Understanding Anxiety

Have you ever experienced anxiety? I wouldn't hesitate to say that out of 100 adults surveyed, all 100 would tell you they have experienced some form of anxiety. Anxiety is a normal part of our existence. In the early years of man, anxiety and adrenalin served the purpose of keeping us alert to approaching danger. This kept us alive. Today, the anxiety that many of us feel is in response to ever increasing daily responsibilities and no increase in the amount of time available to take care of those responsibilities.

Some people, however, experience a far worse condition of anxiety. Anxiety attacks, or panic attacks, as they are often referred to, rob individuals of their ability to function normally. Fear seizes their mind, numbing their ability to think and process thought clearly. They are afraid to even breathe at times and sometimes unable to breathe normally.

This is a debilitating condition. Can you imagine being gripped by fear and panic, to the point that you could not even accomplish a simple trip to the grocery store? It is a daily situation for many adults. The greatest dilemma faced by the panic stricken individual is the isolation many feel, and the inability to reach out to someone for help. The very nature of the disease isolates the patient, and makes treatment options seem nonexistent. Seeking treatment would mean that they had to exist outside the comfort zone of their home, or their bedroom.

Often a person will experience circumstances that bring on severe anxiety or panic, and once the circumstances causing the panic are resolved or dissipate, so does the anxiety. I don't believe you can go through your entire adult life, and never experience some form of heightened anxiety. If you have responsibilities, children, loved ones, and friends, there is probably going to be a situation that causes you to experience severe anxiety. Some people never experience an attack. But many do, and for those people, it is a fleeting thing. But every once in a while, someone experiences anxiety and panic, and it begins to grow inside them. It consumes their life. For these people, simple responsibilities become scary situations.

The good news, in fact the only bright spot I can see, in this disease, is that it is a condition readily treatable with counseling and the use of self-help techniques including meditation, mild medications, and biofeedback. Empowering the individual and allowing them to take part in their own treatment is in itself a way to stop the anxiety and panic. Once an individual begins to feel they are in control of their lives, again, you are even closer to banishing the overwhelming anxiety and panic. Since the onset of this disease is worsened by the individuals belief in their inability to control their daily lives, reestablishing control is absolutely necessary.

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Martin Myers medical background has given him a unique perspective on debilitating mental and emotional conditions. He writes about them on his blog "Understanding Anxiety" at www.understanding-anxiety.com