Worry, Worry, Worry

 

Every anxious person seeks some form of expression for anxiety, both consciously and unconsciously. Many cope with these feelings by using sports or work as an outlet. An overly anxious person will protect his sense of self through various defense mechanisms, such as use of drugs or alcohol, withdrawing from social life, or denial of unpleasant realities.

 

Coping successfully with anxiety involves taking action:

Disputing irrational thoughts

Learning to physically relax

Confronting the source of fear

Focusing on something else

Obtaining social supports

Obtaining treatment/medication when needed

Following through on treatment plan

Buddy the Cat says, "Helping others helps you, too. I help the homeless!"

Anxiety and poor coping mechanisms may damage mental well being, if inner conflicts become overwhelming. Anxiety can be difficult to define because it touches on so many different aspects of life. Causes of anxiety include:

Family history of anxiety

Medical problems

Alcohol and drug abuse

Exposure to severe traumatic events

Distorted thinking (blowing things out of proportion, over generalization, jumping to conclusions, etc.)

Anxiety disorders afflict more than 20% of people during their lifetime. Some of the various disorders include:

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: extreme worry, restlessness, feeling “keyed up”, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension and insomnia, with symptoms affecting work, home or school.

Panic Attacks: sudden, intense feeling of apprehension, pounding heart, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea, dizziness, fear of losing control, fear of dying, tingling/numbness of extremities, and chills/hot flashes.

Agoraphobia: involves fear of being someplace from which someone cannot escape or get help

Phobic Disorders: an irrational, persistent fear of specific activities with behavior that disrupts daily living, and an immediate response of panic, sweating, shortness of breath and pounding heart when exposed to the object of fear.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: symptoms directly relate to a traumatic incident, such as war experiences, rape, torture, sudden loss of home/family, etc. The person experiences intense anxiety when reliving the traumatic event and may block out aspects of it from memory, with some emotional detachment from others occurring.

Buddy says, "It's important to relax in the workplace."

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