Anxiety & Panic
We all experience anxiety when we feel stressed and overwhelmed by things that we have to deal with in life. Often mild anxiety can help to motivate us to do things or perform better, but at a severe level it can have a paralysing effect, stopping us doing things and generally interfering in our lives. Anxiety relates to feelings of being threatened or frightened by something.
In addition, some of us might feel particularly affected by some special situations, for example we might have:
*fears about going into new/social situations
* worries about asserting ourselves, dealing with people in authority
* fears about our health
* worries about making big decisions
* fears of being in an enclosed space, such as a lecture theatre (claustrophobia)
* fear of leaving the house, or being in the open (agoraphobia).
Sometimes we know that there is no obvious explanation of why this is so. Being anxious certainly does not mean that you are 'weak' or'abnormal'. But you may need to address your anxiety if it starts to interfere with aspects of your life.
What anxiety feels like
Anxiety can be experienced as a range of feelings from uneasiness to severe panic. It is usually experienced in three ways:
* Emotionally : with feelings of fear and nervousness
* Physically: dry mouth, feeling sick or a churning stomach, heart beating faster than
* usual, sweating, shaking, wanting to go to the toilet all the time, breathing difficulties, feeling that you're going to faint
* Cognitively : frightening thoughts, such as "I'm going to faint / make a fool of myself / lose control / I'm going mad" and so on.
At worst, anxiety and the fear of panic attacks can affect our life and behaviour in all kinds ofways: we may be unable to work or sleep, find ourselves avoiding people or places, or trying to cope by drinking or smoking too much.
How you can help yourself
1. Assess what causes you anxiety in your life and see if you can change this
Think about all the things which make you feel stressed, then see if there are any practical solutions you can adopt to reduce your anxiety.
These could include:
* prioritising your time, making a realistic plan of action
* finding out information or getting feedback if you feel confused or unsure about something
* trying to live a 'balanced' life, spending time on different aspects of your life, eating well, sleeping, exercise, socialising as well as working.
Confronting stressful situations rather than avoiding them often helps to reduce anxiety. Often the experience turns out to be not as bad as we imagined, or the "catastrophe" we anticipated never happened. You can choose to "ride out" the anxiety, knowing it will abate in a few minutes.
2. Question negative thoughts which make you feel more anxious.
The way we think about a stressful situation often makes it seem worse, as our emotional state can distort our thoughts. Try to stand back and evaluate things more realistically and calmly, to put your situation into perspective. A useful toll is the question "what's the worst that can happen?"
Try not to worry excessively about the future: trying to predict what is going to happen in the future, when we have no means of knowing,can make us feel very anxious; concentrate on dealing with present realities try not to compare yourself to others: it's easy to assume everyone else is doing fine except you; actually, you don't really know how others are feeling or coping
3. Reject and Distract
You can mentally reject the anxious thoughts (saying a firm "No!" to the thoughts, almost like you were addressing an ogre or bully. Then immediately distract yourself with some task that is mentally (and physically if possible) challenging - get chatting to someone, make a phone-call, count backwards from 200 in 7's!
Relaxation and breathing exercises can also help
How you can get further help
If you are feeling nervous or mildly anxious about things in your life, talking things over with a close friend, a family member or a peer mentor may be helpful.
If you find that your anxiety is dominating your life and you are avoiding essential activities, having persistent frightening thoughts or panic attacks, then you should seek more specialist help.
* Students Union
* College counsellor (Treasa)
* College doctor/nurse
* Chaplain
* Student Services Manager
* Lecturer
Help and support is also available through your G.P. at home, and maybe through family/friends.
The key is to talk - don't suffer in silence.