Why Do We Make Mistakes In Trying To Overcome Anxiety?
Anxiety has become the leading cause of consultation in psychology, leaving behind other emotional problems such as depression. This is by no means a coincidence, we live in a very demanding world, over-stimulated and, mainly, with a load of uncertainty so high that it becomes difficult to manage.
Within specialized anxiety therapy, it is usually necessary to raise awareness and explain to the person who suffers from this problem what anxiety is, since there is normally an enormous need for immediate change due to the suffering it causes. Precisely that need and immediacy (as I said before, we live in a world that generates a lot of anxiety, and immediacy is a good example) makes the process of overcoming it more difficult.
You can do the test. When reading this article, I imagine that you want to read only the advice, those direct tips that make you overcome anxiety; That is precisely what I said before about immediacy, which is harmful. How are we going to overcome something that we don’t even know what it is or why it appears? In the end you will be able to see those tips, but I think it is a mistake to apply them without that understanding.
Anxiety is nothing more than an emotion, such as joy, sadness, anger or fear. What we call anxiety is anxiety disorder, that is, when this emotion poses a problem for our life is something like sadness and depression, sadness is the emotion, while depression is the problem.
Well, like any other emotion, anxiety accompanies us throughout our lives, from the moment we are born. We cannot live without anxiety, it would not be good or healthy, it is not possible either, we are emotional beings. Anxiety is an unpleasant emotion (like sadness), but I imagine that you would not see it as healthy for a person not to feel sadness when faced with the loss of a family member. In the same way, anxiety has to live with us.
It is important to know this in order to overcome it, as it will continue to appear throughout our lives on numerous occasions. When we talk about overcoming anxiety, we are not talking about eliminating the emotion, but about overcoming the disorder, that is, living with the emotion in a way healthy. The big problem is what we know in psychology as the “fear of fear.”
What is the fear of fear?
Fear of fear is a way of processing anxiety in a conditioned way. That is, when we suffer from an anxiety disorder, we are so afraid of anxiety that anything we relate to it sets off alarm bells and, consequently, generates anxiety. This is one of the big problems.
This can cause us to relate a place, a situation, sweat, heart rate or any aspect you can imagine with anxiety, leading us to incorrectly interpret any situation and generating anxiety about these aspects. For example, imagine relating anxiety to dizziness, any sensation close to that will set off alarm bells and generate anxiety. The vast majority of times, we are the ones who cause this anxiety with the way we interpret things.
Let’s do a mental exercise, I want you not to think about a pink elephant, please do not imagine or make a mental image of a pink elephant, I want you to simply not think about it. How do we act automatically in that situation? Indeed, imagining that pink elephant, The more we force ourselves to put it out of our minds, the harder it will be.
The problem is that you can’t stop thinking about something by thinking about that something, the harder we try, the more we get stuck in that loop, a kind of quicksand in our head.
The same thing happens with anxiety, the more we focus on eliminating it, the more we get into it, so the more force it takes.
Tips that do help overcome anxiety
I am going to try to give 3 tips that are important when it comes to overcoming anxiety, 3 realistic tips that you can apply, but not without magic formulas.
1. Follow a routine
The greatest advice that can be given to a person who suffers from an anxiety problem is to continue with their daily lives, don’t avoid your life. I know this is especially difficult when you are suffering, but it is important.
2. Physical exercise
Physical exercise is one of the greatest regulators on an emotional level; helps us focus our attention on something positive, it makes us go out, activates us on a physiological level and generates physical effort to regulate rest. Physical exercise helps us on a physiological, emotional, psychological and hormonal level.
3. Avoid overinformation
Avoid the pink elephant, if you are in that loop, try to reduce and get out of it. Try to avoid letting your life revolve around anxiety. I know you suffer when you suffer, but remember that quicksand. This does not mean that you ignore it, if there is a problem, sometimes we need that help to overcome it, but it does mean that you have to live around anxiety.
