Is Anxiety Interfering With Your Life?
- Do you find yourself worrying and feeling uneasy a lot of the time?
- Are you having problems settling your mind down in order to fall asleep?
- Is it hard for you to focus or concentrate?
- Do you find it hard to relax? Does your body feel tense and muscles feel tight?
- Does your heart often feel like it’s racing?
Anxiety is a fancy term for fear and the anticipation of a future threat. Thinking about the future is absolutely normal and necessary, however, when we start to dwell on the future, not being able to focus on what is happening now, we have become anxious. We all get anxious at times because anxiety is a biological function to protect us when we sense danger or that we are in harm’s way, and it can help us handle problems and can motivate us to be prepared for things that are coming our way. Anxiety, like all things, becomes problematic both mentally and physically in large quantities. The feelings of fear and anxiousness can occur so often and intensely that it can interfere with our daily life. When awake we can experience physical symptoms of things like tightness in our chest, an upset stomach, and muscle weakness. When trying to go to sleep, we can toss and turn for hours and have trouble shutting the thoughts off that are racing through our mind.
Many people experience the physical symptoms of anxiety and don’t even realize that the anxiety is causing those physical symptoms in the body. Having a heavy feeling in your chest, a racing heart, feeling sick to your stomach, muscle tension in the neck, jaw or shoulders or terrible headaches can all be caused by anxiety. Chronic stress or dread and extended exposure of the anxious feelings can have a significant negative impact on your physical and mental health. Those of us who live with significant amounts of stress and anxiety are also at greater risk for developing a number of chronic health conditions.
It is common for anxiety to co-occur with other mental health disorders, like depression, or even physical illness, which can make the symptoms and treatment more difficult. Many people facing ongoing anxiety try to cope with their discomfort by self-medicating with substances such as alcohol, drugs or food, these attempts only worsen the symptoms and can lead people down a deeper, darker hole. People who struggle with chronic anxiety will find themselves avoiding situations or people that trigger their distress. Unfortunately, avoidance tactics can make things worse and develop into a pattern of procrastination that can negatively impact productivity, relationships and one’s sense of self worth.
Anxiety Treatment and Counseling Can Help You Reclaim Your Life
You may feel like your mind is a runaway train going a million miles an hour or you may sometimes feel paralyzed by the anxiety interfering with most everything in your life.
Anxiety does not have to continue to interfere with your ability to think clearly, be creative, be productive at work, or be fully engaged in relationships. It is possible to gain more control over your anxious thoughts and feelings. It’s possible for you to lead a happy, productive, worry free life. At Comforts of Home Counseling, we have anxiety specialists who can help you get back to the sense of acceptance, peace and balance with whatever may happen in the future. You will have the ability to enjoy the present, which is the only moment we truly have.