Letting Go of Anxiety: It May Be Easier Than You Think!
We have ALL experienced anxiety at one point or another in our lives. It is that gnawing sense that something is wrong, even if we are not sure exactly what. The American Psychological Association defined anxiety as: “an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure.” Simply put, anxiety is uncomfortable.
While many may experience periodic anxiety related to the events or circumstances in our lives, some of us develop more chronic anxiety that can have a negative impact on our emotional well-being or day-to-day functioning. Anxiety is a very common issue that leads people to seek out mental health treatment in order to get support in overcoming the challenges that it presents.
The Good News: Anxiety is HIGHLY Treatable
The APA noted that anxiety disorders are highly treatable and that most people respond positively to therapy. In fact, the APA reported that many experience the reduction or elimination of symptoms of anxiety after several—or fewer—months of treatment and that some feel relief even after a few sessions. This is great news! Unfortunately, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America reports that under 37% of folks dealing with anxiety disorders receive treatment. I can only speculate as to why that is. My guess would be that some combination of lack of access to mental health resources, stigma, and lack of access to mental health awareness all play roles in the prior statistic. That being said, help is available and regardless of your income status you deserve support to help you overcome your anxiety. Lets look at some ways we might understand anxiety more fully so that we can move towards healing it.
Getting Anxious About Your Anxiety Only Makes it Worse!
This is a point commonly cited in the evidenced-based therapy model called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. When we get anxious about our anxiety, we effectively are developing an anxiety feedback loop. This is not only unhelpful in terms of relieving anxiety, it actually most often makes it worse. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss some ways to minimize the potential of getting anxious about anxiety itself. Please note, that these ideas are introductory and should not replace seeking help if you need it!
Anxiety as a Cycle
Let’s take a look at the anxiety feedback loop a little more fully. As I stated in the last paragraph, when we get anxious about our anxiety we develop an anxiety feedback loop. In this light, it may be more helpful to think of anxiety as a cycle rather than an isolated event. According to Cognitive-Behavioral theory, this cycle is held together by our thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors. The anxiety feedback loop predisposes us to interpret our experience through a lens of fear and worry, and when we do we are likely to alter our behavior to avoid whatever triggers anxiety in us. Therefore, from a CBT perspective it is best to become aware of the thoughts that contribute to our anxiety and to truly examine their validity. In this examination, its possible we may arrive at alternate conclusions than the ones we accustomed to; conclusions that are outside of the anxiety feedback loop. From a CBT perspective cognitive distortions often contribute to anxiety. So we want to be able to ask ourselves if we are stuck in unhelpful thinking patterns, and if we are to try to develop new ways of thinking about our experience. A therapist can help guide you through this process, and often it can bring significant relief from anxiety.
Anxiety as Physiological, or Somatic Sensations
In the anxiety cycle, thoughts are not the ONLY aspect of our experience that are present. Rather, accompanying thoughts are physiological, or somatic (simply a word for our felt-sense of our bodies) sensations. Often these sensations are uncomfortable as in the experience of bodily tension, irritation, the feeling of being ungrounded, or even an increased heart rate. In the anxiety feedback loop, what can happen is that we can say to ourselves these sensations shouldn’t be happening. Of course, this is natural to say. Instinctively we want to move away from discomfort. However, the problem is that when we tell ourselves that something shouldn’t be happening when it is already happening, we are most likely going to experience more anxiety. Why is that? Because in rejecting what is happening for us already, we may feel paradoxically less in control which can then feedback into our anxiety. Therefore, many approaches to the treatment of anxiety such as ACT, CBT with exposure therapy, and mindfulness based treatments actually suggest that we learn to tolerate or observe the uncomfortable experiences rather than trying to suppress, avoid, or judge them.
Mindfulness & Self-Observation
For many, the suggestion of learning to observe or tolerate these sensations associated with anxiety is sort of underwhelming. “But I want the sensations to go away!” Of course everyone wants relief, it is only natural. I have experienced chronic pain, so I really understand. However, because anxiety is a cycle we have to be aware of the parts that keep that cycle in place… And the evidence shows that trying to reject our experience typically feeds back into the anxiety. Thus, rather than replicate this cycle, the suggestion is to learn the capacity to observe without reacting. This is really what the practice of mindfulness is. It is a kind of self-observation where we learn to notice our mental patterns without stepping inside of them.
The mindfulness that is practiced in the mental health field originated in the context Buddhist thought and practice. In Buddhist thought, suffering or dis-satisfaction is caused by attachment or aversion. Now this can go as deep as you’d like it… However, the main point here is that this is exactly the same for anxiety. As natural as it may be, aversion to the physiological and somatic experience of anxiety actually increases our suffering. Therefore, to practice observing without reacting allows us to more readily accept our present-centered experience, which while it may include sensations that we calling “anxiety,” likely also includes other sensations, the space around those sensations, and the observation of those sensations. In other words, mindfulness or meditation allows us to widen our mental aperture which so often gets narrowed when we are in an anxiety feedback loop.
Final Thoughts and Suggestions
Anxiety is challenging to cope with, but it can get better. Sometimes people get better quickly, sometimes it takes longer. Regardless, there are practical steps you can take to reduce the impact of anxiety in your life. Therapy can be extremely helpful in helping folks get unstuck from the anxiety feedback loop. Learning to identify our thoughts that contribute to anxiety can help us choose alternative ways of understanding ourselves and our experience that don’t contribute to the cycle of anxiety. Self-observation or mindfulness practices help us learn to observe without reacting which ultimately helps us to reduce our anxiety over time. For folks new to mindfulness, there are many apps that teach this practice. Head space and Calm are apps with a variety of guided approaches to meditation. I personally recommend the work of Dr. Richard Miller and iRest which is an evidenced-based guided meditation practice shown to help with depression, anxiety, and trauma. iRest actively supports us in cultivating the skills to observe without reacting to our body sensations. It also helps us cultivate a relaxed state of body and mind. I also wrote this blog post on tips to develop a regular meditation practice. Read more about my approach to anxiety, or contact me for a free phone consultation about how therapy can help.