18 Mar 3 Ways to Stop Anxiety From Messing Up Your Life
The Anxiety Disorders are possibly the most prevalent of all the psychological disorders.
Along with Major Depressive Disorder, anxiety and depression make up a significant proportion of all forms of mental ill-health.
Even for those who don’t have a formal diagnosis, anxiety and depression are common (and I’ll note, normal and appropriate) human emotions which if not managed, can impact significantly on life and daily functioning.
But the good news is there are many effective ways of managing anxiety; and this Psychology Today article by Jeffrey Bernstein provides some good tips …
KEY POINTS
- Our anxiety often gets in the way of being our best selves.
- Being alive means feeling some anxiety and it may help to simply notice it and name it.
- There are some dependable tools to manage anxiety and the more we use them, the more they can help us feel less impacted by the anxiety.
Do you have regrets about your anxieties causing lost opportunities in your life? If you are like most people, the answer to this question is a resounding, “Yes!” Do any of the following situations sound familiar?
- You feel inhibited to truly be yourself in social situations.
- You wanted to pursue a certain job, or career, or even a promotion, but sold yourself short by telling yourself you weren’t good enough.
- You overly soothe your anxiety by overeating, drinking too much, or escaping into screens to the extent that you struggle with your current obligations and responsibilities.
- You wanted to pursue a certain dating situation or relationship but fear overtook you with negative self-talk that you would be rejected.
- You are afraid to ask for a raise at work even though you have more than earned it.
- Even though you have been responsible, you denied yourself a desired purchase because you felt too insecure to buy it.
- You wanted to tell someone how you really feel (positive or negative) but you don’t trust your own heartfelt words enough.
We all get anxious. In the words of noted psychologist Rick Hanson, “Your brain is like Velcro for negative experiences but Teflon for positive ones.” This quote speaks to how the reacting part of our brain is our threat detection system, leaving us programmed to be on the lookout for bad things to happen. Our anxious vigilance stems back to our ancient ancestors because in the harrowing environments in which they lived, scary beasts like predators or aggression from others of their species could mean injury or death.
Given how your reactive brain shades “implicit memory,” according to Hanson, this negativity bias shows up in lots of ways in modern life. For example, studies have found that:
- People will work much harder to avoid losing $100 than they will work to gain the same amount of money.
- Painful experiences are much more memorable than pleasurable ones.
- In a relationship, it typically takes five good interactions to make up for a single bad one…
… keep reading the full & original article HERE