When does anxiety become a problem

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is an emotion that we all experience throughout our lives. It is normal and necessary as it is a response to events or situations. It appears when we interpret a situation as threatening, either because we are in danger or because the situation presents us with a challenge or a problem to solve.

Sometimes, anxiety can be harmful especially when it is not serving to adapt to the environment. This happens when anxiety hinders performance and begins to be negative, because it causes suffering and does not serve to solve the causes that motivate it.

What are the symptoms that anxiety can cause and can they be aggravated in the current pandemic situation?

We can speak of three general aspects in the experience of anxiety:

  • Thoughts or interpretations that are generated when anxiety appears. Through them we evaluate whether the situation involves danger or not. They are usually anticipations that something bad may happen, negative self-evaluations regarding not being capable or recurrent concern about the same issues.
  • Behaviors that we do when we feel anxiety; the most frequent are motor agitation (doing things faster), repeatedly moving a part of the body (for example, the leg), running, etc.
  • Physical and/or emotional reactions. Strong heartbeat, agitated breathing, muscular tension, frustration, discomfort, insecurity, etc.

As we mentioned before, anxiety appears when we perceive threats. The current pandemic situation caused by the coronavirus is, in itself, a threat to many important aspects of our lives.

We are living in a situation of objective risk at the health level, as well as uncertainty at a labor and social level. We do not feel a sense of control as we did months ago; we do not know how events will unfold and we cannot make too many long-term plans. We all have family members or friends whose situation worries us and we are alert on a daily basis to avoid possible risky situations that could lead to a possible contagion.

All this will cause us to experience frequent levels of anxiety and alertness and sometimes these reactions, which a priori may be adaptive, could become a clinical problem generating a significant interference in daily life.

In summary, anxiety in this situation is necessary but there may be times when it is not adaptive because it does not allow us to go about our daily lives “normally”.

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How can people close to a patient with anxiety help?

It is important to understand that anxiety may not be rational, but that does not mean that it is not felt and does not generate suffering. Understanding is the cornerstone of helping someone with anxiety, as usually these people do not feel supported and may come to think that they are weaker for what is happening to them.

  • Try not to relativize the person’s suffering with expressions such as “it’s not that bad” or “you are exaggerating”.
  • Encourage people to express their fears and emotions freely, without making value judgments.
  • Remind people of their own resources or qualities that can help them cope with what is happening. In those moments, we may feel more insecure and not perceive that we have coping skills that we can deploy in the face of anxiety.
  • Not to push for recovery or “getting well” but to make ourselves available to help with whatever the person needs.

When is it recommended for a person to see a psychologist if they suspect they have anxiety?

Anxiety in itself is not a clinical problem. And then, when is it, when should we consider going to a professional?

We speak of anxiety problems or disorders when anxiety is intense or lasts too long; when it can cause us a level of suffering that creates too much interference and affects all areas of our life.

In many occasions the symptoms to pay attention to are:

  • Sleep problems
  • Appetite disturbances
  • Problems in sexual relations
  • State of permanent worry
  • Isolation
  • Physical ailments resulting from stress
  • Decrease in self-care or rewarding activities.

What is the treatment to be followed?

In general, anxiety problems are intervened from a cognitive-behavioral approach. As mentioned above, anxiety is composed of thoughts, reactions and behaviors.

The therapy will be directed to make more flexible those thoughts that often increase the suffering, and to change the behaviors that cause anxiety to perpetuate over time.

Specifically, we work on the irrational thoughts that usually provoke anxiety through cognitive discussion techniques. On the other hand, exposure techniques are used to restore the activities that the person has stopped doing because of feeling insecure or anxious. In some cases, relaxation techniques based on breathing control may also be applied to manage physiological symptoms.

For more information about anxiety and its treatment, contact a specialist in Psychology.