly and pay attention to your body. Even changing locations can help you feel physically and mentally better.
3. Meditate and practice mindfulness - paying attention to your surroundings using your 5 senses. What do you smell, hear, feel? Surround yourself with soothing scents, squeeze a stress ball, or take a drink of water paying attention to the feeling of coolness as you swallow.  Focus on your body position - unclench your jaw and shake out your limbs to “loosen up.”  Learning how to become physically attuned is important.  WellQor therapists can teach you these coping skills and how to apply them to various situations. 

Train your Brain

1. Think it through - take a minute to put things in perspective and reduce distress by asking yourself,  “Are my thoughts and actions helping or hurting me right now?” Changing the way we think about something can be helpful. Talking to a third party like a WellQor therapist can help you put things in perspective.  
2. Develop an awareness of what triggers your anxiety and identify patterns. You can’t fix something if you don’t understand the cause.
3. Reframe your thoughts. Often irrational thoughts influence how we feel.  We tend to catastrophize and exaggerate the problem, or we tend to think of the worst possible outcome and assume it to be true. By learning to question your own thoughts, you can correct many of these cognitive distortions.

Anxiety can be overwhelming, but it’s important to know that you’re not alone. If you’re having trouble coping with anxiety, reach out to a licensed clinical therapist at WellQor, who can help you live happier and healthier.

Candace Williams, LCSW, ASW-G, FDC, CMS, FDC, MCPM, is the Director of Clinician Development for WellQor, the nation's leading provider of behavioral health services for Seniors. Candace received her MSW from Columbia University, and has spent over 20 years in the field developing unique interventions to better the lives of her clients. Throughout her time in the field, Candace has worked as a certified geriatric social worker, certified mediator, crisis management specialist, and family development specialist. She received the UnSung Heroes Award for her work at ground zero, where she supervised the disaster welfare inquiry center. For the last 10 years, she has specialized in working with older adults and their families, establishing herself as an industry expert with multiple published works, and regular public appearances speaking on the emotional and cognitive health of seniors. At WellQor, Candace has created an extensive clinician training program, and continues to oversee the professional development and training of new clinicians. She also moderates their unique Clinician Connect platform, where psychologists and social workers collaborate to identify the appropriate interventions for older adults who are in need of support.