By Tina Smith, M.Ed., LPC

Society has taken the seriousness of the word “anxiety” and thrown it around haphazardly as well as desensitized it over the years. Everyone has some sense of feeling anxious or nervous, but for others, anxiety can cause unwanted debilitating symptoms.

Worrying is a natural phenomenon that interrupts a sense of peace. We constantly worry throughout the day, some more than others. How we choose to manage it is often more important than the worry itself. If I have the power to change an outcome then there would be no need to worry, be anxious, or afraid. But that is just it! Feeling powerless to change the outcome can produce crippling anxiety. However, understanding this possibility creates an awareness of your position to manage your emotions.

Often, we learn to deal with anxiety through on-the-job training, pulling from past experiences, or learning from others. Unfortunately, there is no cookie-cutter way of managing anxiety. Developing an understanding of how anxiety manifests is key to managing it.

Let us begin with a good understanding of anxiety. Two types of anxiety that tend to have devastating effects are situational anxiety and generalized anxiety. Situational anxiety presents as a moment-to-moment anxiousness for a predetermined set of events. For example, you may worry if a loved one made it home safely or if you made a good impression on your new boss. Generalized anxiety presents itself as complex and at times crippling. Generalized anxiety is a constant state of worry. For example, fear of worrying about what others think or a constant fear of failing can prevent you from pursuing possibilities. More concerning is the level of stress associated with generalized anxiety.

Developing a system to manage anxiety-induced stress is extremely challenging for individuals with generalized anxiety. Surprisingly, understanding the causes of stress is less important than reducing the symptoms of stress. This is because we tend to feel the physiological effects before processing the cause of the stress. These physiological effects include rapid heartbeat, tightness in the muscles and chest, lightheadedness, and many other symptoms. By reducing the physiological effects of stress first, an individual can process and manage the stress-causing events more successfully.

If you consider your breathing at this very moment, you may notice shallow breaths. However, if you allow yourself to think of a particularly stressful uncontrollable situation and then scan your body for increased tension you will notice the uncomfortable sensations. Now take a moment to deep breath with a slow 5 count in and 5 count out a few times. By releasing this tension, you place yourself in a peaceful state to process your thoughts and begin to make sense of your world. As a therapist I teach my clients awareness of their personalized set of symptoms and behaviors that contribute to their mental wellbeing. They then become involved in tailoring their treatment plan.

I am encouraged by the bible references that speak of managing anxiety and finding peace. It expresses that “He (our creator) did not give us a spirit of fear…but of a sound mind,” as well as saying that “He gives us peace that surpasses all understanding.” If you can believe in these statements, you will tap into a mental space that will allow resiliency to manage your life.