Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time – it is a normal human emotion, after all. We feel nervous or anxious at work, before a big exam or when making crucial decisions in our life.
For some, however, anxiety goes beyond being just a passing feeling. Instead, it causes such great distress that affects their ability to live a normal life. This is when anxiety becomes a disorder.
Mild anxiety is vague and unsettling, while severe anxiety can be extremely debilitating, having a serious impact on daily life.
However, the good news is that no matter what the reason of anxiety is, one can manage or handle it effectively. Conversely, if ignored, anxiety can become devastating and unmanageable.
HIGH LEVELS OF ANXIETY AND STRESS CAN SHORTEN LIFESPAN BY UP TO SIX YEARS
Scientists have placed increasing emphasis on the science of telomeres over the past decade, as they continue to uncover how these zipper-like structures that bind our genetic destiny can prematurely shorten in response to environmental and lifestyle factors. Prior studies have found that our telomeres
CAUSES OF ANXIETY
The exact cause of anxiety disorders is still unknown, but has been linked to chemical imbalances in the brain, as well as environmental stressors – or a combination of the two.
There are many external factors that may contribute to anxiety. These include: stress from school, stress in a personal relationship, stress at work, financial stress, stress that results from an emotional trauma such as the loss of a loved one, victimization by crime, a natural disaster, sexual abuse or physical abuse, side effects of medication, stress form a serious illness, intoxication with an illicit drug like amphetamines or cocaine, noticing symptoms of a severe medical illness, and lack of oxygen (as a result of emphysema, pulmonary embolism, altitude sickness).
Ayurveda states that to be free from anxiety the emotional state as well as the mental state of a patient must be balanced and should be in equilibrium. The reason behind the anxiety disorders in Ayurveda is the unhealthy adaptation of physical and mental type leading into the mental imbalance. The improper diet and life style that leads the disturbed state of mind causes the negative feelings that overwhelm the mind.
ANXIETY AS ILLNESS
Research on the physiology of anxiety-related illness is still young, but there is growing evidence of mutual influence between emotions and physical functioning. Yet anxiety often goes unidentified as a source of other disorders, such as substance abuse or physical addiction that can result from attempts to quell feelings of anxiety and it is often overlooked in chronic conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or migraine headache.
Nearly two-thirds of the estimated 57 million adults with anxiety disorders are women. What people with these disorders have in common is unwarranted fear or distress that interferes with daily life. Anxiety also plays a role in somatoform disorders, which are characterized by physical symptoms such as pain, nausea, weakness, or dizziness that have no apparent physical cause.
Anxiety has now been implicated in several chronic physical illnesses, including heart disease, chronic respiratory disorders, and gastrointestinal conditions. When people with these disorders have untreated anxiety, the disease itself is more difficult to treat, their physical symptoms often become worse, and in some cases they die sooner.
THE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL EFFECTS OF ANXIETY
Whether in small doses or in larger amounts with an anxiety disorder, anxiety can cause multiple physical symptoms. Many of the effects of anxiety on the body can make the patient feel ill.
Occasionally, the physical effects of anxiety can be really inconvenient and embarrassing. For example, a businessman anxious about meeting people may find that his palms are damp with perspiration, and this can make personal introductions and shaking hands into an ordeal. (If you shake hands with someone whose palms are sweating, you know he is anxious – and it simply isn’t very pleasant, anyway).
Anxiety can have an effect on both your body and your mind.
Physical effects
Short-term effects:
Long-term effects:
Psychological effects
Anxiety can make you more fearful, alert, on edge, irritable, and unable to relax or concentrate. You may feel an overwhelming desire to seek the reassurance of others, to be weepy and dependent.
The way you think can be affected. If you fear that the worst is going to happen, you may start to see everything negatively and become very pessimistic. For example, if a friend is late, you may imagine and worry that he or she has had an accident or does not want to see you; even though your friend may simply be late because their train was delayed.
EMOTIONAL STRATEGIES CAN INFLUENCE ANXIETY
New research findings suggest that the way emotions are regulated can influence if or how much a person may suffer from anxiety. Those who engage in an emotional regulation strategy called reappraisal also tended to have less social anxiety and less anxiety in general than those who avoid expressing their feelings. (Emotion, published online May 13, 2013)
CONTROLLING ANXIETY – HOW TO COOL THE FIRE
As you may have discovered from your own experience, anxiety can develop almost anywhere and at any time.
Treating anxiety is possible. For successful anxiety treatment it is important to use a variety of techniques and find out which ones are effective for you. No single technique will work for everyone. Often the healing process does take time. With stress and anxiety, healing is not something that you do once and then are finished. Usually symptoms are recurrent. They go away for a while and then come up again.
Diet and lifestyle changes are vital in bringing anxiety under control.
Use Natural Treatment For Anxiety
Living with anxiety is never easy. Situations that others can sail through without a thought can be crippling to someone with anxiety. The pharmaceutical drug regime has concocted an assortment of anti-anxiety medications, but many users report these drugs only mask symptoms, cause uncomfortable side.
MORE TIPS TO COMBAT ANXIETY
If you really want to effectively manage your anxiety, the key is to accept it. This might sound counterintuitive. But anxiety, “in and of itself,” is not the real problem. Instead, it is our attempts at controlling and eliminating it. Not accepting these unwanted inner experiences is the actual source of so much of our self-induced suffering.
Accepting anxiety does not mean “resigning ourselves to a life of anxious misery. It simply means that we are better off recognizing and fully accepting the existence of anxiety and other uncomfortable emotional states that are inevitable, but transitory.
So if you experience anxiety today, simply observe it. Think of it like a wave of the ocean, allow it to come in, experience it, and ride it out.
VEDAS OFFERS SOLUTION TO FIGHT ANXIETY
The Vedas in their inimitable mantras and chants offer a wide variety of solutions to overcome stress, anxiety and depression. It puts the senses directly in touch with the source of energy, which directly powers the senses, the senses power the mind there by canalizing the mind in the right direction, to think right, and do things right. It brings clarity of thought and sets it to do constructive action and work, thereby increasing self- confidence and self worth.
Listen to the Vedic chants from “Eliminate Stress, Anxiety and Depression” cd from Ojas Foundation. The Vedic mantras in this cd are specifically chosen to help fill your mind with the right energy which eventually leads to clarity of thoughts.
The mantras seep into the mind and remove the root cause of stress, anxiety and depression and builds and fills the mind with right form of energy, which helps the individual to realize the presence of the ‘Atman’ the self which leads to the realization of the ‘Being’ or the oneness with the ‘Paramatman’.
Ojas Foundation also offers anxiety reduction program where issues relating to anxiety are addressed and solutions given under expert guidance.
In our Anxiety reduction program
We help you to reduce anxiety by identifying
Our class features consists of techniques like:
Anxiety can feel overwhelming. It can feel like chains around your feet, weighing you down but by taking small steps – like the ones above – you can minimize your anxiety and cope effectively.