adaptive anxiety vs pathological anxiety / some strategies to manage

🌸Evolution has shown that anxiety is an adaptive response and is beneficial for survival.

💫We know that emotions are cognitive and somatic reactions, with a short duration, to specific environmental stimuli.

👍There is an infinite number of human experiences that cause normal anxiety. As research has shown, the main difference between adaptive or normal anxiety and pathological anxiety is between the source and the intensity of the experience.

🧘‍♀️We could apply this to all range of emotions. We can feel sad because is appropriate in a specific situation, but if we feel sad chronically without a clear "reason" this may become a problem to keep up with our daily activities.

💕We can say that emotions play a crucial role in our daily lives enabling us to cope with everyday situations.

🆘However, if the emotion we are feeling gets "stuck" and prevents us from functioning it may have become a problem and therapy could be sought to help.

Normal anxiety

• normal response in front of real threats / stressors
• situational worry or rumination
• proportional to the specific situation
• low level of impairment/ not affects daily functioning
• physical symptoms will not last long & are appropriate
• feels possible to manage

Pathological anxiety

• triggered without an apparent stressor
• chronic rumination or excessive worry- obsessions
• disproportional to the situation
• high level of impairment/ impacts daily activities
• chronic physical symptoms
• feels impossible to manage

🌸COPING WITH ANXIETY🌸

- Identify the trigger

Spend some time writing or thinking about what is the trigger that makes you feel anxious.

- Move your body

Do some gentle stretching, go for a walk, use the yoga ball and bounce, release it by shaking, do a self-massage, etc.

- Take long deep breaths

Deep breathing helps to activate the parasympathetic nervous system that is responsible for resting and digestion (calming effect)

- Practice mindfulness

Look around and focus your 5 senses on the present moment.

- Be compassionate

Talk to yourself as if you were talking to your best friend. Use kind, validating & encouraging words.

- Take action- Do something you enjoy

Don't stay in the "why" you feel anxious. Instead, think about "what" do you need to do to feel better. Do something that is aligned with your values & brings you joy.