Anxiety is an example of the mind-body connection: Anxiety can exacerbate certain medical conditions like autoimmune disorders, GI issues, heart disease (opens in new tab), and panic attacks. Let’s talk about ways to manage your anxiety, but first, let’s define it.
What is anxiety?
Unlike day-to-day stress, anxiety is a chronic, and often debilitating condition. It’s caused by an imbalance of select neurotransmitters in your brain (including serotonin, gaba, dopamine, and norepinephrine) that triggers a physiological response.
For some people, anxiety is hereditary, while for others, it’s triggered by an event, circumstance, or hypothetical situation that’s rooted in fear. Symptoms of anxiety (opens in new tab) include feelings of panic, nervousness, sweating and a rapid heartbeat. Other symptoms of anxiety can include difficulty concentrating or sleeping, and muscle fatigue.
Treatment for anxiety
Talk therapy is the most effective way to treat chronic anxiety (opens in new tab), while giving you a strong set of tools to help deal with anxiety in the long run. Charlotte Elkin, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker says:
“Talk therapy offers an opportunity to have a different experience with one's anxiety. A trained therapist demystifies anxiety by providing education on its signs and symptoms, biopsychosocial components, and adaptive purpose, and offers an understanding of how it develops. They can also teach approaches, techniques, and tools for living fully with anxiety. Moreover, effective talk therapy provides a protected space for confronting current and past fears and worries, activating symptoms, and sustaining worst-case scenarios, without the actualization of worst-case outcomes. In some cases, core dilemmas are uncovered and addressed, freeing up the individual to live more authentically in the present moment and beyond.”