Calming the Anxiety Beast
Anxiety permeates the air these days like humidity in July. Small wonder—with banks crumbling, retirement savings evaporating, stock markets crashing and jobs disappearing; Not to mention the threat of foreclosures, the escalating cost of living and the political turmoil in our country.
All of this only compounds the everyday stressors of work, family and relationships. Stress is unrelenting and the possibilities for worry are endless.
Incessant worry generates anxiety, a state of mind marked by intense apprehension and fear of real or imagined danger. It fuels anxiety by keeping the mind focused on the difficulties and the “what ifs.” As in, “What if I lose my job? What if my savings are wiped out? What if my teenager wrecks the car?”
Worry morphs into an anxiety disorder when you can’t stop worrying even when things are going well. You may feel restless, keyed up, on edge, be easily fatigued and irritable or have difficulty sleeping.
Stress—even if precipitated by a welcome event such as a birth or promotion—causes levels of the stress hormones, cortisol and adrenalin, to rise. At the same time serotonin and norepinephrine, the mood regulating hormones, are depleted. Repeated triggering of these physiological responses may produce a permanent state of hyperarousal.
If this goes on for months or years you may find yourself waking up some night with your heart racing, your breathing labored, feeling nauseated and dizzy. You race to the ER, certain that you are having a heart attack. But cardiac tests come back normal. It was a panic attack.
Panic is anxiety in high gear. Heart rate, respiration and blood pressure shoot up as your body prepares to either fight the enemy or escape the danger. Even when there is none.
What to do? As simplistic as it may seem, the first line of defense against panic and anxiety is slow, deep breathing. If you find yourself becoming agitated, take a moment to breathe deeply, inhale through your nose – hold to a count of four; exhale through your mouth to a count of eight. Repeat the process three or four times. Physiologically, this slows your heart rate and respiration. Mentally, it provides space to calm down so you can think clearly and consciously change the anxiety-producing thoughts that keep a panic attack going.
Gratitude serves as a daily antidote to anxiety. Every time a worry thought comes to mind, take a few seconds to identify something you are grateful for. The change of focus will get your mind out of the worry rut, and create positive energy.
A healthy diet that limits caffeine and alcohol also helps to keep anxiety in check, as does regular exercise and getting seven to eight hours of sleep a night.
Starting your day with as little as five to ten minutes of meditation or prayer is also helpful. Knowing you are not alone in the universe is a powerful defense against anxiety. Rheinhold Niebuhr’s famous prayer says it well, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change/ courage to change the things I can/ and wisdom to know the difference.”