Beyond Anxiety and Depression - anxiety causes

What Causes Anxiety? - the 7 main Causes

Gloria Goodwin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 02:58:06 +0000

The unpleasant feeling that you develop when you are apprehensive, worried or stressed out is referred to as anxiety. According to experts, anxiety is your response to stress in your life, physical or emotional. Often, anxiety is caused by external factors, but negative self-talk can also contribute to anxiety. Depending on the type of anxiety disorder, symptoms may vary. However, in general, the symptoms are panic, fear, uncontrollable and obsessive thoughts, sleeping problems, cold or sweaty hands and/or feet, palpitations, muscle tension, dizziness, etc. A number of factors can trigger anxiety in you.

Seven major factors that can cause anxiety in you are:

1. External and Environmental Factors

Everyone experiences stress every day, but at varying levels. Depending on your experiences in life, it can be healthy or unhealthy. If you are experiencing positive gains, you may feel a positive stress. Experts call this eustress. Typically, you experience eustress when you get a promotion in your job, buy a new or expensive product, etc. On the other hand, if your life experiences are not very positive, you experience unhealthy stress. Different types of anxiety are caused by environmental factors such as:

Victimization, abuse and a loved one's death.
Stress due to relationship issues, divorce, etc.
Stress at work.
Stress at school.
Stress caused by finances and money.
Stress caused by a natural disaster.
Oxygen deficiency at high altitude areas.

2. Trauma

Sometimes certain events that occur in your life can cause trauma. For example, a bad experience because of being in dark room alone for a long time, an accident, drowning or a fall from a tree, etc., is difficult to forget. Some of these events can leave an imprint in your mind and you may feel nervous when you recall them.

3. Medical factors

Anxiety has been associated with such medical factors as asthma, anemia, infections, and many heart conditions. Some of the medically-related causes that can contribute to anxiety include:

Stress experienced because of a serious medical illness.
Medication side effects.
Symptoms of a medical condition.
Lack of oxygen due to pulmonary embolism or emphysema.

4. Substance use/abuse, Withdrawal from Addiction

If you are addicted to drugs such as cocaine or amphetamines, alcohol, smoking or even Internet, you will experience anxiety when you are denied access to your object of obsession. According to estimates, half of the patients who undergo treatment for anxiety disorders like GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder), panic disorder, social phobia, etc., are those who are benzodiazepine dependent. Withdrawal from drugs like heroin and prescription medication like Vicodin, benzodiazepines or barbiturates can also cause anxiety disorders.

5. Abnormal Brain Chemistry

Research studies have shown that presence of abnormal levels of some neurotransmitters in your brain can cause GAD. The network of internal communications can break down if the neurotransmitters in your brain are not functioning properly. This can make the brain react in an inappropriate manner in certain situations, leading to anxiety.

6. Genetics

If you have a family history of anxiety disorders, the chances of you developing it are very high. This is to say that you are genetically predisposed to anxiety disorders if any of your family members have suffered or are known to suffer from this condition.

7. Fluctuations in Hormone Levels

If you are a female, you will experience hormonal changes every month during menstrual cycle from puberty to adulthood. You may feel restless during these days and may experience difficulty in handling the daily routine jobs. Even menopausal women experience anxiety because of a decline in the production of hormones. You need to take the help of a clinical psychologist, psychiatrist or a mental health professional to diagnose if you experience anxiety. A physician may take your personal and medical history, conduct a physical examination and ask you to get some laboratory tests done. There is no specific laboratory test to diagnose anxiety, but tests may provide some useful information. In order to be diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, you must have experienced anxiety that interferes with your daily living for at least a period of six months, found it difficult to handle your worries and have certain symptoms such as fatigue, restlessness, irritability, etc. Summarizing, all of these causes either in isolation or in combination can contribute to anxiety disorder. Even health challenges such as blindness, disability, overweight, malnutrition, allergic rhinitis, etc., can increase your stress levels and cause anxiety disorders. It is not possible to prevent anxiety. Therefore, you need to learn to manage the anxiety by learning to change your thinking.

Tags:

anxiety causes

eustress

Topic:

Anxiety

Women Anxiety Depression

Overcoming Social Awkwardness

Gloria Goodwin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:38:32 +0000

Some people are naturally meant to be social butterflies. They are great with speaking in public, can make friends with anyone and are good with conversation. Those people normally don't have any issues with being in public. This isn't true with the large majority of people, though. Some are socially awkward and don't know how to communicate with people or keep conversations going.

Steps to Overcoming Social Awkwardness

The good news is there are ways to overcome this and find a new way to be more social!

Step 1. Talk to more people

Even if you're talking about something simple, talking with people you don't know is a great way to become more social. Go out and have short conversations at bars or at sporting events. Once you do this more often, you are going to get a lot more comfortable with it. You can even start off by having some online conversations. While these won't be the same as real life situations, you can still figure out which subjects you might want to talk about. When you do start talking to a lot of different people, you will learn how to be more personable and interesting. Even just watching how other people respond to different situations can teach you a lot. This is going to be difficult for some, but will get easier with time. Anyone can have a short conversation with a stranger!

Step 2. Smiles and eye contact

Making eye contact during interaction is very important. This doesn't mean staring someone down, it simply means acknowledging them. Looking at someone every few seconds will show that you are involved with what they are saying. If you're just looking around the room all the time, they will quickly become not interested with talking to you. Smiling is something you can do with anyone. See someone on the street? Smile at them! You don't even have to speak with a person to smile at them. The best part about this is that it makes you look friendlier. That smile you put on someone else's face will also carry on, so a lot more people will be smiling because of you.

Step 3. Eat with other people

The best time for conversation is over a good meal. If you're used to going out and eating by yourself, try something different. Ask friends out to eat with you so you can have a conversation during the meal. You can talk about the food at first and then move onto different subjects. Since there are a lot of things to talk about this can reduce the amount of awkwardness you feel.

Step 4. Gain confidence

When you feel more confident about yourself, you are bound to be less socially awkward in no time. Confidence comes in many forms, so choose which you want. This could be getting a new outfit or hair cut so you feel great with the way you look. It could also mean asking someone out on a date! When you have confidence, the anxiety about social situations can seem a lot less of a challenge. Don't let yourself have negative self-image thoughts. Try to be more positive with the way you view yourself and your abilities to make friends.

Step 5. Reduce the pressure

You don't have to have an amazing interaction with every single person you meet. Sometimes it will be something quick and easy, then you move on. Learn from any of the mistakes you make and always try to improve in the future. Never go into a social situation thinking that you have to be perfect. Just go with the flow of things and have some fun! When you stop over-thinking situations you are going to have a much better time.

Step 6. Find conversation topics

Before you go out, think of different topics you can talk about. This will arm you with fun things you can discuss with different people. It will also mean you possibly avoiding generic conversations about the weather. Once you get rolling with a topic, more things should come up naturally. Try to ask questions so you can get more out of a topic and make it more fun. Talking about horses could lead to stories about childhood hobbies or even stories of friends, you never know what might come up. Being socially awkward isn't the end of the world. Once you gain confidence and learn how to read people, it will come naturally. You can meet a lot of great people when you're more open to speaking with them.

Tags:

Topic:

3 Simple Tips On How To Cope With Anxiety, Today!

Gloria Goodwin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 02:59:53 +0000

It is normal to feel a bit anxious sometimes, but when you find yourself in a constant state of anxiety, you are causing damage to both your physical and mental health. Our bodies weren't meant to be in a constant state of heightened alertness. Think of your body like a battery. Batteries can operate a flashlight when they are turned on, providing the extra juice, but when it is turned off they use little power at all. If someone left the flashlight on all of the time, the battery would run down quickly. The same holds true for our bodies. Staying anxious all of the time drains our physical and mental resources. Anxiety is debilitating and quickly drains quality from your life. Times you should be playful and having fun are wasted as you sit there worrying about tomorrow's presentation at work. Times you should be in the moment as your child reads you his favorite book, your mind is drifting to your checkbook and the bills you have to pay.

Tips On How To Cope With Anxiety

These 3 simple tips on how to cope with anxiety today are here to free you from the chains of feeling anxious all of the time, giving you your life back so you can start living again:

Tip #1 - Reduce The Load

Sometimes we feel we have so many things to be worried about, they all start to feel equally important and challenging. However, this is rarely the case. You can immediately reduce the stress by taking time to think about the fears that continue to dance around in your mind. Write down everything you are worried about and categorize them as things you can solve and items out of your control. Once completed, your job is to let go of the things that cannot be controlled - they are out of your hands. Think of these things as villains, here to rob you of precious time in your life. Make a promise to yourself that only worries which you can proactively tackle will be your only focus. So your job is to be consciously aware when your mind begins racing, starting today. If it is a worry you are powerless over, you will put it on your "out of my control" list. At the same time, you will feel organized and positive over the little things you can do something about. If you've needed a little extra income for expenses next month, you and your family can organize that garage sale you've been wanting to have for years - having fun while problem solving. In sum, you are reducing the load by letting go of worries you cannot change and taking action over worries within your power to change - which will reduce anxiety and feelings of powerlessness, while bringing a great sense of accomplishment, too.

Tip #2 - Breathing, To Be In The Now

If our anxieties are like a wildfire burning out of control, relaxation is the water used to douse the flames. The best way to take back the mind when it seems to be racing with anxious thoughts is through breathing. It may sound too simple, but it actually works. When anxious, you've simply let your mind runaway with thoughts and it is time to rope them back in. You merely need to close your eyes, breathe in saying "one" (in your head or out loud) and exhale saying "two." The focus and concentration involved will slow down your breathing and get you in a relaxed place every time. Your mind will come back to you, completely in the moment, instead of running away from you.

Tip #3 - Visualizing Balance

Once you've reduced your list of anxieties to only the manageable concerns, in addition to learning how to control those racing thoughts, your last step is learning how to stay in balance so you don't keep reliving the same anxious cycles. You can use any scene that you like, but we will use the example of a teeter-totter for this tip. Children love to stand in the center of a teeter-totter to see if they can keep it in perfect balance. This will be your goal, too. Visualize one side of the ride as the "past" and the other as the "future." Your job is to stay in the center, completely in the moment. If you lean too far one way or the other, you will fall and get hurt. It is the same inside of your mind. Wasting time dwelling on the past or worrying about the future will throw you out of balance. Anxious individuals often spend too much time worrying about things that could potentially happen, but haven't happened yet. It is time to let life happen naturally, and relieve yourself of the burden of trying to control the future. These 3 simple tips will help you to begin working on reducing anxiety today. The key to being less anxious is by taking control back of your mind, acknowledging only those items you can do something about to improve your life, and self soothing yourself when racing thoughts appear. Begin to see yourself as the driver of your mind, instead of a powerless passenger, and you will be on the road to life fulfillment.

Tags:

Topic:

6 tips on How to Prevent Anxiety

Gloria Goodwin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 02:52:54 +0000

If you suffer from anxiety, you may think that you are lost in a hopeless battle against your own thoughts and feelings. Fortunately, the more you learn about anxiety, the more you will come to understand that there are ways to control your thoughts and relieve the emotional and physical effects of the disease. Here are six tips for preventing anxiety from entering your daily life:

Six tips for Preventing Anxiety

Gain Knowledge

Anxiety has its root causes in the unknown; the more knowledgeable you are about a subject, the less likely it is to cause you anxiety. For instance, if you are anxious about your doctor's appointment, find out what will occur during your appointment and what the possible outcomes could be. If you are worried about an exam, speak with your professor to be sure that you are studying the correct material. The more you research the things that are causing you to be anxious, the more you will be able to control your feelings.

Get Out of Your Head

If you are so worried about something in your life that you are on the verge of an anxiety attack, get yourself out of the house and out of your head. While you may not feel like getting up and moving, once you're out, you'll be hard-pressed to keep worrying. Call up a friend or two and see a movie, take a run or play some board games. No matter what you do, getting out of the house will allow you to forget your troubles for a bit and, when your night is over, you may be able to look at your problems from a new perspective.

Exercise Often

People who have a regular exercise routine experience far less anxiety than people who are sedentary. Exercising for at least 20 minutes every day releases endorphins in your brain that promote a healthy mood. The type of exercise that you perform doesn't matter as much as the act itself. You can walk, job, rollerblade, lift weights, dance, play your Wii or even clean the house; the point is to get moving on a regular basis.

Stay in the Now

Learning how to stay in the present takes practice but, once you attain the skill, you'll find your anxiousness melting away. By focusing on what is going on around you at this moment in time, you won't be able to worry about the past or become anxious about the future. To learn this new skill, sit still and pay attention to what is going on around you. Make note of the things that you see, hear, smell and feel. Practice doing this for a few minutes several times each day. As you begin to learn to stay in the present, you can quickly stop your worries from overtaking your thoughts.

Eat Right

It's the rare person that doesn't know that eating right promotes physical health, but many people don't realize that proper nutrition has an important affect on mental health as well. If your body is deficient in certain vitamins and minerals, you may be more prone to feelings of anxiousness and stress. By avoiding processed foods and eating foods that are more natural, you can help to ensure that your body is getting all that it needs. While you are eating a healthier diet, avoid foods and beverages that contain caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant and can amplify feelings of anxiousness in people who suffer with the disease.

Natural Remedies

There are dozens of natural remedies available to those that struggle to cope with anxiety. You don't have to wait for an anxiety attack to put one of these remedies to use. In fact, if you use these natural anxiety remedies on a daily basis, you may find that anxiety doesn't set in to begin with. Almonds, warm milk, rosemary tea and the scent of oranges are all natural remedies for anxiety and stress. Look into these remedies and decide how you can incorporate them into your daily life to stave off negative feelings. The best cure for anxiety is to prevent it from occurring. If you utilize the six tips above, you'll find that you don't experience anxiety as frequently as you have in the past. If you utilize the tips above on a regular basis, you may even find that you rid yourself of anxiety altogether.

Tags:

Topic:

The 9 Most Common Causes of Anxiety

Gloria Goodwin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 02:48:13 +0000

Social anxiety can range from being a minor annoyance to a crippling state of mind. If you are a shy person, then you are naturally going to experience a bit of anxiety in social situations - it's part of your personality. And by working on yourself and becoming aware of your responses you can improve how you feel. But for some, shyness causes social anxiety to be extreme, and it takes more than effort to overcome this condition. Learning to recognize the common triggers and causes of anxiety is a starting point for getting better. Here are some of the possible causes of social anxiety.

Common Causes of Anxiety

1. Others

Yes, it's best to just admit it - if it weren't for other people, this wouldn't be a problem. But of course, practically speaking, we have to live in a social world, and we will have to be in social situations with others from time to time. With experience the shy person has learned to avoid as many uncomfortable scenes as possible, and thus to keep the anxiety to a minimum. But when it comes to friendship and companionship, we simply need others in our lives, whether they are the ultimate cause of anxiety or not.

2. Low self-esteem

We live in a time when self-esteem has been elevated to an extreme importance for parents and other caretakers. There is even a backlash of sorts that says that we put too much emphasis on never criticizing or telling children that they can do better. But for many shy people, low self-esteem is no joke - they see themselves as incompetent, unlovable, unattractive, and undeserving. They are almost always wrong in their personally biased judgements, but that doesn't mean the feelings aren't anxiety provoking.

3. Poor self image

We also live in a society that values external appearances and has apparently set very high standards for beauty. Those of us with a poor self image are constantly measuring ourselves against these impossibly high standards, and finding ourselves lacking. When a person cannot see his or her own strengths as well as weaknesses, it causes anxiety, especially around other people.

4. Low self-confidence

Many of the causes of social anxiety are characterized by the chicken or egg conundrum. Clearly, if you have low self-esteem and a poor image of yourself, you will lack confidence in social situations. But some people may be OK with themselves in private but feel anxious in groups, and their low confidence then results in a lower level of self esteem, and a tendency to criticize themselves. Either way, a person's degree of self-confidence is an important indicator of anxiety levels for the shy type.

5. No support system

Because people who suffer from social anxiety have shunned situations in which they have to interact with others, they have gradually lost membership in possible support systems. These might include churches, clubs, or any group situations that ordinarily would result in friends and simply having people to talk to. Rather than increasing social contacts, the shy person cuts them out and thus increases anxiety when a situation is forced.

6. Abuse or neglect

One of the root causes of social anxiety is the experience of being abused or neglected in childhood. This is a very serious problem to deal with and if assistance is not sought, it will be very hard to overcome when adulthood is reached. It is also the primary cause of many other behavioral issues that may contribute to being shy and withdrawn, and having high levels of anxiety in social situations.

7. Over-parenting

There is also a possibility that the shy person was smothered and overprotected as a child, The phenomenon of over-parenting has only been recognized as a problem in the last few decades, but it is seen as a cause for a person developing an aversion to being in groups. Anyone who has been sheltered in such an unnatural way is going to find reasons to avoid uncomfortable experiences.

8. Bullying and hazing experiences

Some of us shy folks were actually just fine until starting public school. The effects of bullies and hazing experiences at all levels of school can be devastating in later life, for many different personality types. But for the shy person, such experiences are especially painful, because instead of outgrowing and overcoming them, the negative life events are allowed to take over and result in extreme social anxiety. No one who feels this way wants to risk going through those kinds of painful and embarrassing experiences again.

9. Lack of positive experiences

Finally, the socially anxious person has missed out on many possible positive outcomes, so he or she has little reason to pursue any kind of social experience. Over time the problems at the root of social awkwardness and discomfort cause an avoidance of any such potential situations, and there is a reduced chance of having a good experience. All of these causes of anxiety in social situations are not mutually exclusive, and they interact with each other and reinforce each other as time goes by. But there is help for the extremely shy person who makes a commitment to change and improvement. It may be difficult to reach out for that help, but knowing the root reasons for your problem can be the first step on the road to recovery.

Tags:

Topic: