Find Causes, Symptoms, Treatment and More About Anxiety

These days we use anxiety to describe that nagging feeling of worry or stress and we also use it to talk about a chronic condition that can become extreme enough to keep someone from living their life and enjoying day to day activities. Anxiety can be situational and minor or chronic and debilitating. Anxiety treatment changes considerably depending on how it is showing up in your life.

So what is anxiety?

Anxiety can be described as feeling nervous, restless or tense. Or possibly having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom. Anxiety will often cause you to have an increased heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating, trembling, feeling weak or tired. You may also experience trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry, trouble sleeping, gastrointestinal problems and other symptoms too.

Having difficulty controlling worry or having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety is usually a sign that you need to seek treatment for your anxiety so you can find techniques to help you feel better and get control of the anxiety so you can live a normal life.

What causes anxiety?

Anxiety can be caused by a large number of things but the most common are listed below:

• Past traumas

• Stress

• Mental health disorders

• Medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, thyroid problems or respiratory disorders

• Some medications

• Drug misuse or withdrawal

• Withdrawal from alcohol, anti-anxiety medications or other medications

• Chronic pain or irritable bowel syndrome

• Rare tumors that produce certain fight-or-flight hormones

If anxiety symptoms persist past a specific incident or period of time where things are difficult, you should seek additional support and anxiety treatment. Treatments can vary significantly depending on the cause of the anxiety and how it is showing up in your life. Some common treatments for anxiety include:

• Herbs

• Exercise

• Sunlight

• Good quality sleep

• Diet changes

• Medication 

• Massage

• Trauma counseling

• Therapy

• Breathing techniques

• Meditation

• Yoga

• Avoid alcohol

• Avoid caffeine

• Don’t use drugs

• Quit smoking

Anxiety is the most common mental health related disorder people struggle with. It is common in our society and in some ways, even encouraged. Choosing anxiety treatment can require reteaching your body and brain to rest, slow down and resist cultural norms of being chronically busy or worried about things in the future.

Things like meditation, yoga and breathing techniques help a lot with mild to moderate anxiety because they help you to learn to be in the present moment. Eating well, getting good sleep, exercising and avoiding negative substances all help your body to create more happy hormones that help you to remain calmer. They also create safety within your body which contributes overall to lowering your stress response and allowing your body more space to manage stress effectively.

Anxiety treatment can come in many forms, but working with a trained professional to consider therapy, counseling and letting go of old traumas is going to help root out the underlying causes of anxiety that you just can’t seem to set down no matter what you try.