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Anxiety and How it Affects
Your Quality of Life

Anxiety. . . good vs. bad and its effect on the quality of life

We all suffer anxious moments from time-to-time. Anxiety experienced at different levels, different times, and in different forms happens to nearly everyone when faced with a new or unusual situation. Many situations can produce anxiety in all of us. Some common situations that may trigger anxiety include test-taking, visiting the dentist or doctor and even driving.

Recognizing anxiety is not always simple. It may be perceived as anger, a bad mood, being fickle, rude or fretful. Your anxiety may be mild, moderate or severe. Common to all anxious states in varying degrees is irrational fearfulness, uneasiness, physical tension and confusion directly related to the same degree as the severity of the anxiety being experienced. Anxiety, at all levels, is a reaction to stress, frustration or unresolved anger. It's your body's way of alerting you to some unperceived emotional conflict.

Mild anxiety can be viewed as a condition of life. Common forms of mild anxiety are not very troublesome. They may disrupt your life, but only temporarily. Most instances of anxiety are mild or "low grade" and are self-limited. People learn to either ignore their anxiety, deal with it, or simply wait for it to go away with the situation that aroused it initially. They can keep anxiety from interfering with their lives.

Problem anxiety however, should not be viewed as casually. It may cause suffering, damage your self-esteem and impair the quality of your life. Problem anxiety can be recognized by its ongoing, intense and incapacitating qualities. There are no benefits to problem anxiety.

It can cause emotional or physical discomfort affecting your life. Ongoing worry or fear takes over. It may cause you to experience headaches, muscle tension, sleep and eating disturbances, sweating, and the feeling that there's a lump in your throat. Problem anxiety can cause you to withdraw from work or social and family relationships.

Some warning signs of problem anxiety:

• Impairment of everyday functions. You may find that assignments at work are going undone or that you're easily distracted, reviewing items over and over again. At home, life has become less organized, even chaotic. You may find that you're reluctant to drive out of your neighborhood and can't explain why.
   

• Verbal emotional attacks or even hostile physical outbreaks. Feeling overwhelmed or even totally incompetent may cause you to yell at your spouse or kids, slam doors, break dishes or otherwise loose control.
    

• Dependent or compulsive behavior. You may become compulsive with perfectionism, hoarding, list-making, talking incessantly, or repetitively asking for reassurance and many more "compulsive type behaviors".
   

• Withdrawal from daily activities. This may occur when you feel inadequate or uncomfortable about sharing your feelings. You would rather avoid others than have to commit emotionally. Your anxiety in this case not only can stop you from accepting invitations or dates, but even from getting friendly with co-workers.

Other symptoms of anxiety may include:

• A feeling of being smothered, shortness of breath, dizziness, choking or difficulty swallowing.

• Shaking, sweating, trembling, chills, chest pain, nausea, numbness or tingling sensations.

• Heart palpitations, or rapid heart beat.

• Fear of dying, of going crazy, or of being out of control.

• Feeling unreal or in an environment that is unreal or changed.

If you find yourself experiencing any of these behaviors or symptoms, then anxiety may be handicapping your life. Determining when professional intervention is needed can be difficult; a line between problem anxiety and normal worry is not always clear. People suffering from problem anxiety may simply attribute it to everyday stress. However, psychotherapy can play a valuable role in treating problem anxiety. It works by helping patients understand triggers of the anxiety and then modify the problem behavior. Medicine combined with therapy may also be a beneficial treatment option. Relaxation techniques have proved helpful as well.

While professional help can be of benefit in treating all degrees of anxiety, there are some steps you can take to help "unlock" what may be troubling you.

• Talk it over with someone. Find what's causing you to suffer. Determine how it is affecting your life. Talking about your fear can put it in a new light and offer helpful ways to deal with what's bothering you.

• Write it down. Getting your thoughts and reactions down on paper and reading them over may help you get in touch with your feelings and give you a greater understanding of yourself.

Surprisingly, anxiety can be a positive force in your life. It's your body's way of telling you something is wrong, that change is needed, that you need to slow down and examine your fear. Anxiety can motivate you to examine your life and deal with conflicts for change and a better life. The first step in managing any level of anxiety to determine how to put it to work for you. We may all feel anxious over life's events — illness, job security, relationships.

Remember, it's normal to feel anxious every so often. What's important is to try to put your anxiety in perspective and to use it as a tool to learning how to cope with problems as they arise, rather than having them control you.

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