Understanding anxiety

Anxiety is a normal reaction, it can be seen an internal alarm system, as soon as our bodies sense danger a small part of our brain called the amygdala kicks in to get your body ready to react usually known as fight, flight or freeze response.

There are 3 main aspects of anxiety.

Anxious expectation – Two common thoughts you may have can be overestimating how likely it is that something bad will happen and the second is underestimating your ability to cope with what might happen.

Bodily changes - Anxiety can affect the body in many ways, and it isn’t always going to be the same as how it affects others. Some of these effects can be needing to use the toilet, breathing faster, butterflies in your stomach, racing thoughts, heart beating faster and sweaty palms.

Avoidance and safety seeking behaviours – Avoiding the issue and or feeling like you’re stopping the bad thing from happening is common, because it can make you feel safe, however it can make you feel more anxious.

Anxiety isn’t a bad thing, it is a useful response to danger. It becomes a problem when our brain wants to be safe than sorry, so we end up with that internal alarm going off when it doesn’t need to.