There is a lot of talk about anxiety, and it is always good to talk about it because it is the key emotion of several very common and potentially very disabling ailments. A study on mental disorders that saw the collaboration of WHO and University of Harvard attended six European countries, including Italy, provided disconcerting data. About three and a half million adults suffered from a mental disorder over 12 months. Of these almost two and a half million presented a anxiety disorder. Many therefore wonder how anxiety can be foughtseen as the main “enemy” of our times.
First of all: what is anxiety?
It is a basic emotion characterized by a widespread and pervasive experience of Something threat, apprehension and concern without necessarily a reference to specific situations. In fact, it differs from “fear” because it often caused by vague events, future, situations perceived as potentially threatening. This mostly following an erroneous or imaginary cognitive evaluation compared to their ability to know how to face feared events.
The anxious people They experience the fear of potential disasters that could happen in the near future (but which in reality may never happen). Anxiety is a normal phenomenon, which involves a state of activation of the body when a situation is perceived subjectively as dangerous. It is found fundamental when it is important to “activate” to face a danger. Only when this activation exceeds certain limits can it become pathological.
What happens in the body when anxiety activates?
Before seeing How to fight anxietylet’s see what makes it annoying. The body of the anxious person begins to quickly produce energy so that it can be used at best to deal with potential dangers:
- The heart beats faster to allow greater oxygenation of muscles and fabrics
- The heat of the body increases together with the metabolism and the consumption of oxygen
- increases sweating to balance the increase in heat
- The respiratory frequency increases and the breath becomes more superficial to bring greater quantity of oxygen (with possible feeling of overload to the chest)
- The large muscles enter in tension (ready to shoot)
- Digestion blocks to guarantee better blood flow to the muscles
- increases blood pressure
- The production of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline increases.
Here are the body symptoms that can experience people who suffer from different levels of intensity anxious states. An absolutely adaptive response of a perfect machine what our body is. Still, like animals and primitive man, he must decide whether to escape or fight against danger!
The problem is that today we live in a very complex environment. If our nervous system is still partially similar to that of the less advanced animals, our mind is capable of range from the past to the future. It can therefore activate ours alarm system Even not in the face of “real” dangers, but to the hypothetical future scenarios that can never be realized. However, these can persist for long periods in our imagination.
How to “fight” anxiety?
From all we have seen, one can say, while anxiety is not so much something to “fight” as rather to know and learn to modulate. The first step is to know what it is and how it manifests itself, so that the tested body states do not lead to the insult of the “fear of fear” by exacerbating anxiety itself.
What can help when you suffer from anxiety?
When anxiety does not have the characteristics of a real disorder you can start:
- use relaxation techniques, very effective in balanced the body activation levels by moving the psychophysiological balance from a state of activation to a state of relaxation;
- do sports, because it helps to download the energy levels produced;
- Learn to meditate and be aware of the present moment (Mindfulness approach). Train the mind to awareness helps to control and reduce negative emotions and to know and observe the methods of functioning of our mind;
- Treat sleep: anxiety can be amplified by sleep loss, whose quality is now shown very important for our mental health;
- take care of the quality of personal relationships and social support.
When anxiety reaches more extreme and not controllable levels of intensity from the person, leading to a real anxiety disorder, a professional intervention is needed.
How to fight anxiety through professional help
Both anxiolytic and antidepressant drugs are widely used in the treatment of anxiety disordersbut often have disclosure and/or side effects problems in addition to not solving the root problem.
They have a certain effectiveness and can be useful especially in the early stages of therapy, but in many cases their effectiveness is lost at the time of suspension. For this reason it becomes essential to support them with psychotherapy. A psychotherapeutic path is certainly the best choice and from which it is difficult to ignore.
Cognitive behavioral therapy has shown very high efficacy rates and has established itself in the scientific community such as the first choice strategy in the care of anxiety and its ailments.
To date, when we refer to cognitive behavioral therapy, we mean not only the classic approach, but also its evolutions of the last decades.
Metacognitive therapy (MCT) to combat anxiety
In cognitive behavioral therapy, much importance was given to the content of thought, considering it as the responsible for the presence of a disorder. The explanation is not completely exhaustive because negative beliefs do not necessarily lead to an emotional suffering that persists over time.
Metacognitive therapy proposes that dysfunctional emotions derive from metacognitionsthat is, from the processes of control, evaluation and monitoring of thought. It seems that the metacognitive factors are crucial in determining harmful and characteristic styles of thought of psychological disorders and the persistence of negative emotions. In fact, in the thought patterns that are observed in anxiety disorders there is a process of brooding difficult to control.
The metacognitive approach therefore directs the therapy towards the use of strategies that can make patients able to develop new ways of relating to their thoughts and beliefs. Interrupt the mobble and the metacredances that support it becomes essential for Effectively fighting anxiety.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (Act) to face anxiety
People who suffer from anxiety, panic, fears, catastrophic thoughts, brood feel frustrated, damaged, limited and with catastrophic expectations compared to their future. It is clear that all this leads people to try in every way to “get rid” from anxiety “.
The Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Act) approach instead starts from the assumption that anxiety is “part” of life and must not become “the whole life”.
This means learning not to constantly fight against anxiety, continuing to feed it further. This is to make sure that anxiety is not continuously in the foreground and does not prevent you from continuing to travel your path to what you really want.
This approach basically teaches let go of what cannot be checked and resume control instead of what can be controlled. Often we cannot control the thoughts that overlook our mind, but instead we have a chance of choice on how we relate to them. We can choose to let them pass and experience them simply for what they are: thoughts, sensations, memories …
It is not about fight anxiety better or with more strengthbut to change the way you relate to it. You can learn to accept the anxiety and thoughts that accompany it with kindness and compassion, thus reducing its negative charge. Choose to stop fighting with negative emotion and engage in concrete and constructive actions.
Seven moves to get rid of anxiety
Robert Leahy in his 2007 book concretizes and summarizes many of these concepts in “seven moves to free himself from anxiety”. After understanding how it works and what leads to intensify the restlessness and anxiety is good:
- establish when you need to worry and when not
- accept reality and commit to change
- question your own style of thought dominated by restlessness
- focus on what is the deepest threat
- transform the “failure” into opportunities
- use emotions instead of worrying about it
- take control of time
Bibliography
- Forsyth JP (2007). “The Mindfulness & Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety”. Oakland, New Harbinger Publication Inc.
- Kabat-Zinn J. (2005). “Living moment by moment”. Milan, Corbaccio ed.
- Leahy Lr (2007). “Seven moves to get rid of anxiety”. Milan, Cortina ed.
- Penati V. (2013). “Relaxation techniques”. Milan, Ferrari Sinibaldi ed.
- Siegel DJ (2009). “Mindfulness and brain”. Milan, Cortina ed.
- Wells A. (2018). “Metacognitive therapy of anxiety and depression dosturbs”. Trento, Erickson.
