The Benefits Of Labeling Our Symptoms And Fears

As you’ll know these frightening possibilities, that manifest themselves as thoughts, can easily be dwelled upon and can often dictate our plans and actions in our daily lives. Applying the What if? question to scenarios in life isn’t necessarily a bad thing, with it being vital in terms of keeping us safe and avoiding any potential, negative ramifications in a given situation. When What If? is applied to justify irrational fears however, then it becomes a problem. We can apply What If? in common situations such as approaching a blind bend when driving, opting to walk home through a well lit area or perhaps thinking twice when bringing up a sensitive topic of conversation in a group full of people. This use of logic can help keep us safe and avoid any upsetting consequences that could occur, such as avoiding a car crash or offending somebody for example. However, excessive anxiety, which often leads to hypersensitivity and hyperawareness, can create an abundance of What if? in our lives, which can lead us to apply the question to normal every day things. We can start to question our normal daily actions and the What if? starts to take centre stage when we begin to apply our logic. Normal every day activities, such as going outside, going to social occasions or even taking the journey to work, can suddenly be perceived as a dangerous task that would be best left avoided, due to fear of a panic attack or something awful happening. Furthermore, from a hypochondriac perspective, we can also begin to question the symptoms that occur with anxiety. We can begin to look at feeling different, experiencing bodily changes and all of the other symptoms that come with anxiety as something that’s a worst case scenario. We all use irrationality to shape and strengthen our use of rational thinking and logic. Therefore, quite hypocritically, the process of irrational thinking is in actual fact a rational process.

Determination Gives You The Resolve

This is where the next and debatably most difficult step arises in overcoming anxiety. You have to lose the What if?. In order to lose them, you firstly need to do something that, at first sounds simple, but actually takes a lot of willpower to apply. You need to identify the irrational What if? and simply ignore them. In order to identify and ignore them, you need to dig deep and use your own sense of positive rationalisation and apply it to the scenarios where you think anxiety is stopping you from doing the things you should or need to be doing. When I was struggling at the peak of my anxiety, I wouldn’t even leave the house. I feared what the outside world would think of me if I suddenly became overwhelmed with anxiety or had a panic attack. One day I decided to lose the What if? and actually used positive logic to weigh up the possible outcomes of leaving the house. I decided I needed to go food shopping and in doing so ignored all the feelings, thoughts and emotions I was going through in order to do it. I was so close to turning around and running home, but I stuck at it and imagined the pride I’d feel if I completed the shopping. I did eventually complete the shopping and the sense of achievement I felt when I got home actually helped ease the anxiety I was feeling. I was scared of the possibility of something bad happening, not the reality.

It's Hard To Be A Saint

I also realised that my home was my safe place and that I was using it as an emotional crutch. Going to the supermarket helped me to temporarily live without this. Positive rationalisation is a fancy named term that’s the equivalent of saying It’s just anxiety out loud. Lose the What if? and blame everything that scares you on anxiety. Pop up your anxiety umbrellas and let them shield you from the monsoon of irrationality that rains upon you. Get out there and have a go. It really is just anxiety. A good way to distinguish between a ’normal’ symptom and that of a symptom of anxiety, is to look at it comparatively to a time where you once felt ok. What also helps is that sometimes, deep down, we know that our thinking can become quite absurd, so we can use positive rationalisation to identify what thoughts are normal and what thoughts are caused by the anxiety. I cannot stress enough the benefits of labeling our symptoms and fears as anxiety. We know that anxiety will eventually ease and what helps is that an onslaught of several symptoms at one time can be found to be manageable, with the knowledge that they’re only caused by one thing! For example, you could be suffering from a prolonged headache, experiencing a lack of appetite, worrying about chest pains and perhaps being scared to attend a social event. These are several different symptoms to contend with, but they don’t need to be dealt with individually.

Functioning Normally

They will all pass in due time and if they don’t go away then you’re more than likely refusing to accept that it’s just anxiety. Each symptom on their own can be found to be scary or discomforting and it doesn’t take a lot for the anxiety sufferer to imagine how overwhelming it feels for these symptoms to be happening all at once again. I and many others have found that we’ve had many more symptoms happening at once or recurring frequently. The only thing that linked them all was anxiety. Anxiety creates so much stress on the body and we must realise that the symptoms can come in abundance. Put it all down to anxiety and you’ll quickly find that it becomes a manageable problem to contend with. you have put up with the condition, should not be feared as there isn’t actually anything wrong with you. This is arguably a bold statement to announce, given all the turmoil and emotional distress anxiety can cause.