Is it Really Anxiety?

What Is Anxiety?

Feeling anxious before a dental visit or starting a new job, or launching a new business is perfectly normal and even expected at times. However, many of life’s events can sometimes get us worked up with anticipation from time to time. Maybe you’re a student and have to write a long essay; maybe you’re waiting on medical test results. Whatever the situation may be, we have all experienced a bit of occasional anxiety surrounding an event in our everyday lives. When faced with something scary or unfamiliar, these are common reactions, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that anything is wrong.

On the other hand, some people, such as me, suffer from more severe forms of anxiety that cause more serious emotional and physical symptoms and even affect their ability to deal with everyday activities in their lives.

It Starts in Your Mind

Now I don’t know about anyone else, I can only speak about my experiences with anxiety, but for me, I’ve found that it starts with a thought. That’s right, a simple thought, and my mind takes off and runs with the negative, doom, and gloom possibility of an incident. It could be something as simple as me walking down the stairs and saying to myself that I don’t want to fall. My mind will respond with the worst thing that could happen in the situation: falling down the stairs and breaking my neck, and dying. It then veers off to how my kids would react, how will they pay for my funeral, and on and on until I work myself up to the point of not being able to breathe right because my heart is racing a mile a minute!

I would repeat this process over and over again until I was afraid to do a lot of things that I had always enjoyed, or at least that I didn’t mind doing. Finally, I found that the anxiety I was experiencing was fear magnified by my mind, and I had to find something that would help me get past this so that I could live the way it was meant to lived. I knew that what I was feeling wasn’t normal, and I didn’t want to continue to use drugs (weed) and alcohol to numb myself while I suffered in silence, so I made an appointment with my primary to start my road to healing. I also began to research holistic treatment and techniques to help calm my mind and spirit to manage my symptoms and regain my self-love and self-esteem. This led me to use meditation and prayer to help with the overwhelming anxiety that often leads me to have panic attacks.

Different symptoms let you know if your anxiety is just nerves or something more serious that you need to address. These symptoms vary from person to person since no one experiences things the same. Here are some of the symptoms that I have dealt with. Hopefully, they will help you to understand better if your anxious feelings could be a sign that you need to speak to your healthcare provider.

Let’s take a look at some of the symptoms:

1. I have had the feeling that my heart was racing, and I couldn’t breathe correctly.

2. I developed an uncontrollable fear of driving on the expressway and would have panic attacks if someone else was driving and would avoid taking it altogether if I were driving.

3. I experienced a consistent inability to concentrate on any task, whether work or my personal life.

4. There were times that I would display Nervous behaviors, and I would pace the same area repeatedly.

5. I would have a feeling of doom or that something would happen to me, such as an accident, heart attack, or even death.

6. I was uncomfortable with people being around me, and I preferred to be alone a lot of the time.

7. Things that I normally did every day were starting to overwhelm me, and I would struggle to get things done.

The good news is you can get through anxious moments on your own without mind-altering drugs. Instead, your worries can be transformed into peace with simple, natural strategies. One of these techniques is using prayer and meditation. I have found both prayer and meditation helpful in reducing stress, depression, and anxiety.

What is Meditation?

Although it has ties to many religions and spiritual teachings, meditation is not really about your faith or religious practices. It’s more about mindfulness, altering consciousness, finding awareness, and achieving peace. There are different types of meditation, and you can choose one that is right for you.

There are six popular types of meditation practice:

1. mindfulness meditation

2. spiritual meditation

3. focused meditation

4. movement meditation

5. mantra meditation

6. transcendental meditation

Understanding your condition and treating it accordingly can help alleviate the stress and fear these panic attacks cause and help you find a solution to stopping the attacks altogether. Living life in fear of another panic attack will hold you hostage and prevent you from doing the things you love. Regardless of your beliefs and who you pray to, you can incorporate mindfulness and meditation into your daily routine and find the peace you desire.

If you suffer from some of the symptoms above, seek help from a professional. Your mental health is important, and getting the treatment that can put you back on the road to peace, health, and happiness is a good start. You’ll be glad you did!

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About the Author

Angela M Mitchell is the founder and CEO of Back to her. She is also a Certified Master Life & Personal Development Coach, a mental health advocate, and a Co-Author in the international best-selling collaborative masterpiece, The Image in The Mirror. She received a degree in Healthcare Administration from Bryant and Stratton College and has since dedicated her life to advocating for women who live with mental health disorders.

Angela also assists women entrepreneurs to acknowledge their struggles, change the narrative of the stories they tell, and rewrite them so that they can become deliberate, not desperate creators of their own life's story.

She guides them through a process of self-discovery as they incorporate ease, flow, and inner strength into their lives so that they can reignite their passions and rediscover their God-Given purpose and achieve the success they desire in their personal and professional life.