Stress Factor 1
What is Anxiety?
Most people who go through anxiety ask what it is.
So what is anxiety?
Anxiety is a natural response of the human body, and it helps us to make judgments every day with no problems or ill effects encountered.
When anxiety gets out of control, it can become a problem for the person enduring it.
This scenario may help you understand how anxiety works and how it may effect you:
You are standing on a busy road junction waiting to cross the road.
Out of the corner of you eye you see a bus coming directly towards you.
You get a fright and move back a few steps, because you really think that bus is going to hit you.
The driver who is in control of the bus turns the steering wheel and the bus passes you by without hitting you.
You were anxious for the few seconds that you thought the bus was going to hit you.
This is the type of anxiety that we all experience every day, and it should cause no problems to our way of thinking, or our way of life.
We walk away thinking that the driver of that bus was a bit to close for your liking.
These are the natural types of reactions that we all go through every day.
This type of anxiety should pass by very quickly as we continue to concentrate on the everyday issues that we have set out to do.
That's the end of it, and we move on from it without giving it a second thought.
Now let's take the scenario with the bus a little bit further forward so that we can understand how anxiety can effect some people:
The bus passes you by, but in your mind you think that the driver of the bus was not being careful.
You go away thinking that the driver had no control over that bus, and that your life was endangered by his actions.
Instead of moving on from that incident, you start playing different scenarios over in your mind so that it's the only thing on your mind. These are the 'it could have been thoughts', or 'it might have been' thoughts.
You have no need to think about what happened once you have moved away from that everyday occurrence, but in your mind it has become an issue.
It has become an issue in your head.
If this incident were to go on for a long time, it will increase your anxiety levels even higher.
For most people this is a matter that doesn't require a second thought as they move on with what they've got to do.
This may show you how anxiety works, and through it, you will learn that it's in your way of thinking.
People get anxious for many reasons as a natural reaction, but when it goes on for a long time on the same issue, it can become debilitating until you settle down again.
People go through anxiety for a whole host of reasons.
It can be work related, marriage, housing, money needs and the other things in life that we have to deal with on a daily basis.
Modern life has become more stressful, and there are more things in todays society to stress us all out.
When we understand how anxiety works, we can start addressing the problems.
No one chooses to go through anxiety or depression, and they don't choose to go into that way of thinking, but once they get it, they need to learn how to change their way of thinking so that it is no longer a problem.
Anxiety and depression is controlled by your way of thinking, and it can be very uncomfortable for some people. But this way of thinking can be overcome if you are willing to learn how to relax.
Most people think that when they are sitting or lying down on their backs they are relaxing, and in part they are right.
But there is no point in doing that if you are not going to learn how to relax the brain, which is where the problems are created in the first place.
It takes time to learn the process of relaxation and thinking in a different way, but it can be done if you want to reduce your anxieties and depression.
Many people go through anxiety and depression every year, and they get over it.
Some people learn through their own experiences.
What is anxiety written by Andrew Murphy 14 February 2008
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