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High Anxiety |
Send comments or questions to webmaster Dr. Diane Knight. Last updated on July 15, 2007. Copyright © 2007 Mason Counseling & Psychological Services |
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Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Recurring fears, worries or persistent sense of something bad happening. The reason for the intense feelings may be hard to identify.
Panic disorder
Sudden, intense, unprovoked feelings of terror or dread which often lead to concern about when another attack will occur; one frequent way of coping is to restrict activities in hopes of limiting the possibility of another attack.
Phobias
Intense fears about certain objects or situations. Specific phobias involve things such as certain animals or flying in airplanes. Social phobia is fear of social settings or public places.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Persistent, uncontrollable, unwanted feelings or thoughts and routines in which individuals engage to try to prevent or rid themselves of these thoughts. Examples include excessive hand washing or house cleaning for fear of germs or excessively checking something for errors.
Post-traumatic stress disorder
An individual who experienced severe physical or emotional trauma such as a natural disaster, an accident, a crime may experience anxious thoughts, feelings and behaviors when reminders of the traumatic event are encountered.
While anxiety disorders can begin at anytime, they often begin in adolescence or early adulthood. In some disorders, there is evidence of a genetic or family predisposition.
Where Is Help Available?
Managing anxiety requires the development of new skills, behaviors and thinking processes. While you may be able to learn some of these on your own, you may find it helpful to seek the assistance of professionals who are trained to deal with anxiety issues.
Counseling and Psychological Services on campus, offers several options to assist you in addressing anxiety concerns:
Workshops on anxiety management, stress management, biofeedback, procrastination, assertiveness, and communication in relationships are some of the programs available to assist you in developing new management skills. See our brochure for specific programs.
The Self-Help Library offers many materials that you can use on your own or in conjunction with counseling. A self instructional guide describing these materials and others on-campus is available.
Individual counseling is available to assist you in assessing your concerns about anxiety and how to address them.
Referrals for services in the community, including psychiatric assessments for medication.
What Is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a physiological state which calls you to action, motivating you to engage in productive behaviors such as studying for a test, finishing a project, asking someone out.
When Is Anxiety a Problem?
When it affects your daily life such as you . . .
Anxiety which disrupts your life may fit one of these disorders
How Can You Manage Your Anxiety?
Managing anxiety means practicing the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of good self-care. The following areas need to be part of a comprehensive anxiety management program. For managing high anxiety all these areas need to be considered. If your anxiety is more intermittently a difficulty for you, you may want to pick and choose some areas to focus on.
Physical Level
Physiological responses of body tension, poor breathing, and bodily reactions to cumulative stress as well as dietary and nutritional factors. Do you:
Practice deep breathing when feeling anxious?
Use relaxation strategies such as deep muscle relaxation, meditation or biofeedback?
Exercise regularly, particularly doing aerobic exercise?
Exclude from your diet stimulants and substances that stress the body such as excess caffeine, sugar, nicotine, salt or alcohol?
Assertiveness in your interactions with others will help to decrease feelings of helplessness and anxiety. Do you . . .
Assert yourself, ie. Ask for what you want and stand up for your rights?
Say no to some things you do not want to do?
Feel you avoid being manipulated by others?
Handling feelings in a healthy way keeps anxiety levels down.
Do you tend to ignore feelings?
Are you able to identify your feelings?
Do you hesitate or refuse to express your feelings rather than take the risk of hurting someone or being hurt yourself?
Do you avoid anger at just about any cost?
Phobias and panic can be very frightening when they occur. You can learn to anticipate them and how to respond when they occur. Can you . . .
Keep a perspective that it is just a reaction of your body and not a serious health problem, i.e. deflate the perceived danger.
Learn to talk gently and calmly to yourself, using your repertoire of skills developed in above areas such as more productive self-talk, deep breathing and muscle relaxation.
For phobias, learn about imagery desensitization and how to use it for yourself
Mental Level
What you say to yourself about a situation determines your feelings and behaviors in that situation. Managing anxiety often involves changing the messages you give to yourself to be more positive. Do the messages you give yourself :
Include excessive "what-if" thinking in which you imagine the worst possible outcome before facing the situation?
Judge and evaluate you in very critical ways?
Say you are supposed to be perfect, that what you do is not good enough?
Say you cannot change the situation and you are helpless to have any impact?
Show worry about how others respond to you or what they think of you
Medical LevelContinued difficulty with anxiety interfering with your daily life may be addressed by using medication. An assessment by your physician or a psychiatrist can help to decide if medication would be helpful for you.