This blog post is the first in a series of posts that are excerpts from my full length published article, ‘Five Simple Steps To Managing Anxiety’ available for immediate download from my website by this link: http://www.glennburdick.com/anxiety_help.htm
The Good News about Anxiety
You are supposed to feel afraid. Honest! Under certain circumstances your level of fear is supposed to increase to uncomfortable levels. Every human being is ‘wired’ that way, and thank goodness.
Imagine how life would be if we had no internal warning system telling us when danger was at hand. That would be like not having a reflex that causes us to instantly pull our hand back from a hot stovetop.
Nature in its infinite wisdom has given us all a self-protective device alternately called the ‘fight or flight’ or ‘emergency’ response. This device dumps the equivalent of rocket fuel into our bloodstream and is meant to cause us to fiercely attack something dangerous or run away like a ‘bat out of hell’, in both cases saving our precious life.
These substances entering our system are not supposed to feel comfortable, or even tolerable. They are supposed to propel us, way faster than we can possibly think, into a short burst of life-saving activity. This has worked really well since the days of dinosaurs and saber tooth tigers. Feeling fear in the face of real danger is no accident.
The ‘fight or flight’ response is triggered by our brain when it perceives that a dangerous, life-threatening situation is at hand. That’s a very good thing, I’m sure you would agree. If you hear footsteps coming up behind you on a dark alley you want to be on alert. If you are approaching the edge of a cliff, it could be really handy to be forewarned.
The same is true if someone or something is threatening a loved one, including a coyote slyly approaching your sweet little dog at the park. Very helpful! The ‘old (instinctual) brain’ is quite good at picking up these actual life-threatening situations.
Lesser amounts of fear, for the purpose of this article, we shall consider anxiety. This anxiety can also be quite helpful to you. The thinking, planning, imagining, worrying part of our brain can perceive all sorts of social, financial, & emotional situations as threats to your well-being, even if not life threatening.
The perception of this type of danger can cause the body to release anything from mild or moderate anxiety, up to out and out panic, depending on the individual and the situation. This reaction can sometimes be even more upsetting than when an obvious real life threat is at hand, if you can’t determine why you are feeling so apprehensive or afraid.
There is a very helpful role mild to moderate levels of anxiety in the form of worrying plays in effective coping. Think about how you feel if the threat of unemployment enters your life, or mortgage rates soar, or you watch your 401k become a 201k. Something subtler, like that look of disapproval on your partner’s face as you left for work this morning can also feel dangerous, or having a child struggling socially or academically in school.
In these examples worry arises because there is a real world problem that has real impact on your quality of life, and perhaps your social and economic survival. Problem solving is in order.
However in such situations having a severe or overwhelming level of anxiety actually interferes with effective coping, because high levels of fear are meant for immediate action, not problem-solving or brainstorming.
Next post in this series: “The Work Of Worrying”
