Getting To Know Anxiety

Maybe you're over-excited? Your temperature has risen, your heart is pounding away, you're feeling dizzy or slightly faint and you are experiencing shortness of breath. No, when you're excited, these feelings may be slightly disturbing but they are totally acceptable.  You're not feeling excitement here as your fear factor is high and you may well be feeling tingling or numbness in your hands and feet, coupled with an increasing pressure in your chest!  So now you think you are not going to make it home as you may be dying or, at the very least, having a heart attack. . .Are you losing it big time or going crazy. . ...NO you're NOT!

These are the classic symptoms of an 'Anxiety Attack'. Tens of millions of people scattered about the UK & United States, not to mention every other single country across the world, have them every single day. You may be one of them. Or you may know someone that is battling with this affliction. Either way, you need to know how to help yourself, or someone you care about, cope with Anxiety. One way to do this is through understanding what Anxiety is and offering them, or getting, the support you or they desperately need.

A lot of that written here is by a long term sufferer of Anxiety and Depression. It is hoped this guide will help yourself, or a loved one, not feel alone in coping with this horrifying disorder. That there are other people out there that are suffering just as you may be right now at this very moment. And that you CAN get help and overcome this affliction.

       You CAN learn to 'LIVE WITH IT' but must STOP letting 'IT' control YOU.

For my part,as an eternal optimist,it may seem strange to associate myself with 'panic attacks' but I happen to believe that serial optimism is sometimes just another form of anxiety.? Is it a facade where I reject a reality I don't want to come 'face to face' with?  It could be!  Also, as a husband & father, I am constantly made aware of my child's & wife's anxieties (the latter sometimes,.. OK mostly, created by me but then exaggerated into excessive Anxiety that takes over!) I will do anything to learn sufficiently to re-assure them when needed but need them to gradually understand the power of their own thought process, so that they can more easily cope with what this world throws at all of us on a daily basis. (Yup, Life sucks a lot!) My daily work (as a visiting financial / debt counsellor) reinforces a need to understand without judgement,to unravel peoples' true fears (and potential) for the immediate and future as these can effect mild to extremes of depression, partnership splits, violent arguments, self-harming to suicide and many middle shades of anxiety in between!  These visits have an average of 2-4 hours duration and in that time, I will gain a better understanding of the clients as individuals than some of their closest friends/family. The questions I ask are up,close and personal and I also have every detail of their financial picture in front of me.  The Anxiety is mostly hidden at first but soon surfaces as hard facts of Life have to be faced up to.....

So my contribution is that of an interested observer, exceptionally & decidedly non-academic and blatantly real-world.  If my 'as I see it' layman-speak can help someone through a bad period in their life then I would be really delighted!

Don't miss the page on Types of Anxiety.   See if you can relate to any of the comments here as a lot of what causes Anxiety is discussed and will show you are really,..not alone.

Look after Yourself, and after Yourself, there are Others to Look Out For!

  Justal