Anxiety is the part of the human consciousness for self-preservation, a mechanism the body uses to alert us to dangers that could negatively affect us. Right from the ancient times when people worried about things like what to eat and how not to get eaten by wild animals, till the present when people worry about their finances, security, and physical or mental health, anxiety has always lurked in the background.
Why then does anxiety seem like a bad thing?
Moderation is key in everything. Although anxiety is meant to help in self-preservation, when it becomes too much, it negatively interferes with a person’s life. A person can get so anxious, all the time that the person is unable to handle daily tasks without the anxiety interrupting, the person might equally become sleep deprived and even lose appetite as a result of worry.
Does this type of anxiety sound familiar? I bet it happens to you.
At one time or another, most people would have had something they were so anxious about to the point that they could not sleep or eat properly until that problem was sorted. Now I want you to multiply this by frequency and by the issues the person is worrying about. Now, Imagine Abraham is worrying about how to pay his house rent which is due in a week, he can’t sleep properly as a result but then, when his friend promised to give him the money, he is able to sleep better and even became very happy.
Sam, on the other hand, is losing sleep, unable to eat, restless, having an increased heart rate over the fact that his house rent is due in 6 months. He spends time worrying about meeting traffic on his way to work every day to the point that his heart skips and his palms get very sweaty every time he thinks about it, and he cannot control how often the thought comes. He worries that he or his family could die even though they are all healthy, to the point that he can’t think of anything else whenever he gets a call from home. He goes through these worries every day, and they keep increasing thereby causing him to have difficulty focusing, to get easily irritable and fatigued.
Sam’s anxiety has become a concern, as it has started to affect other parts of his life.
The truth is, worries and anxiety happen on this side of the divide, but Sam is really not coping and should get help. The signs of generalized anxiety disorder which he displays are quite common as it is the most common type of anxiety disorder among the 284 million people who deal with anxiety disorders. Sam is really not living his life to the fullest as he should because of the ways in which the anxiety negatively interferes in his life.
What would you do if you were Sam?
How about we start with what you should not do. Some people have been observed to turn to the use of alcohol and drugs to deal with their anxiety, this actually does not help. It in fact does the opposite by making the person even more irritable, restless and fatigued after the effect wanes off, without actually taking away the worries.
If I were to advise Sam, I would say to avoid the use of stimulants such as coffee, alcohol, or drugs, to talk to a trusted friend or family member about his anxiety, and most importantly to seek help from a qualified specialist. Of course, this can only be useful if Sam recognizes that he has a problem and is ready to address it.
It is therefore consequential that everyone pays sufficient attention to their mental health, so that they can know when they are experiencing things that are out of place, and to know when to seek help. You can check this https://project-covid.org/resource-hub/ to find more resources.