Anxiety can be a serious and life-changing problem. While certain levels of anxiety are healthy, there are points where these anxious emotions boil over. The resulting stress can make you your own worst enemy.
It makes sense that anxiety can be so devastating. After all, it’s a sign that your brain is struggling and starting to malfunction, and you need it to be in top shape. It is the organ that controls every bodily function you have!
3 Signs Anxiety Is Ruining Your Life
So how can you know when anxious emotions are affecting you too much, and what can you do about it? Here are three signs that anxiety is ruining your life and three ways to let it go.
1 – Small or small things push you to the limit
You are like a tight spring when anxiety ruins your life. O stress This puts you in a constant fight-or-flight state, which means you see everything as a threat. Examples of ways you might be affected include:
- An offhand comment makes you think too much and be too eager to interact socially with others.
- A slightly awkward encounter causes you to lose sleep and obsessively repeat it in your head.
- A minor inconvenience at work makes you question your skills and abilities.
- Someone in your life is having fun with other people, and you panic and think you’re going to lose them.
- A small accident, like spilling a glass of water, makes you cry.
- A friend’s comment forces you to attack them and take things too personally.
Worse yet, these things are so small they make you feel even worse about yourself. You feel ashamed because you are so affected by what seems to be such a small thing, and it only makes you more anxious. It’s an endless cycle.
2 – Stress makes everyday tasks too difficult
People often ignore the severity of mental health issues in everyday life, but anxiety can be downright paralyzing. For example, when anxiety makes simple tasks too complicated, you might experience the following situations.
- You find it hard to get out of bed in the morning and want to stay in bed all day.
- You don’t want to go out and feel compelled to isolate yourself and skip errands, necessary appointments, and even work.
- You will experience severe brain fog that will make you make a lot of mistakes in simple tasks.
- You have trouble focusing on anything.
Once again, it’s clear how this contributes to the deadly cycle of unbridled anxiety. When you can’t live day to day, your anxiety worsens and makes you more anxious. This result is due to:
- You can’t keep up with the comforting rhythm of regular routines, which disrupts your body’s rhythm and makes you more anxious.
- You are constantly in fight or flight, so your stress levels are always high.
- The lack of ability to get things done effortlessly makes you question yourself and your abilities.
- When you’re isolated, you can’t get realistic outside perspectives, and you can keep having anxiety-driven ideas in your head.
3 – You wonder if anxiety will ruin your life
If you have to wonder if anxiety is ruining your life, chances are it is. People who aren’t struggling with anxious stress don’t wonder if they’re doing well. However, when you start to question yourself, you are probably being severely affected by anxiety.
The human body is a bit of a mystery, but it does its best to communicate its needs to you through various signals. Likewise, your nerves scream at you to jump away from very hot objects when you touch them, and your stomach growls when you’re hungry, your body keeps telling you when something is wrong.
Mental health is just as important as physical health, and your body knows it. If you notice your anxiety a lot, it’s because your mind and body are trying to let you know that this anxiety is a problem. Do yourself a favor, listen to yourself and trust that you have your best interests at heart.
3 ways to get rid of anxiety
So now you are more attuned to the existence of these anxious thoughts. How do you stop it?
1 – Interact with others
When you’re anxious, sometimes the last thing you want to do is interact with other people. While it’s okay to need some private time to process your emotions and calm down, things get unhealthy when you completely isolate yourself for long periods.
In fact, connecting with the people around you is crucial to letting go of anxiety. This even applies to social anxiety, as long as you choose to be around loved ones or people you feel safe with. the investigations show that spending time with other people can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. Here are some ways to do this:
Give someone a hug to relive your stress
Hugging or hugging someone releases the love hormone known as oxytocin. This reduces feelings of anxiety, helps lower blood pressure, and even improves immunity, according to studies . If you don’t like to cuddle, any physical interaction can produce this effect to some extent, like patting someone on the back or sitting shoulder to shoulder with someone.
play with a pet
If your social battery isn’t charged enough for human interaction, a pet can be a great source of trade. The same love hormone, oxytocin, is released when you hug and play with a pet. the studies they even show that the company of animals can alleviate anxiety.
· Ask for help
One of the reasons anxiety is so hard to overcome is that it traps you in a deadly cycle where you’re too eager to ask for help, which only makes you more nervous. You may even be thinking too much, developing misconceptions about your worth, and getting it into your head that other people would never help you.
That means you sink deeper and deeper into the pit of anxiety. Asking for help can be scary, but letting go of anxiety is essential. You can ask to vent or talk to a loved one or trusted friend. You can ask for support to do something that makes you anxious.
Or you can even get help from a professional counselor or find support groups or clubs for things that interest you. Finally, you can release your anxiety if you can make connections with other people.
2 – Allow yourself to feel anxiety
It seems a little counterproductive, but sometimes anxiety gets worse because you keep trying to push it away. The studies have long shown that suppressing emotions makes them stronger and can even make them worse. For example, your anxiety about something reasonable, like a job interview, may make you decide that you are worthless and unable to do anything. It’s a pretty deadly cycle.
Anxiety is a normal human emotion. And even when it’s unreal, irrational, and useless, it’s a valuable experience. But unfortunately, many people make their anxiety worse by feeling too ashamed of their emotional experiences. Essentially, anxiety can be a cycle: feeling anxious for the sake of feeling anxious makes you more nervous!
That’s why you have to allow yourself to experience anxiety. This doesn’t mean bowing down to it and validating irrational anxiety. It simply means letting yourself feel without judging yourself. Instead of feeling embarrassed, honor the emotion and thank your brain for trying to protect you. Spending one to five minutes sitting peacefully with your anxiety and witnessing it can allow it to pass.
3 – Express yourself creatively to avoid anxiety attacks
One of the best ways to let go of anxiety is to express it in unique and interesting ways. Many people find ways to fully capture the depth of their anxiety through art and other release methods. It can be quite cathartic to put all of your feelings into a visual, verbal, or creative medium, giving you the opportunity to process intense, complex, or complicated emotions. Here are some ways to relieve stress in your life:
· He writes
Many people keep a journal to express their feelings of anxiety in order to let go of them. This is already a fantastic way to have everything in mind without judgment in a completely safe space. For some, direct journaling is enough to reduce the severity of their anxiety. You can reread the journal entries at a later date to process and reflect on them as well. If you need something a little more challenging or less “generic”, you can write stories, poems, lyrics and other types of prose as a means of artistic expression.
draw or color
Do you know that the studies show that art therapy is an effective method for reducing stress, managing anxiety, and helping to process anxiety? Sure, you can go to art therapy and sign up for sessions, but you can also enjoy the wonders of art on your own. Draw, paint or even paint; The investigation shows that coloring books effectively relieve stress!
Let your imagination run wild
The human brain is a powerful tool. In your head, you can travel to distant lands and do whatever you want! While chronic daydreaming is unhealthy, search indicate that your imagination can be a powerful way to defuse anxiety. You can visualize your happy place, imagine an entire fantasy movie for yourself, and think of anything fun, relaxing, or comfortable that you enjoy.
Use music to explore anxiety
Are there songs and pieces that make you feel relaxed or make you want to sing and dance? Turn up the volume on the music you love and pay attention to how your beats and tempo affect your body. Which ones reduce your anxiety the most? Which can sometimes increase your symptoms? Which ones are just comforting to hear? Which one do you dance and which one do you sing at the top of your lungs? Create music playlists that can help you feel better when you’re anxious and don’t be afraid to dance, sing or play instruments along with these songs.
final thoughts
Anxiety can drag you down in life. Knowing your anxiety levels will allow you to notice when your anxious emotions become too overwhelming. This will allow you to use positive, healthy methods to let go of anxiety and continue to live in peace.
By Lakeisha Ethans. Article in English
