Anxiety. AGAIN!

It starts with a tightness in the chest. You try to ignore it and go about your everyday tasks. The things that would otherwise do easily, make you breathless. An overwhelm wraps you and you feel like you’re wasting your day but your thoughts get foggy and you find yourself emptied of all strength to focus.

This is anxiety. Again.

The first author of a study that has been published in the ‘Communications Biology Journal’, Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez says, “The findings in the study tell us that anxiety disorders might be more than a lack of awareness of the environment or ignorance of safety, but rather that individuals suffering from an anxiety disorder cannot control their feelings and behavior even if they wanted to. The patients with an anxiety disorder could rationally say- I’m in a safe space- but we found their brain was behaving as if it was not.”

Only a year ago, World Health Organization director (mental health) Devora Kestel had said that poor mental health has become a parallel pandemic. Anxiety, one of the major depressive disorders has increased globally by 26% as an impact of the Covid-19 health crisis. According to a 204-country study published in ‘The Lancet’, the number of people suffering from anxiety rose 35% in the period.

While everybody has it a little different, it is usually associated with physical symptoms that make it difficult to focus and be productive.

I will begin by saying that you must see a doctor if your symptoms are unmanageable.

I did not know until recently that what I was suffering from is anxiety and not a physical disorder. My anxiety is mostly mild, and the symptoms are manageable. So I started researching methods and ways to deal with it when it seems to overpower me. The aim is to go about the day with minimum pain.

It was relieving to see many people come out and speak openly about their experiences with anxiety. They spoke about their relationship with anxiety and how they have begun to feel about it. I intend to do the same.

I am not sure if hydration helps, but being dehydrated doesn’t make me feel good. So I would begin with the basics: a good diet, hydration, exercise, and sleep. A study published in the Journal of Preventive Medicine showed that spending some time outdoors is directly linked to experiencing lower levels of anxiety. Recent research has also found that less anxiety was observed among people who exercised more during the initial lockdown period. Not eating well, being dehydrated, or being sleep-deficient will make you feel worse.

Doing breathing exercises, taking a break from work, and just taking some time to read a book or have a warm beverage can help you ease the mild symptoms.

But finally, if nothing helps, the key is to surrender.

Think about it, isn’t anxiety a form of urgency that your body is communicating to you. Isn’t anxiety a visible outburst of the underlying pressure and worry that was simmering just under your skin? And why did it take the humongous form? Isn’t it because you were not attending to it?

Nobody likes to feel the pain. The aim is to always feel better. But maybe, through this anxiety, your body is asking you to confront it for once.

Lie down in a comfortable place. Take a seat if you wish. Take a few intentional deep breaths.

Try to imagine how the elders in your family were. Think about the amount of struggle they had to survive for you to be alive now. Think about how the people in your life have shaped a lot of what you are. Reminisce the bitter-sweet childhood memories. Think about the memories that take you to places and also the ones that transfixed you in the past. Think about the vacations that you have had and the punishments that you have been awarded by your school teachers. Think about the number of choices that you made in the past that have brought you where you are today. By now you already have a sense of fortune and fate that has brought you where you are in life.

Try bringing your conscience to the present moment. Pay attention to every sound that you can hear and realize how you cannot hold on to it for a moment after it’s gone. Pay attention to the sensations in your body. Think about how the anxiety makes you feel and know that you have the strength to face it all.

By now, you may be a little more in control of the situation than you were before. The anxiety only gets mild before disappearing.

Anxiety brings with it two fears. The first fear comes almost reflexively and the patient recoils from it. The second fear is the one added by the patient to the first fear. The second fear is the fear of dealing with anxiety over and over again and not being productive in the phase. In the words of Claire Weekes, “The second fear keeps our first fear alive, keeping the sufferer sensitized and nervously ill.” It is the second fear we need to fight with all our might.

References to data:

The study that finds an association between mental health and exercise, here.

The study that finds anxiety cues in the brain despite the safe environment, here.

The study that mentions increase in anxiety as an impact of the pandemic, here.