Anxiety is a normal human response to danger or threat. Anxiety helps protect us from harm and makes it more likely that we’ll survive. In other words, it helps keep us safe.
In fact, anxiety can be good most of the time. If you came face to face with a tiger, anxiety would tell your body to prepare to fight or run away. If you feel anxious about a job interview, you will likely prepare carefully. This could increase your chance of getting the job.
Anxiety becomes a problem when it is more intense than it should be for a given situation, lasts longer than it should, or interferes with our ability to function in daily life.
Everyone experiences some anxiety at some point in their lives. When you feel anxious, it can seem as though you are the only one who feels that way. In reality, anxiety can affect anyone at any time.
Anxiety & Emotions
When a person is feeling anxious, they experience unpleasant emotions. These include:
- Fear
- Nervousness
- Insecurity
- Uneasiness
These emotions are normal. With anxiety, it is often the intensity and duration of these emotions that can be challenging to handle. A person who is anxious can often feel overwhelmed by these unpleasant emotions. Then, they try to avoid situations that cause them.
Anxiety & Thoughts
When a person is feeling anxious, the way they think becomes distorted. A person experiencing anxiety may:
- Over-estimate the chance of danger
- Over-estimate the level of risk
- Under-estimate their ability to handle it
Many people who feel anxious spend a lot of time worrying. Worrying about what might happen can make anxiety worse. It feeds into thoughts that we don’t have the ability to handle things. The more time we spend worrying, the less we can be realistic about the chance of danger or level of risk in a given situation.
Anxiety & Physical Sensations
When a person feels very anxious, their body responds in a powerful way as it prepares to face the threat.
These intense physical sensations can be overwhelming. They can often make a person feel like they will faint, lose control, or die. The physical sensations associated with anxiety are:
Anxiety & Behaviours
When a person is feeling anxious, the way they behave on a day-to-day basis is affected. The emotions and physical responses that come with anxiety can be extremely unpleasant. As a result, many people experiencing anxiety will avoid situations that cause their anxiety.
Although this can help reduce anxiety at the time, in the long-term it can keep us from valuable life experiences or opportunities. It stops us from taking the opportunity to practice coping skills.
We have partnered with Sivercloud to offer you free access to a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) self-help programme, designed by clinical experts using proven methods for helping people, all with the aim of empowering you to think and feel better.
This programme is based on the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
CBT consists of two key steps to feeling well:
- Understanding what’s going on inside you
- Making changes to feel better
The key idea behind CBT is that your emotions, thoughts, behaviours and physical sensations are connected, and affect each other.
Simply choose your programme on SilverCloud. When prompted to sign up, you will need an access code to enable you to create your account and use this resource. The access code is kwnelselfhelp