Anxiety Isn’t Just in Your Mind
Anxiety does not involve just our minds. It involves our bodies, our behaviors, our spiritual view, and our thoughts. We can’t address one without addressing all areas of our being.
How anxiety affects all parts of us:
Physical Component
Our Parasympathetic nervous system. Parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for restoring us to a normal resting state.
Our Sympathetic nervous system. Sympathetic nervous system is responsible for creating a fight or flight response to an immediate threat. The adrenal glands secrete two chemicals – adrenaline and noradrenaline, which create this response.
Research shows that the parasympathetic nervous system works less of the time in people with anxiety.
Thought Component
We experience thoughts and images of impending doom.
Our belief that the negative is likely to happen even though the probability is low.
We focus on the worst possible outcomes instead of the more positive ones.
Key feature: With anxiety, we can’t stop the negative thoughts.
Common anxiety thought themes are health, friends/family, work/school, finances, and daily life.
Common belief themes are perfectionism, responsibility, control, and worry that will drive us crazy.
Behavioral Component
Restlessness, irritability, poor concentration, being fully prepared in order to control an outcome, “safety check” types of behaviors.
Key feature: these behaviors are designed to eliminate worry.
Spiritual Component
Our spiritual views and beliefs encapsulate all of the above.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety disorders “include disorders that share features of excessive fear and anxiety and related behavioral disturbances.
Fear is the emotional response to real or perceived imminent threat that is transient, whereas Anxiety is anticipation of future threat. It differs from transient fear or worry by being …
Persistently overwhelmed with dread of everyday situations (e.g. typically lasting 6 months or more on most days.),
Seemingly uncontrollable
Quote – Max Lucado, Anxious for Nothing.
“Stress-related ailments cost the United States billions of dollars every year. Why do you think the nation leading much of the world in infrastructure, education, democracy, and more is also leading the world in anxiety? Why would Americans suffer from anxiety more than people of lesser developed countries? Why would Christians suffer from anxiety more than Christians from lesser developed countries?”
What is Worry?
Worry has been defined as “a small trickle of fear that meanders through the mind until it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”
Anxiety is from the Latin root that means “to choke” or “to squeeze.” Worry harasses by tearing, biting, or snapping at the throat; to torment to the point of destroying peace of mind.
Differentiate from concern. Differentiate from anticipation. Differentiate from meditating.
Anxiety is in the fear family. “It is a close cousin to fear, but the two are not twins. Fear sees a threat, while anxiety imagines one.” “Fear screams ‘Get out!’ Anxiety ponders ‘What if?’” “It’s not so much the onslaught of a storm as the continual threat that one is coming. It’s a big heap of ‘what ifs.’” Max Lucado.
Tips to Overcome Worry and Anxiety
Slow, Deep Breathing- One way to combat symptoms of anxiety is to practice slow, deep breathing, such as box breathing. Box breathing allows an individual to activate their parasympathetic system and calm the mind in the midst of panic. This breathing technique has an individual breathe in through the nose for 4 seconds, hold that breath for 4 seconds, and exhale through the mouth for 4 seconds, repeating for four minutes.
Muscle Relaxation- Many times when we are feeling anxious, our muscle will tense up. One way to combat this symptom is by practicing muscle relaxation, which may look like contracting a muscle group for about 10 seconds while inhaling, then releasing that muscle group for about 10 seconds while exhaling. An individual can practice this repeatedly until the body feels relaxed.
Having an understanding of fear, worry, and anxiety allows us to recognize its impacts on our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. With this knowledge, we are able to practice therapeutic tools that aid in coping with our anxiety.
Written by: Gerard DeMatteo
About Gerard DeMatteo:
Gerard has been providing that with compassionate counseling, providing hope and giving encouragement to people who are struggling. For over 20 years as pastoring elder at a local church in New Jersey, Gerard has been teaching, discipling, providing pre-marital and marital counsel, and pastoral counseling to both individuals and groups as well as being a resource to those in his greater church network.