How to Tell the Difference Between Anxiety and Normal Worry

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Article Title:

How to Tell the Difference Between Anxiety and Normal Worry

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Anxiety is a normal feeling people experience when faced

with threat, danger or stress. Feeling anxious can sometimes

be a good thing. Occasional anxiety is part of normal life.

However, for some people anxiety is a constant factor in

their lives. When a person has anxiety problems, it

interferes with their ability to function normally on a

daily basis. Anxiety disorder can cause people to feel

intense, long-lasting fear or worry, in addition to other

symptoms.

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Distribution Date and Time: 2010-12-21 11:30:00

Written By: Dr Jeannette Kavanagh

Copyright: 2010

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How to Tell the Difference Between Anxiety and Normal Worry

Copyright © 2010 Dr Jeannette Kavanagh

Calming Words

http://www.calmingwords.com/

Anxiety is a normal feeling people experience when faced with

threat, danger or stress. Feeling anxious can sometimes be a good

thing. Occasional anxiety is part of normal life. However, for

some people anxiety is a constant factor in their lives. When a

person has anxiety problems, it interferes with their ability to

function normally on a daily basis. Anxiety disorder can cause

people to feel intense, long-lasting fear or worry, in addition

to other symptoms.

Anxiety can actually help you by motivating you to prepare for a

big test or by keeping you on your toes in potentially dangerous

situations. It's very important to realise that one should never

be seeking a cure for anxiety, as in the total elimination of

anxiety from your life. You need anxiety to equip you to get out

of the way of real and present danger, to motivate you to do your

best in school, work and sporting events.

Understanding Anxiety

Problems with too-high a level of anxiety involving unrealistic

fear and worry are very common. It is estimated that that they

affect about 16% to 20% of the U.S. population including people

of all ages, races and backgrounds with one exception. Women tend

to be more likely to have problems with anxiety than men. Either

that, or as with all areas of health, they report their issues

more than men.

Anxiety is a set of responses which everyone has when they

perceive a threat to their safety, that is, when they feel

danger. The human body is hardwired to automatically pump

adrenaline into our system when danger confronts us. That

awareness of a danger signals the involuntary nervous system to

send immediate messages throughout the body, to either 'fight'

(take the situation head on) or 'flight' (escape from the

situation) or 'freeze' (as in a kangaroo caught in the

headlights of hunters). This 'fight, flight or freeze' response

is characterised by:

* Increased heart rate and blood pressure

* Increased breathing rate

* A feeling of fear or apprehension

* Trembling, shaking or a feeling of restlessness

The anxiety response is essential to deal with dangerous or

stressful situations.

However, if this reaction of fear does not subside when the real

and present danger is over, it can become an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety disorder has a significant impact on a person's life.

The person will feel edgey all the time. They react to situations

in a fear-filled way, even when the situation is not a threat or

a danger. They know at an intellectual level, that their

reactions to situations are inappropriate. They know that they

are not really in danger. That awareness often means that people

with high levels of anxiety criticise themselves for feeling

those fears. If you feel fear sometimes amounting to terror, in a

crowded restaurant, or at the Mall, or in a lecture theatre at

College, it makes sense at one level to avoid those situations.

After all, who wants to suffer through mounting feelings of fear?

That's why it's so important to seek help.

While the first couple of episodes of fear can be tolerated, the

way anxiety disorder and panic attacks develop is an

ever-repeating cycle of (1) eg fear and panic felt at a

concert;(2) next time you're going to a concert, you anticipate

that you might feel that panic again (3) just thinking you might

feel it, almost always guarantees that you will. (4) Not

surprisingly, you want to escape from the situation and

eventually, you (5) start avoiding going to concerts. With the

proper therapy, you can learn very quickly and easily how to

react in a different way to situations that now make you have

panic attacks.

Are You An Overly Anxious Parent?

Being a parent can provide everyone with legitimate moments of

worry and even high anxiety. If your child has a high fever,

you'd have to be made of concrete not to be anxious, fearful and

a bit worried. Many first time parents err on the side of caution

with their very young children whose temperature is often due to

something as unthreatening as teething. It's a balancing act. If

you've raced your two year old to the Emergency Room at the

local hospital with a high fever,which immediately dissipates

after one dose of paracetamol or aspirin, no one would

immediately diagnose you as overly anxious.

If from other symptoms you know that that child is cutting her or

his two year old molars and likely to run a fever, then taking

that child to the ER with every fever spike ( before

administering an aspirin and waiting half an hour, to see if the

fever eases) that's perhaps an indicator that you're overly

anxious. So what? With young children, it's better to be sure

than sorry. Right? Yes. And no. Many of you reading this article

will know that the panicky reactions you had to your two year

old's temperature spikes have never really left you.

You worry excessively if your nineteen year old daughter is even

half an hour late. You constantly nag (or try to motivate) your

adult children about their University assignments. Your adult

children keep many things secret from you because they know your

reaction will be an over-the-top show of concern. You spend far

too many hours worrying and fear-filled about your children's

latest partner: none of whom is ever good enough.

It is normal for parents to worry about their children when they

first learn to drive, and it's even more normal to worry when

children don't come home at an expected time. What I'm

referring to here is once again, a matter of degree. When a

parent is actually becoming so distressed about an adult child

being late that s/he is almost vomiting or getting diarrhea, then

we are looking at anxiety which has become dysfunctional. As with

all anxiety, it can be conquered.

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Dr Jeannette Kavanagh has a counseling and coaching Practice in

Melbourne Australia, to help people find their unique solutions

to anxiety and panic attacks. For over two decades, Jeannette has

helped thousands of people overcome anxiety and panic attacks.

Visit her website http://www.calmingwords.com/ to sign up here

for a FREE MP3 (http://www.calmingwords.com/relax_on_cue.html)

" Relax on Cue " .